Weigh Pan Gets Out of the Way
Just as other analytical instruments have improved with electronic interfaces, precision-enhancing design features, and automated systems, so also have analytical balances. The conventional top-loading XS Laboratory Balance developed by a team at Mettler-Toledo, Inc., Columbus, Ohio, has a redesigned weighing pan that permits rapid and accurate analytical weighing. By allowing air to freely pass through a slotted grid weigh pan, faster yet still accurate stabilization times result. The XS’s SmartGrid suspended weigh pan removes buoyancy effects caused by temperature differences that lead to air currents. The air easily flows through the weigh pan without lifting the pan, resulting in increased performance levels.
Like any weigh pan, the SmartGrid lifts out for easy cleaning, but with the suspended weigh pan, contamination issues are resolved. Because all weigh cell connection points are above the weigh pan, any spilled sample falls directly to a fully sealed base plate, which can then be removed by the user.
Overall the SmartGrid stabilizes up to six times faster than a traditional solid pan system. In one company case study, productivity increases of up to 20% have been recorded. Repeatability of top of the line XS instruments at 10 g is listed as 0.02 mg; at maximum capacity this value is 0.1 mg.
>>More info:www.mettler.com
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This Flowmeter is a Good Listener
A research group led by Daniel Gysling and Doug Loose of the Wallington, Conn.-based CiDRA Corp. have created the next step in industrial flowmeter technology. The SONARtrac Process Monitoring System’s “sonar” flow technology uses array processing to listen to and interpret pressure fields generated by pipe flows.
Unlike ultrasonic meters, this flowmeter measures pressure waves at lower frequencies and does not send a signal through the flow. And while vortex meters require the insertion of an object into the flowstream to create these vortices, the SONARtrac technology relies on vortices that naturally occur in turbulent flow. This passive listening approach lets the SONARtrac process monitoring system measure single phase and multiphase flows, as well as slurries, with the same level of accuracy and performance.
Flow rate is determined using CiDRA’s array processing techniques to track the speed at which turbulent “eddies” inherent in virtually all industrial process flows, convect past the array of sensors. The flow rate is then calculated directly from the speed of the turbulent eddies. Applications include metals processing, oil sands refining, power generation, and water treatment, with industrial use in pulp/paper, chemical, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage areas.
>>More info: www.cidra.com
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