Flow meter designed for precision measurement

FCI's ST75 Flow Meter is designed for process industry facilities and assembly plants and is also designed to reduce the consumption of energy fuel gases, specialty gases, and compressed air.

September 23, 2011

The ST75 Flow Meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) is designed to deliver precision flow measurement while reducing the consumption of energy fuel gases, specialty gases and pneumatic air.

Installing ST75 Flow Meters in large process industry facilities and assembly plants with multiple gas compressors allows the operators to compare compressor usage and adjust them for optimum efficiency. In addition, the use of mass flow meters at the point of compressed gas output helps to ensure peak performance at a given flow rate. Comparing the performance of multiple gas compressors is also useful in predictive maintenance applications where higher flow rates may indicate leaking valves or seals in one unit versus other units operating under similar conditions.

The ST75 Flow Meter is designed for demanding process industry and manufacturing assembly plant environments. Offering an extensive set of standard features, the ST75 Flow Meter is designed for line sizes from 0.25 to 2.0 inches (6 to 51mm), which is ideal for compressor gas line measurement, and provides three unique outputs: the mass flow rate, totalized flow and media temperature.

The design includes media temperature compensation to ensure performance under variable process and plant temperature conditions. It offers accuracy to ±1% of reading and ±0.5% repeatability. Its precision flow element has a no-moving parts design that employs platinum RTD sensors embedded in equal mass thermowells with microprocessor electronics that can be calibrated to laboratory standards for CO2 as well as many other gases. 

Operating over a wide flow range, from 0.01 to 559 SCFM (0.01 to 950 NCMH) depending on line size, the ST75 Flow Meter is equally well suited for low flow and high flow applications. For variable process conditions, the ST75 is factory preset to a wide turndown range at 10:1 to 100:1.

The ST75 was developed with FCI’s thermal dispersion technology, providing direct-flow measurement, eliminating the need for temperature sensors, flow computers, or other devices that are required with orifice plates, Venturis, Vortex shedding, and other meters. Its no-moving parts design ensures superior service life. There are no orifices or inlets to clog or foul, which significantly reduces scheduled maintenance and unplanned shut-downs.

The ST75 Flow Meter offers fully scaleable 4-20mA and 0-10V outputs. They are user assignable to flow rate and/or temperature and a 0-1kHz pulse output of total flow. The instrument can be ordered for input power with either 18 to 36 Vdc or 85 to 265 Vac, with or without a built-in LCD digital display.

www.fluidcomponents.com 

Fluid Components International (FCI)

– Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com