FLOW METERS FOR WATER, LIQUIDS AND STEAM
When it comes to energy efficiency and consumption measurements, not only compressed air and gases are carrying energy within a factory or plant. Other media as liquids and steam are also typically used in many production processes and applications, so it is important to measure their consumption as well using flowmeters with high accuracy.
Typical water and liquid measurements in an industrial application are water flow rate measurements, where water is often used to cool machines or even used for heating systems. Another widely used energy form used in industrial processes is steam. Hot water steam can easily carry high energy to the point where it is used. So measuring the steam flow rate is also part of evaluating the complete system in terms of energy efficiency.
SUTO is offering accurate and reliable water, liquid and steam measurement technology for any industrial application.
WATER, LIQUID AND STEAM MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY
In this area we give an overview of the most important information and questions regarding the measurement of water, liquids and steam.
Why measuring liquids and steam?
Steam flow meters are used to measure the consumption and volume flow rate of steam and are helping operators to understand their application process. With a steam flow meter users are able to identify the steam consumption of machines, this helps to understand how much steam is needed per machine and in total. In addition to that, a steam flow meter helps to identify steam losses throughout the plant, where the leakages can easily create high operating costs. Another important tasks of steam flow measurement is it to identify peak demands, so systems are never overloaded and always run in their optimum specification. SUTO steam flow meters measure the steam pressure with the integrated pressure sensor, so it is not needed to additionally compensate the pressure or temperature, as it’s normally needed in turbine flow meters.
Water flow meters, or in general flow meters for liquids, are often needed to monitor critical processes in factories. Liquids are mostly used to cool down processes or to provide a constant lubrication, so it is very important to monitor the flow and to guarantee a constant flow at an unchanged flow rate. But also for energy efficiency measurements, water flowmeters are needed to measure the energy regeneration gathered from heat exchange modules, as often used in compressors.
What types of flow meters SUTO is using?
SUTO vortex flow meters are used to measure the volume flow rate and consumption of saturated steam. The steam flow meters are easily installed between two flanges and integrate seamlessly into the process, there is no need of an additional pressure compensation. This provides plant managers insight into steam flow and consumption measurement to show where to save energy in an application and allows a system comparison in efficiency against other plants.
Where are Flow Meters for Water and Liquids used?
Example: Modern compressors are often offering a heat regeneration system, where cold water is brought to the compressors and heated up using the waste heat of the compressor. By these, operators are enabled to use the thermal energy loss of the compressor to heat buildings and factory floors or use the heated water in another application. This means, to quantify the total energy efficiency of the compressor it’s necessary to measure the water flow rate and therefore the energy regeneration in terms of hot water, which needs to be taken into account for the overall system and application efficiency.
How are ultrasonic water flow meters installed?
The installation of the sensors is carried out by preparing the pipe, if it’s a stainless steel pipe, it is enough to clean the outer surface of the pipe. For painted pipes, it’s important to remove the paintings at the point of measurement, this is crucial for the best accuracy. After the installation point has been prepared, the coupling pads or coupling gels are applied to the clamp on sensors. Now the sensors of the water flow meter are clamped on the pipe by using the supplied spanners, for some models, the sensors are directly integrated into the liquid flow meter and the whole instrument is directly clamped on the pipe.
The sensors are then adjusted according to the instruction, and the water flow meter is now ready to be configured. After some simple steps, setting up the pipe material, wall thickness and diameters, the water flow meter is ready and can be used to measure the water flow rate and consumption, providing a robust and reliable measurement at the best accuracy.
What measurement technology is used in SUTO ultrasonic flow meters for water and liquids?
If the liquids now starts moving, the transit time will change, this time change is in direct relation to the fluids velocity. Knowing the velocity, the pipe dimensions and physical properties of the liquid, the water flow meter is able to calculate the flow rate and consumption. There is no need to measure the temperature or the pressure, this makes the flowmeters best suited for any application, providing any easy installation and high accuracy.
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