Flow Meter Manufacturers

ARTang Flowmeter Hangzhou, China	Manufactures state-of-the-art clamp-on and in-line Transit-Time and Doppler Ultrasonic flowmeters. Liquid and gas applications include volume and mass measurement, product identification and batch tracking, custody transfer and leak detection.
SILVER AUTOMATION INSTRUMENTS Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China	Reliable flow meter supplier from China, manufacture for Pressure Gauge, Thermocouple, Flow Meter, Paperless Recorder, gas flow meter.
DATA INDUSTRIAL CORP. Mattapoisett, MA 02739	Manufacturer the widest variety of liquid flow measurement applications specializing in non-magnetic impeller flow sensor systems.
SPONSLER CO. INC. Westminster, SC 29693	Designers, manufacturers, and calibrators of flow measuring products for a variety of markets and industries.
CTE CHEMTEC Deerfield Beach, FL 33442	Manufacturers and engineers of flow monitors, flow meters, flow switches, and excess flow valves.
SEAMETRICS INC. Kent, WA 98035	Designer, manufacturer, and marketer of a wide variety of flow metering products.
BLANCETT Division of Racine Federated Inc. 190 E. Felix Street South, Ste. 190 Fort Worth, TX 76115 USA 1-800-235-1638	Blancett manufactures durable stainless steel turbine flow meters marketed to the petroleum industry for secondary oil recovery and for industrial applications where severe conditions are common.
DYNASONICS. Division of Racine Federated Inc. 2200 South Street Racine, WI 53404 USA 1-800-535-3569	Dynasonics manufactures transit time and enhanced Doppler ultrasonic flow meters, in both dedicated and portable versions, as well as insertion magnetic flow instrumentation.
FLO-TECH Division of Racine Federated Inc. 2200 South Street Racine, WI 53404 USA 1-800-433-5263	Flo-tech manufactures portable hydraulic testers, hydraulic oil turbine flow meters, pressure transducers, temperature sensors and readout displays, as well as PC-based hydraulic system analyzers.
HEDLAND Division of Racine Federated Inc. 2200 South Street Racine, WI 53404 USA 1-800-433-5263	Hedland manufactures over 7,000 in-line, variable area flow meters designed to monitor oil, water, liquids, air and other compressed gases, as well as pressure and vacuum gages.
PRESO Division of Racine Federated Inc. 42 Gateway Drive Plattsburgh, NY 12901 USA 1-800-632-7337	Preso is a fully integrated manufacturer of precision-engineered primary flow elements, serving the industrial, commercial, municipal and pollution control markets.
FOX THERMAL INSTRUMENTS, INC. Gilroy, CA 95020 Phone: 408-847-2090 [email protected]	Manufacturer of thermal mass flowmeters for air and gases. Measures in SCFM directly; no pressure and temperature compensation required. 100:1 turndown typical. FM and CSA approved for hazardous areas. Insertion and inline models available.
ONICON INC. Clearwater, FL 33765	Manufacturer of water flow meters and energy measurement systems (BTU meters) which are suited for HVAC, municipal water and process applications.
AW-COMPANY. Franksville, WI 53126 262-884-9800	Manufacturer and distributor of flow control products including positive displacement flow meters, turbine flow meters, and flow computers.
LAKE MONITORS, INC Milwaukee, WI 53215 800-850-6110	Manufacturers of in-line flow meters, flow alarms, flow transmitters and system analyzers for Oil, Water, Liquids, Air and other compressed gasses.
GILMONT INSTRUMENTS Racine, WI 53404 800-962-7142	Specializing in the engineering, design, manufacturing and distribution of an extensive line of fluid handling arid flow control products.
HEDLAND Racine, WI 53404 800-433-5263	Manufacturer of over 7,000 in-line variable area flow meters, designed to monitor oil, water, liquids, air and other compressed gases
DAVIS INSTRUMENT MFG. CO., INC. Baltimore, MD 21215 800-548-9409	Manufacturers and distributors of test, measurement and control instruments worldwide since 1912.
ELDRIDGE PRODUCTS INC.. Monerey, Ca 93940	Manufacturer of a wide variety of thermal instrumentation for gas mass flow measurement and control.
HOFFER FLOW CONTROLS, INC. Elizabeth City, NC 27909 800-628-4586	Manufacturer turbine flow meters and turbine flow meter technology for the measurement of clean liquids and gases throughout the processing industries.
ABB WATER METERS, INC. Ocala, FL 34478 800-874-0890	Manufacturer of a wide range of meters including cold & hot water and oil meters.
FLOCAT Kenosha, WI 53144 888-356-9888	Manufacturer of a wide range of flow meter technologies including magnetic, thermal mass, turbine, ultrasonic and more.
McCROMETER Hemet, CA 92544 909-652-6811	Manufacturer of propeller meters, electronic meters, and electromagnetic meters for several industries.
KEY INSTRUMENTS Trevose, PA 19053 800-356-7483	Manufacturer of a wide range of measurement instruments used in various industries.
ERDCO ENGINEERING CORP. Evanston, IL 60204 847-328-0550	Manufacturers of a broad range of flow measurement equipment.
FLOWDATA Phoenix, Arizona 85040 800-356-3982	Manufacturer of inline flow meters for clean or dirty fluids for paints, foods, adhesives fuels and more.
KING INSTRUMENT CO Huntington Beach, CA 92648 714-841-3663	Manufacturers of a wide variety of flow meters serving several industries.
PRIMARY FLOW SIGNAL, INC. Warwick, RI 02886	Manufacturers flow measurement for municipal water and waste water installations, industrial process and facilities applications and power systems.

Flow meters, or flowmeters, are devices used to track the flow of fluids and gases in pipes. When attached to the outside or inside of a pipe, they gauge: material flow mass, substance flow volume or substance flow speed. They do this by taking many different flow measurements, such as: process temperature, differential pressure, absolute pressure and viscosity.

Flow meters can measure a number of other things as well, such as absolute pressure, differential pressure, viscosity, and temperature. While flow meters are often applied to fluid flows within enclosed systems (e.g. pipes), a number of them are able to be applied to open stations. Based on their particular application, these critical devices may be known by alternative names such as flow gauges, flow indicators, or liquid meters.

History

Measuring flow measurement continues to be an important aspect of commercial activity since the earliest days. Ancient Sumerian cities devised primitive ways of flow measurement in order to fairly distribute water resources through aqueducts and other irrigation methods. In a similar manner, ancient Egyptians devised weir rudiments (to assess the Nile and forecast the imminent flood and harvest) while the ancient Chinese state of Qin utilized rudimentary flow measurement tools for their political irrigation system.

Modern forms of flowmeters can be tracked back to 1738. In that year, Swiss Daniel managed to successfully gauge characteristics of water flow by the use of differential pressure. Nearly a century later, an American inventor named Hershel improved upon this device and enabled it to measure flows in open channels. Flow meters did not really develop, however, until a surge of industrial production and innovation following World War II. From the 1960s, flow meters were significantly enhanced by advancements in miniaturization and precision technologies. Since an upward business surge in the 1990s, the use and spread of flowmeters has just continued to grow.

Advantages

Flow meters form an extremely important part of the industrial world. On average, they’re superior to stage detectors, since they are able to gauge characteristics of an whole fluid flow in a system. Since flow meter techniques and designs are so varied, they are used by several different businesses, such HVAC, construction, chemical and raw materials, paper/pulp, metallurgy, automotive, gas/petroleum, utility services, medical treatment, pharmaceuticals, and brewing.

Specific types of flow meters are often chosen to defy certain environmental conditions in particular applications. By way of example, streamlined”equipment meters” are excellent for laboratory testing that may involve hazardous conditions; ultrasonic flowmeters are well suited for unhygienic situations that typically damage conventional flowmeters; and vortex meters prove particularly helpful in high temperature applications or applications that may involve rapid environmental changes.

Types

Like many industrial instruments, flow meters are marked by a wide selection of diversity. Flow meters can be categorized in a variety of different ways, including how they operate and what they specifically quantify.

How They Operate

Positive displacement (PD) flow meters are also called volumetric flow meters due to their ability to directly measure the volume of a fluid flow (in cubic inches or liters). They measure liquid flow by trapping it, rotating parts inside, and measuring the created flow between the meter body and the seals. The output of a PD meter is directly proportional to the volume of the fluid flow through the meter. Some sub-categories under PD or volumetric meters comprise bi-rotor flow meters (e.g. oval gear or helical gear flow meters), reciprocating piston flow meters, rotary/oscillating piston flow meters, etc..

Velocity flowmeters can also be used to ascertain the quantity of a fluid flow. As their name suggests, nevertheless, they accomplish this task indirectly by measuring the speed of a fluid flow . The sub-categories underneath velocity flowmeters are many and include ultrasonic flow meters, time-of-flight meters (which measure flow rate through the use of noise ) and turbine flow meters (that have rotors that measure fluid based on the speed of the blades that the fluid moves through.) The vortex flow meter (or vortex shedding flowmeter) is a particularly distinctive sub-category that measures flow rate by blocking the flow path with an obstruction (or bluff body) and forcing fluids or fluids to maneuver around it. When this occurs, two symmetrical vortices form on the opposite side, changing flow pressure. This pressure change is measured by a sensor placed between the vortices, which then transmits its information to an electronic signal conditioner separate from the meter.

In contrast to volumetric flowmeters, mass flowmeters use mass flow measurement (measured in kilograms or pounds). On the other hand, mass flowmeters resemble volumetric flowmeters by producing an output signal that directly correlates to the mass of the liquid flowing through the meter. Coriolis mass and thermal flowmeters are a few of the best-known flow meters which measure mass.

Inferential flowmeters interpret the above conditions (volume, speed, and mass) based on their reading of other factors. Some good representatives of the category are differential pressure flowmeters and variable area flowmeters.

What They Measure

Many flowmeters are simply identified by the occurrence or substance they quantify. Water flow meters are made to measure flow rates of water in various bodies, like tubes, rivers, streams, channels, and partly filled pipes. Air flow meters simply measure the flow of air. Peak flow meters are created specifically for use by asthma patients or others with breathing issues, so that physicians can measure their oxygen consumption. Fuel flow meters (which may be positive displacement, ultrasonic, or turbine flow meters) take measurements of fuel usage rates from stationary pumps and transport devices.

It’s not unusual for flowmeters to operate in conjunction with useful accessories. Flow switches differ from other meters in that they have a fourth component that controls flow for a switching unit, and they might set off an audible or visual alarm if the flow is too low or too high. Another example of a flow meter accessory is an observation window (sometimes called a flow indicators) that helps to measure flow by providing a method of visual assessment.

Parts and Configurations

Flow meters are made from a variety of materials, such as plastic and industrial metals such as bronze and iron (e.g. cast, ductile). Some flow meters are built with specially selected materials that will maximize results. Generally , flowmeters possess three chief elements known as the main device, transducer, and transmitter (or pressure transmitter). The transducer and transmitter are heavily centered on each other since the transducer senses fluid flow through the primary device and the transmitter translates the data from the transducer into a signal which can be interpreted.

It should be noted that flowmeters can be installed and used in a variety of configurations. By way of example, flowmeters can have several devices attached to them, or they may be incorporated into a larger industrial system. Broadly speaking, flow meters are installed in one of three mounting styles: insertion, in-line, and noninvasive.

In-line flow meters integrate within a larger system. By comparison, insertion flow meters take measurements in one location while non-invasive flow meters take measurements in some remote manner. An example of the former is a flowmeter inserted at a specific location on a pipe and used to infer fluid flow for the entire pipe. An example of the latter is an ultrasonic flow meter that reads shifts in frequency (or more specifically, the Doppler effect) due to gas or solid suspensions in a fluid stream.

Considerations

When choosing a flow meter, there are lots of important factors which should be taken under account. However, the single most important element to keep in mind is that the planned application of a flow meter must outweigh any other considerations. Unfortunately, it’s a common industrial practice to employ application-specific flow meters to situations for which they were not intended to be able to save on original investment or purchase prices. To provide one example,”two stage” fluid flows (e.g. a joint liquid/gas flow or liquid/solid flow) are notorious for hammering and disrupting the truth of several sorts of flowmeters. If a (comparatively ) cheap flowmeter is preferred for this sort of application to be able to cut upfront costs, it is nearly certain that this investment will backfire.

Generally , these factors should be assessed in the following sequence:

• How information from the flow meter will be obtained and read (e.g. does information have to be constant or totalized, does this have to be shared remotely, how will it be shared remotely, etc..)
• The physical nature/characteristics of the actual fluid being sampled (e.g. viscosity, chemical composition)
• The nature of the piping or other infrastructure that will accommodate the fluid flow (e.g. diameter)

Some other things to consider when picking a flow meter are: maximum and minimum flow ranges (in terms of volume and mass), maximum and minimum operating temperatures and pressures, allowable pressure drops/differentials, and potential hazards from the surrounding environment (e.g. volatile gases).

For example, if the fluid you’re sampling has a high level of viscosity, you can automatically remove turbine flow meters from your selection list.

The in-depth character of flow meter selection illustrates the worth of a quality flow meter supplier. Finding the right supplier or manufacturer can radically expedite and streamline the entire flow meter selection process. Some providers provide customized tools (e.g. flow meter evaluation forms) along with professional advice in order to assist you make the best possible choice for your application. Providers can also significantly help during the installation process (e.g. properly using a wiring diagram).

To function properly and provide you the most accurate reading, flow meters must be managed using specific guidelines. By way of example, gas flow, air flow, and liquid flow meters must stay full of their respective element in order to remain accurate. Additionally, meter operators need to watch for and remove any foreign contaminants from fluid, such as gas in liquid flow meters, and have to maintain or take into consideration fluid, air, or gas quality, as well as viscosity. To get the most out of your flow meter, certain practices should be avoided, including downward fluid flow applications or finding flow meters downstream from circulation disturbances. (Both scenarios significantly affect flow meter precision and accuracy.) Like most industrial devices, flow meters should be regularly maintained to expand their life. Consider investing in yards without moving parts, since they reduce the demand for regular maintenance practices (e.g. lubrication) and eliminate the need for”clearance distances” that may also affect meter accuracy. A well maintained and carefully monitored flow meter will provide essential information and thereby improve efficiency of operations, application safety, and application accuracy.