Petrobras UN-SEAL is the first Brazilian company to use the Saab level gauge to emulate third-party gauges. Petrobras UN SEAL has a network of three ENRAF level gauges and has installed new Saab radar level gauges in tanks close to the existing network. Fluxo then proposed a solution that would integrate both types of meters into a single physical network. The idea was to use the Saab emulation board. It allows the Saab radar meter from the REX range to be connected to a third-party network, in this case ENRAF.
The board responds to the existing network as if it were an ENRAF meter, including duplicating all electrical and signal responses and communication protocols. As a result, the existing network "believes" that the meter installed is an ENRAF meter. Thus, the customer is no longer tied to a given proprietary protocol, being able to take advantage of low maintenance cost and reliability that can be achieved with the non-intrusive solid-state technology of radar meters. The migration from older technologies to radar can be done gradually, taking advantage of the natural wear rate of mechanical gauges.
At first, Petrobras UN SEAL installed two radar meters using the emulation board proposed by Fluxo. These meters are working on the ENRAF network and the results have been good, demonstrating the practicality of the concept.