Titan Enterprises develops ‘dirty water’ ultrasonic flowmeter for Graphoidal

A specialist in designing and manufacturing lubrication and coating systems for the glass container and tableware industries, Graphoidal Developments approached Titan Enterprises to develop an alternative flowmeter that would be immune to the 'dirty water' problem it encountered with the deposition of rust in the water coolant lines.

The solution had to operate over a wide dynamic flow range, have identical electronic outputs and fit into the same space as the existing turbine flowmeter. The pipe connections on Graphoidal machines were fixed so Titan, using its Atrato flowmeter technology, experimented with bending the flow passage around 180° whilst still carrying the ultrasound. Using unique algorithms this technique proved to be successful so the sensors could be placed on the manifold and both the flow and the ultrasonic signals being bent around a 28mm diameter 180° arc.

In addition the flowmeter electronics were re-designed to match the customer's specification and any extraneous functions not required by Graphoidal machines eliminated. The closure for the housing was made into a robust plastic cover to keep the costs down.

While the resulting product is more expensive than the turbine flowmeter it replaced its advantages far outweigh the drawbacks, according to Titan. Each meter has an identical 'K' factor so no individual calibration of a Graphoidal machines PLC is required. A single ultrasonic flowmeter is able to cover multiple flow ranges enabling reduced inventory to be held by Graphoidal. As the Atrato ultrasonic flowmeter has no moving parts, there are no parts to wear out due to rust abrasion.