Ultrasonic flow meter for liquids

Non-intrusive ultrasonic liquid flow meters optimize your industrial processes and save energy. Ultrasonic flow measurement technology reduces your costs and improves the safety of your installation.

Benefits of the non-intrusive flow meter

Fuji Electric's high technology non-intrusive ultrasonic flow meters have been developed for high accuracy measurement of liquid flow and velocity. These flow meters are quick and easy to install on pipes of all materials and diameters. These industrial measuring instruments can be used to measure the flow rate over a wide temperature range regardless of pressure. The output signals transmit the information to your control or monitoring systems.

•    Increase the quality of your manufacturing through reliable and accurate measurements
•     Improved productivity due to shorter installation times and no downtime
•     Reduce your maintenance, as the sensors are not in direct contact with the measured fluid

Technical advantages of the ultrasonic flow meters

1. No cutting of the piping
2. No pressure drop
3. No contact with the liquid
4. No risk of leakage
5. No risk of contamination of the fluid
    

What is the operating principle of ultrasonic flow meters for liquid ?

The Fuji Electric ultrasonic flow meter uses the transit time difference method to measure the velocity of a fluid.

Two transducers working at high frequency are installed outside the pipe.

The ultrasonic wave propagates into a stream of flowing liquid through the pipe wall over the cross sectional area in the diagonal of the pipe from the upstream transducer to the downstream transducer, and then from the downstream ultrasound transducer to the upstream second transducer.
In one case, the ultrasonic pulses are "carried" by the fluid in the same direction, and the reflected signal beam is "slowed down"  in the against direction.
It, therefore, the ultrasonic signal takes a different time to pass from one ultrasonic sensor to the other. This instrument operate by alternately transmitting and receiving the sound waves at modulated frequency.

This difference of sound wave corresponding to the transit time or travel time is directly proportional to the flow velocity and the fluid flow rate measurement.
The acoustic properties of each liquid are different and must be set in the parameters of the ultrasonic flow meter to insure high accuracy.

The benefits of Fuji Electric transit time flow meters ultrasonic technology

Compare to doppler flow meters which use the sound reflecting particles to measure the velocity on dirty liquids, the transit time ultrasonic flow meters use the time difference of sound signals to measure the velocity.
Ultrasonic transit time flow meters are unaffected by changes in temperature or pressure.
This makes them ideal for use in applications where these factors might affect the accuracy of measurements taken using other types of flow meters.
When other types of ultrasonic flow meters are intrusive, wetted and required to cut the pipe, the difference is that the transit time ultrasonic flow meters clamp-on are non-intrusive and with no moving parts.

What are the advantages of a Fuji Electric ultrasonic flow meter?

• Low cost and flexible
          This measurement and control flow meter instrument reduces the cost of your projects by reducing installation and maintenance costs compared to others flow meter technologies like magnetic flow meters or primary elements flow meters.

• Easy and fast to install
           The commissioning of the ultrasonic meters on the conduits does not require any modification or stopping of the process and production.
          Your installation is done in minutes across a wide range of pipe sizes without drilling.

• Guaranteed safety
          Since the pipe is not cut, there is no risk of liquid leakage.

• Hygienic
          You are sure not to contaminate your liquids with debris because the transducers are mounted outside the tube.

• Low maintenance 
          The clamp on ultrasonic flow meters is a non-contact and have no moving parts.
          These transit time flow meters does not require calibration or cleaning.

• High durability and robustness
          High-quality materials are used to ensure a long life for your process equipment.
          The sensors and electronic converters have an excellent protection rating.

• High measurement accuracy and fast response time
           The high-performance 32-bit microprocessor electronics allow an accuracy of ±1 % of your flow rates with a response time of 1 sec. 

• Long-term stability and insensitive to fluid pressure and temperature variations
           The continuous calculation of the sound average velocity of the fluid allows this exact flow meter to be unaffected by temperature, density or viscosity.

• Simple integration into your systems
            The LCD colour display shows the instantaneous flow rate, volume and thermal energy.
           The analogue output signal of these devices ensures simple transmission of your data. The transmitted signal can be forwarded to a PLC or a universal controller.
           A digital Modbus communication is also available for building your industrial IOT solutions.

• Excellent gas bubbles immunity
           The exclusive ABM anti-bubble technology of the ultrasound beam provides immunity to air gas bubbles for optimal operation at any measuring conditions.

What are the applications of ultrasonic flow meters?

The non-intrusive ultrasonic clamp-on flowmeter has many advantages.

It is used in many industrial processes for monitoring and control of processes and equipment.
These ultrasonic meters are suitable for the measurement of the velocity of a fluid on non-particulate liquids in industrial automation and for energy audits.

•     Drinking water supply and wastewater treatment plants: search for leaks and the direction of fluid flow on piping in service
•     Thermal power plants or electric power plants: boilers, condensate circulation pumps and turbine oils
•     Building heating and air conditioning: hot and cold water for heating and air conditioning HVAC
•     Thermal spas and swimming pools: quantities of water drawn
•     Automotive industry: paint flow measurement
•     Food and pharmaceutical industries: raw materials (milk, oil) and washing water
•     Chemical and petroleum industries: chemical corrosive liquids except for use in hazardous areas
•     Shipbuilding industries: fuels, hydraulic oils
•     Environnement and renewable energy sectors : measurement of homogeneous clean liquids accepting the propagation of ultrasonic waves (service water, wastewater, industrial water, seawater, pure water, irrigation water, oil, etc.) in full pipes except for open channel application.

Our ultrasonic flow measuring instruments measure any liquids at high accuracy even in difficult applications with a maximum process temperature of 200 °C. It cannot measure gas flow rate.
The ultrasonic signals of the sensors automatically adapt the energy beam to the quality of the pipe and to the liquid being measured by the clamp on meters.

So you can measure with confidence whatever your needs are, even if your piping is corroded.