This is an excerpt from the March/April 2014 issue of InTech magazine and was written by Walt Boyes, a principal at Spitzer and Boyes LLC, a technology consulting firm.
Picking a flowmeter takes both knowledge of the types of meters available and the kind of empirically derived knowledge that comes from experience. If you are like most people, you first think about the types of meters, their features, and their hardware and software. You might start to build the meter from the application requirements. You might list all the types of flowmeters and then pick one. The first cuts are obvious: liquid, solid, air, gases. Each cut separates out huge numbers MA-2014_Auto-Basics-interchange_blogof flowmeter types. Let’s say your flow is liquid.
We are going to review the types of flow devices, look at selecting a flow device, and examine the real-world basics of flowmeter installation. Then, I hope you’ve brought your favorite flowmeter problem, because the doctor is IN.
There are lots of flow devices, for both liquids and gases, and for closed and open channels. We’ll look at some of the most common devices, and focus on some simple ways to select and use them. Note that there are at least 10 different types, and they don’t all work on all applications.