January 2008
Volume XIV, Number 1
Online Configurators

Ultrasonic Flowmeters for Custody Transfer
Multipath Systems Offer Accuracy for Critical Measurements
In today’s fast-paced flowmeter market, user demand for higher accuracy and reliability is causing a shift towards new-technology flowmeters, especially ultrasonic and Coriolis. And in the case of ultrasonic flowmeters, this shift is helped by the number of new products entering the market, particularly for custody-transfer applications where industry approvals have paved the way for ultrasonic flow measurement.

Online Configurators Go Next Generation
Engineers, Pressed for Time, Look to Automate Their Specification Process
Buying complex products and services can be just that — complex. Engineers, such as David Griffiths at New York Air Brake, need to design and assemble solutions that perform under great pressure, with no room for error or downtime. Increasingly, Griffith and his colleagues rely on suppliers such as Assured Automation and A. R. Wilfley & Sons to provide online configurators to automate the manual, disparate processes typically associated with configuration, pricing, and quoting.

Q&A: AC vs. DC Magmeter Excitation
Pros, Cons, & New Technology Solutions
Ronald W. DiGiacomo is ABB’s business development manager for flow technologies in the United States. Ron has worked in the process instrumentation field for 25 years, primarily in flow measurement and control. Mr. DiGiacomo also spent 15 years with Emerson Process Management and five with Invensys Foxboro. This month, Mr. DiGiacomo talks with Flow Control about AC vs. DC power methods for magnetic flowmeter devices.

Effluent Flow with Suspended Solids
Facing Rising Treatment Costs, Paper Mill Reconsiders Flowmeter Installation
Sometimes you have so much information that you actually have to start from the beginning in order to determine what is happening. Such was the case when the effluent with suspended solids from a paper mill was measured with an existing magnetic flowmeter. A new clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter was installed when the existing magnetic flowmeter could not be calibrated per manufacturer specifications or taken out of service. I was invited to the plant to investigate the flowmeters after the measurements from the new ultrasonic flowmeter increased effluent treatment costs by over one million dollars per year.

Cheat Sheets: Pump Secrets Lost in Time
The Relationship Between Pressure & Head
Early in my career I worked in a steel mill. One day, my boss gave me a purchase chit, put me in a company truck, and told me to go into town and buy a pump for cooling water. He said to get a pump that develops 30 PSI. At the pump shop, the clerk showed me a pump that develops 70-ft of head. I thought, “Who cares about 70-ft? I need 30 PSI.” I didn’t know the relationship between head and pressure. I’m not alone.

QUIZ CORNER:
How Pressure Variations Affect Flow Measurement
A flow control loop consisting of a flowmeter, controller, and control valve is used to control the flow of a gas to a process. Measurements from a pressure transmitter installed some time ago indicate the incoming air pressure is typically two bar, but that it can vary from one to 2.5 bar due to process upsets that occur upstream. How will these pressure variations affect the flow measurement assuming the flowmeter is calibrated to operate at two bar?

VIEWPOINT:
The Real Danger of Piracy in China
While making the rounds at a recent trade show, I was engaged in a conversation with a colleague about the rise of China in fluid handling technology manufacturing. The fellow with whom I was speaking took a quick peek over each shoulder before entering into a diatribe about the dangers of technology piracy in China. Speaking in hushed tones, he made the case that much of China’s growing prominence in fluid handling technology is the product of thievery, as many U.S. manufacturers that open China-based sales and production facilities are quickly finding their proprietary technology is being stolen and offered up to the Chinese market under an alternate brand name. But the real danger in this trend goes deeper than just the initial theft of technology.