Analyze the development trend of water flow sensors

How to improve the measurement accuracy of water flow, expand the flow measurement range, improve the reliability and service life of the measurement, and increase the use of water flow meter functions (such as: data transmission and communication, smart valve control, network access, etc.) Needless to face the problem.

From the perspective of market applications, in addition to drinking water measurement, the demand for agricultural irrigation measurement, sewage measurement, domestic hot water metering, heating hot water metering, and fire fighting water metering are also expanding. Usually, these measured media have poor water quality, often with magazines and dirt. Water flow sensors using mechanical motion mechanisms cannot meet the requirements for reliable, continuous measurement. Therefore, it is necessary to use a flow meter composed of sensors without mechanical movement mechanism, such as electromagnetic flowmeter, ultrasonic flowmeter, and jet flow meter.

At present, more and more intelligent electronic water meters without mechanical movement mechanisms have entered the market. In advanced developed countries, small-diameter, high-accuracy, long-life, small-diameter electromagnetic water meters and ultrasonic water meters with communication interfaces have been initially promoted and applied. Large-diameter electromagnetic water meters and ultrasonic water meters are used in drinking water, sewage, and irrigation. The measurement of water use, as well as the measurement of industrial and agricultural processes, etc. have also entered the stage of full application; in China, many companies have turned the focus of research and development of water flow meters into intelligent electronic water meters without mechanical movement mechanisms, and they have also adopted large-diameter pipe networks. Has a certain degree of application.

From the perspective of the application of new technologies for water flow sensors, flow sensing and signal processing technologies, micro-power design technologies, etc. have been widely valued and applied to improve the measurement accuracy of flow sensors, expand the measurement range, and measure reliability. The guarantee of useful life made an important contribution. In order to enable existing relatively fragile electronic instruments to operate in harsh environments, sealing technology, anti-climate, electromagnetic and mechanical environmental change technologies, reliability design and testing technologies have also received due attention and research. Because the intelligent electronic water meter has an embedded computer system, automatic calibration, automatic zeroing, and automatic compensation can be performed on the characteristics of the sensor, so that the water flow sensor can better meet the measurement requirements. With the large number of applications of the Internet of Things and information technology, water flow sensors or meters are required to have network access and measurable controllable functions to meet the needs of several monitoring and automatic scheduling of water and fluid parameters in underground pipe networks.

From the perspective of the development trend of technical standards, due to the increase in demand, the accuracy of the measurement of the water flow sensor must be increased, the measurement range must be widened, the measurement repeatability must be ensured, and the anti-interference characteristics must be strengthened. The new standard of ISO4064/R49 international water meter has increased the accuracy of the measurement of drinking water meters for closed pipes from the original two levels (maximum allowable error of ±2%, ±5%) to level 1 (maximum allowable error of ±1%, ± 3%) and 2 levels; the measurement range is increased from the original R=10~800 to R=80~1000; the measurement repeatability requirement (less than 1/3 of the maximum allowable error absolute value) is proposed; Test requirements for electromagnetic environment, climatic environment, mechanical environment, etc.