Drill Acoustics Remote Transducer System The ultimate goal of every refinery in the world, without question, is to remove any and all potential safety hazards from the operating areas. Decoking the drums in a Delayed Coker Unit has always been a concern to the plant safety departments. Unit managers are aware of the potential dangers and are always searching for new and safer ways to complete the tasks at hand. The implementation of automated bottom and top heads is a very obvious positive move in this direction. In conjunction, is the placement of the operators in a location well removed from the cutting deck to perform the decoking of the drums. The only problem associated with this move is that the operators can no longer hear the drilling operation. The HKS D.A.R.T. System is one more step in achieving the goal of ultimate operator safety, by making it possible for the operators to hear the coke drilling operation from a remote location. This system consists of temporarily or permanently mounted transducers that sense directly coupled vibrations and converts them to an audible sound. The signal is sent through a sophisticated electronic module that amplifies and cleans the signal so ambient noise is completely removed. Because the drum is the only vibrating object directly coupled to the transducer, the operator is able to distinguish between the high pressure water hitting coke and the clean drum wall. The systems low operating voltages are obtained from an internal power unit that operates on common 120/240 volt AC mains. The HKS D.A.R.T System was developed in our R&D department and is based on the HKS A.T.S. (Acoustic Tracking System). The A.T.S. is used to monitor the movement of cleaning pigs in furnace pipes. It does this by detecting the vibrations associated with the pig passing over coke or metal and also going around bends or headers. Implementation of the HKS A.T.S. results in substantial time savings and improved quality control.