Digital Flow Meter Options Make it Easier to Manage What You Measure

Published on by Russ Bowman

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is a widely used maxim, in a number of fields. Since EXAIR is in the business of helping customers get the most out of their compressed air system, we use it with regard to our Digital Flowmeters.

While installation of our standard Digital Flowmeters is fairly easy & straightforward, it does require depressurization of the pipe you’re installing it onto to drill the holes for the probes. If you can do that, installation takes a matter of minutes, you can repressurize the line and get back to work. If it’s impossible, impractical, or even inconvenient to isolate and depressurize the pipe, our Hot Tap models allow for installation under full line pressure. Not only do you get away with not depressurizing part of your system, you don’t even have to stop using compressed air loads being supplied by that pipe. Here’s how it works:

  • Like any mass thermal type flow meter, these work by inserting two probes through the pipe wall. One is heated to a specific temperature, and the other measures the temperature of the air flowing past it. The difference is proportional to the mass flow rate through the pipe.
  • Normally, drilling holes in a pressurized pipe is a BAD idea. The bases for the Hot Tap Digital Flowmeters, however, allow you to do it safely. They have valves in them, which the drill bit passes through, that you’ll close as you withdraw the drill bit to prevent compressed air from flowing out.
  • A muffler in the drill guide lowers the sound level to a slight hiss, and collects the chips made by the drill bit.
  • Once the Digital Flowmeter itself is installed on the Hot Tap base, the valves are opened to put the Digital Flowmeter in service.
Hot Tap Digital Flowmeters are available for 2″ through 8″ iron pipe, , and 2″ through 4″ copper pipe.

As beneficial as it is to measure the mass flow rate through the pipe, it can be important to know the pressure inside the pipe as well. Our Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters provide for this, with a 2nd milliamp output.

Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters can be installed on 2″ through 8″ iron pipe, or on 2″ through 4″ copper pipe (above left). They provide input to the Flowmeter’s 2nd milliamp output via a special sensing port (above center). They can display either flow or pressure values on their display, or you can use our optional Wireless Capability (above right) to transmit this data to your computer.

A pressure AND flow profile can aid in identifying areas for improvement…and sometimes even finding problems that need fixing. One of our customers did just that, by using the flow & pressure profile to identify a transient caused by a faulty filter baghouse cleaning cycle control.

If you’re serious about getting the most out of your compressed air use, the very first step in EXAIR’s Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is literally a great place to start.

Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

To find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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