Global Ultrasonic Capability the Key to Major Australian Contract

Watercorp, Australia’s largest water company, manages the water and wastewater needs of the whole of Western Australia, an area more than a quarter of the size of the USA. After trials and long experience of a wide variety of both contacting and non-contacting alternatives, Watercorp have chosen UK manufacturer Pulsar Process Measurement (UK) to supply their level measurement and control requirements; they will use hundreds of Pulsar’s specialist non-contacting ultrasonic sensors and controllers, with technical and sales support from Pulsar’s regional office and Australian distributor.

From their main office in Perth and centres throughout the State, Watercorp’s 3000 staff look after more than 100 wastewater treatment plants and over 700 pumping stations. Since 2012, Watercorp have installed over 200 Pulsar ultrasonic units, and have purchased a further 330 to install throughout their network. Pulsar’s Australian distributor Bintech are supplying both equipment and know-how through their Western Australian representative Gateway Technical Services.

With such an extensive network operating in the often extreme conditions of Australia, equipment has to work reliably; Watercorp have seen issues including pumps running dry and pumping stations occasionally overflowing. They undertook a detailed investigation of all the equipment in use throughout all their sites, reviewing and comparing performance. They were able to identify Pulsar equipment as consistently the most reliable systems they used.

As Paul Jacobs, Watercorp’s Supervising Engineer, put it: “Due to the large area we cover, it is critical that we can offer our customers the highest quality and reliability. With Ultrasonics we look at ease of installation, set up requirements, reliability, accuracy and product support. With the experience from our use of other suppliers for Ultrasonics, Radar, Hydrostatic, electrodes and ball floats, it was obvious that there was a major cost and support advantage to using Pulsar, ensuring our needs were met”.

The support point is crucial. Pulsar has grown to the point that the company is now the leading specialist ultrasonic manufacturer in the world, with non-contacting measurement systems working successfully from the heat of Australia to the steppes of Russia, from China to the United States. With regional offices strategically positioned around the world working with an extensive network of trained and accredited distributors, Pulsar can confidently supply and support equipment anywhere in the world.

Colin Murphy, Pulsar’s Regional Manager Asia Pacific, comments: “Watercorp’s choice of Pulsar equipment demonstrates the lower support costs and high reliability that we offer, and we are delighted to be able to help them to solve technical issues and provide a high standard of service to the people of Western Australia. Our policy of strongly supporting national specialists such as Bintech means that users can be absolutely confident of great on-going advice and training wherever they are.”