Portalevel® ORIGINAL

Low Cost Ultrasonic Level Indicator

The Portalevel® ORIGINAL provides an ideal solution for testing typical fire suppression cylinders. It utilises our trusted 7th generation technology, providing a very versatile and reliable solution. Over the years it has undergone numerous upgrade programs and the most popular unit in the range for testing standard size fire suppression cylinders. 

The Portalevel® ORIGINAL is particularly advantageous for fire servicing companies and asset owners managing their own fire suppression systems. This is because the Portalevel® ORIGINAL provides a very quick, safe and efficient method for testing fire cylinder contents. Traditionally, companies manually weigh cylinders in order to measure cylinder content, which is dangerous, time consuming and requires shutdown of the fire suppression system.  

• User-friendly, versatile and accurate to ±1.5 mm. 
• Calibration feature and additional power setting for increased gain.  
• Low-cost model. 
• Capable of testing a wide variety of fire suppression agents, such as; CO2, FM200™, NOVEC™ 1230, old Halon agents, FE-13™, FE-25™, NAF S III™ and most core Clean Agent systems. 

The Portalevel® ORIGINAL is designed to be a portable way to non-invasively locate the liquid level inside most single skinned cylinder. Our technology is suitable for many applications, but it is most widely used as a replacement to both weighing fire suppression cylinders during installation and servicing, or replacement for the fitting of internal and invasive liquid level ‘float’ devices. Once the liquid level height inside a container has been located, the agent weight can be determined using the Portasteele® CALCULATOR, which is designed to quickly convert liquid height to agent weight accounting for the cylinder size, agent type and temperature.  

Converting Liquid Level to Weight: Monitoring the liquid level in fire cylinders is a vital aspect of any fire suppression system maintenance schedule, however, understanding how the liquid level relates to the fill weight of the cylinder is equally important. Coltraco Ultrasonics offer, in conjunction with the Portalevel® range, the world’s first liquid level to agent mass calculator.  

The Portasteele® CALCULATOR calculates the agent weight of a fire suppression cylinder. It does this by using the liquid level determined by our Portalevel® range or inversely, by using the required fill level for a certain weight of suppression agent. The Portasteele® CALCULATOR is sold as a stand-alone unit on a 7’’ hand-held tablet to be used in conjunction with our Portalevel® range.  

Operating Principle 

• An ultrasonic transducer, coated in ultrasound gel (or water) generates an ultrasonic pulse that is transmitted into the fire cylinder and is reflected back. The ultrasonic gel acts a couplant by removing any air gaps between the ultrasonic transmitter and the cylinder wall, thus allowing the transmission of ultrasound.  
• As the wave travels throughout the cylinder, some of its energy is dissipated into the cylinder and its contents. This results in the signal returned to the transducer having decreased amplitude. Analysis of the returned signal can be used to determine if the transducer has been placed in the liquid or gas phase.  
• The Portalevel® ORIGINAL indicates what phase the ultrasonic transducer is placed in using LEDs that illuminate in the presence of a high reading.  
• The device is calibrated by moving the transducer up and down the cylinder whilst reading the numerical value off the display and engaging the ‘CAL’ button when in the appropriate section.