Flowmeters – Need For Greater Accuracy Has Driven Innovation

Flowmeters have many uses from well known technology and machinery like the family car to lesser known uses like work in heavy industry. Indeed, as this machinery has improved there has been an increased need to get the devices that measure the performance of such machines as accurate as possible.

Flowmeters measure the flow of a substance. Commonly, the meter can measure the flow of liquids, gases, solids and a mixture of the three (like slurry). This could be in terms of mass, volume or velocity of the substance.

The early development of the flowmeter was used to ration water and was quite a simple device.

Today, digital flowmeters need to provide very accurate measurements and so the technology that is being used needs to be sensitive to the highest degree. What’s more, because such meters need to measure things to the smallest detail, the readings provided must be as close to perfection as possible and they should also provide better results than previous generations of such devices.

There are also digital flowmeters that are being used to obtain precise measurements in real time for different gas streams and these devices can be calibrated for air and nitrogen as well as hydrogen and even carbon dioxide, amongst other things. A digital flowmeter has many applications but primarily it is used because it gives more accurate reading than an analog display.

Some examples of a flow meter that you may use on a regular basis is the pump or bowser at your neighborhood gas station. In the home, the water meter and, if you use natural gas, the meter that measures your usage of natural gas are flowmeters.

Automobiles have many such meters and the newer models use a flowmeter to ensure that the car gets maximum efficiency out of the fuel that it uses.

In industry flowmeters are used to determine pressures of gases or liquids passing through pipes. For instance, a nuclear plants will rely on many flow meters to ensure that routine tasks in the plant run smoothly. Information gained from these meters helps technician make decisions and ensure that potential problem do not arise.

On a slightly more prosaic matter, flowmeters are used in industry to prevent inefficiency of process flows and the machinery that is used. This can save the industry or company plenty of money on improving inefficient processes or fixing machinery that is not working correctly.

Operating industrial flowmeters takes a fair degree of expertise. People need to know how to calibrate the device and what the readings mean. Operators of the machinery that the meter measures or the flow meter itself need to be fully conversant with the operation and workings of such devices.

There are several types of meter but special attention needs to be paid to the vortex flowmeter, the variable area flowmeter and the paddle wheel flowmeter. These names loosely describe the principle behind the operation of the device.

The Vortex flow meter is usually effective in measuring steam, gases and water. They can measure large volumes so are used in heavy industry. Along with volume, such meters can measure the temperature and velocity of the substance or medium that is being measured. They can also be part of larger and more complicated systems that are often controlled by computers.

The variable area flowmeters are sometimes referred to as rotameters and they are able to measure rate of flow of liquids and gases and they usually can also do comparisons of displacement (linear) to known rates of flow, and typical such device consists of movable vane meters, rotameter and even types of weir flowmeters.