Looking beyond the price tag. Choosing inexpensive over expensive: common mistake in selecting flow indicators dooms many to costly results. Common sense is the cure.
Best-in-class decision making in flow requirements should be as easy as applying a little common sense to the necessary requirements. However, many times common sense is overlooked. Deciding on price alone or first computing the installation costs has proven to be a pricey and dangerous oversight.
Firsts steps first: what are the development of specifications that state the application requirements? First decide if the flow information should be continuous or totalized and if that information is needed locally or remotely. And if the need is indeed remote, should the trans-mission be analog, digital, or shared? And, if shared, what is the minimum data-update frequency? If the best option to meet specifications is for an expensive flow indicator, then buy it.
Best-in-Class Flow Indicators features:
- Ensure that installation can be in line sizes from 1-1/2" to 100"
- Internal indicator components (and some external) made from stainless steel
- High pressure as well as submersible (if for liquids) design.
Top Considerations before Buying Flow Indicators:
At this point, the top consideration is to view the anticipated purchase of the flow indicator in light of intangible factors such as plant personnel’s’ familiarity with that type of flow indicator; and the vendor's own experience with calibration, maintenance, and spare parts.
Key Providers:
1. John C. Ernst Company Inc., founded in 1969, develops and specializes in process engineering equipment and devices for applications involving water, steam, oils, gases, chemicals, and sanitary projects. The company's produces flowmeter solutions for water, steam, acid, chemicals, air, gases, and high viscosity fluids. In addition to differential pressure flowmeters, other flowmeter devices can are dial type, digital with total and rate displays, shuttle type, variable area, and positive displacement oval gear type for high or varying viscosity fluids. Flow meters are available with 4-20mA transmitters, remote readout, pulse signals, can be field calibrated for fluids other than water, and can be battery operated when input power is not an option. We now have a Digital Flow Meter in PVDF Housing for aggressive chemicals. Additionally, the John C. Ernst Company manufactures and supplies observation equipment such as sight glasses, liquid level gauges, sight flow, illuminators, ejectors, and eductors for the petro-chemical, chemical processing, processing, food & beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, semi-conductor, and boiler room equipment industries.
2. Orange Research Inc. specializes in differential pressure technology, manufacturing differential pressure gauges, switches, transmitters, sensors and transducers; flow meters and flow switches; and liquid level switches. Founded in 1968, with work beginning on an indicator to compare differing pressures, the company over the intervening years has produced differential pressure applications for monitoring filtration equipment, compressors and heat exchangers for a wide variety of industries including oil refining, chemicals and semiconductors.
3. Clark Solutions provides solutions to pressure, flow, level, and other applications with inert valves, solenoid operated valves, miniature and subminiature valves. The company provides a wide range of pumps for liquids, gases, and air including diaphragm pumps, piston pumps, rotary vane pumps, gear pumps, peristaltic pumps, impeller pumps, and bellows pumps, including devices to record, monitor, and control flow, velocity, pressure, temperature, humidity, level, and gas concentration. Clark Solutions offers a wide range of flowmeter, variable area flowmeter, vortex flowmeters, ultrasonic vortex flow meter, water meter, totalizing water meter, flow switch, flow indicator, flow transmitter, flow sensor, and flow controller products.
4. Founded in 1989, Florite International Inc. develops process control and monitoring instrumentation solutions for flow, level, pressure, gas, and temperature measurment, control and data logging. The company claims that it has “instrumented thousands of commercial and industrial facilities throughout the globe.” Focusing on niche markets, is the company's M2C2 instrument that, according to Florite, provides the ability to "directly address any specific application situations and requirements by making it possible to mass customize standard instrument platforms," much unlike other manufacturer's "fixed instrument" technologies. The company claims that the M2C2 allows for increased choice, decreased complexity, and product/process interoperability.
5. Exact Flow manufactures precision turbine flow meters for hydrocarbon, water, gas flow measurement applications with accuracy to 0.05% of reading. The company is the only supplier of dual-rotor turbine flow meter technology, delivering flow management to meet the application requirements of the aerospace, industrial, automotive and OEM markets, including high-pressure manifold systems for subsea applications. As the only supplier of dual-rotor turbine flow meter technology, the company states that, “Often, one dual-rotor turbine flowmeter can replace two single-rotor flowmeters, saving on installation space and omitting costly flow straighteners.”Exact Flow's dual-rotor turbine flow meter technology was selected for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter-STOVL, the Lockheed F22 Raptor, the Pratt & Whitney F119, and the Pratt & Whitney X51 Scram Jet...and Formula 1 racing cars. Exact Flow's primary focus specializes in advanced embedded electronics, multiple process variable measurements and unique packaging to minimize the need for additional sensors and installation expense.
6. ControlSoft, producer of advanced control systems, engineers and develops process control systems and solutions, focusing on developing advanced control technologies, some of which it licenses to other industries and systems developers. The company's newest technologies include multivariable control to fuzzy logic, from loop optimization and diagnostics to management systems. ControlSoft develops advanced control algorithms and software designed to improve the efficiency and control quality of continuous and batch processes. The company claims that its systems and software are in use by thousands of companies in the U.S. and the international market, and provides customer service for application support, on-site field service, and phone technical support.
7. In industries such as bio-pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, fuel cell, solar, chemicals, medical devices, analytical instrumentation, and semiconductors, Brooks Instrument provides a broad array of devices that provide solutions to flow, pressure, and level measurement challenges. Brooks Instrument pioneered the first miniaturized Coriolis mass flow controller (Quantim), the first watertight and explosion proof thermal mass flow controller (Mf Series), the first thermal mass flow controller with Foundation Fieldbus (SLA Series), and the first variable area meter with Foundation Fieldbus (MT3809 & MT3750). The company's devices include glass and metal tube variable area meters (rotameters), thermal mass flow controllers and meters, Coriolis mass flow controllers, meters and transmitters, pressure control products, magnetic level instruments, and a variety of flow, pressure, and level accessories. The company acquired Key Instruments which produces precision machined acrylic flow meters, molded plastic flow meters, glass tube flow meters, electronic flow meters, and flow control valves.
Flow Indicators
Definition: Flow Indicators are meter or indicating instrument used for monitoring, measuring, or recording the rate of flow, pressure, or discharge of a fluid, air or gas.
