3D level measurement by LiDAR — sensors mounted directly on silos, hoppers, crushers and process vessels. Continuous level monitoring of bulk solids, automatic 3D model archive, threshold alerts. Touchless, wear-free, dust-resilient.
OWL EYE® Bunkers & Feeders is an industrial LiDAR system for 3D level measurement: it monitors bunker, hopper and silo fill levels to ±1 % accuracy in real time — with threshold-cascade overfill protection and OPC-UA integration. Level is only half the story: the same scan delivers silo and bunker volume measurement — a complete surface model with volume and profile per vessel, not just a single level reading.
OWL EYE® BUNKERS & FEEDERS mounts a 3D-LiDAR sensor on top of your silo, hopper, crusher or process vessel. The sensor captures the surface of the bulk material continuously — through dust, vapour and varying material colour. Unlike radar or ultrasonic probes that measure the level at a single point, 3D level measurement captures the complete surface of the bulk solids — true volume instead of a point level, even with material cones, ratholes above the discharge and uneven filling.
One platform, every level-measurement scenario — silo level, bin level or hopper level: silo scan, bunker scan, hopper scan and bucket scan — same sensor, same dashboard, same API.
Fill level, volume and material distribution are streamed to your PLC, ERP or web dashboard. No moving parts, no contact with the bulk, no drift over time.
In production at K+S receiving silos, proFagus charcoal hoppers and Nordzucker beet feeders.
Sensor sits above the bulk, no contact, no wear, no drift.
Continuous height, volume and material distribution. Updated every second.
Optical filtering and multi-echo processing — measurement holds in dusty environments.
A 3D-LiDAR sensor mounted above the bunker scans the bulk surface continuously. The point cloud is processed into fill level, volume and material distribution in real time.
From feed bunkers and crusher hoppers to silos and process vessels — including special bulk solids like bone meal and MBM: monitoring of bone-meal silos stays stable even with fine meals that raise heavy dust — thanks to multi-echo processing and optical filtering.
Built for 24/7 operation in dusty industrial environments.
LiDAR fill-level capture replaces mechanical, ultrasonic and radar probes — without their downsides.
Mechanical paddle switches and drop-line probes wear out. LiDAR is solid-state.
Multi-echo signal processing and optical filtering keep measurement stable in dusty bunkers.
Hardened in salt, charcoal and sugar receiving — three of the dustiest environments imaginable.
REST API, OPC UA and SAP — fill levels and alarms direct into your control room.
The web dashboard shows live level, volume and trend per bunker — plus configurable threshold alerts to PLC, OPC UA or e-mail.
DASHBOARD PREVIEW · LIVE FILL-LEVEL
A glance into a salt-encrusted bunker — exactly the environment that mechanical paddle switches and drop-line probes can't survive long-term. OWL EYE® BUNKERS scans through it, contactless.
Silo overfill protection begins long before the material reaches the dome. OWL EYE® BUNKERS computes fill level and remaining volume continuously, so configurable low / high / critical thresholds can trigger long before a paddle switch would ever react.
Alerts route exactly where they need to go: PLC contacts via OPC UA for interlocked stop logic, REST or MQTT into your SCADA, and e-mail or SMS notifications for the on-call shift. Each threshold is per-silo and per-material, with hysteresis to avoid alarm flooding during normal cycling.
Because LiDAR sees the entire surface, not just a single point, the system also detects asymmetric build-ups, sidewall caking and hopper-discharge blockages — failure modes a single-point probe misses entirely. Overfill prevention turns from a switch event into a continuous condition signal. Radar or 3D LiDAR for your silo? Our silo level measurement comparison weighs both honestly. Discharging from the bunker straight into trucks? OWL EYE® Filling Terminal measures the fill in the truck bed live, so loading stops at the target volume.
Threshold-alert pipelines in production at K+S receiving silos and Nordzucker beet feeders — direct into the control room PLC.
The questions we hear most from process and maintenance teams when they first evaluate OWL EYE® BUNKERS & FEEDERS. Need something more specific? Ask us.