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Because size
© 2012 Siemens Industry, Inc.
usa.siemens.com/Coriolis
Building on a strong tradition of Unique support tools provide direct • Smallest footprint – Shortest
innova-tive thinking, Siemens has access to all operational and functional lay length of any Coriolis
designed the next generation of data, certificates and audit trails. The sensor in its size class
Coriolis flowmeters for excellence in SITRANS FC430 is amongst the first
• SensorFlash – a micro SD
performance, safety and user- Coriolis flowmeters to offer SIL 3
card with backup data,
friendliness: the SITRANS FC430. certification on the system, meeting
settings, certificates and audit
the highest standards of safety and
This digitally-based flow solution trails uploadable to any PC
reliability.
features market-leading compactness,
• Robust Sensor Frame – with
very high accuracy of 0.1%, low With the SITRANS FC430, process
high resistance to process
pressure loss, extremely stable zero optimization has never been easier –
noise and vibrations for
point and best-in-class data update or more innovative.
excellent 0.1% accuracy
with 100 Hz high-speed signal transfer.
Product Features
Vortex Flowmeter Measures Temperature 3
Variable Speed Drive Eases Commissioning 4
Federal Equipment Acquires McQuay Process Chillers 9
Yaskawa 5
Yaskawa.com
Micro Motion 10
EmersonProcess.com/Verification
Krohne 17
us.krohne.com
Spirax Sarco 19
spiraxsarco.com/us
The right amount of water pressure and flow is critical to protecting pipes,
preventing loss of prime and avoiding dead head conditions.
When the right amount of pressure and flow is critical, call Yaskawa.
In the 1990s, slurry-sealing trends moved Figure 2 depicts a dual pressurized seal design. The
strongly from braided packing toward single-type inboard set of seal faces contains the process slurry
heavy-duty mechanical seals. Still, mechanical or impure pumpage; a secondary barrier fluid (clean
seals often are among the first components to water) is pressurized higher than the process stream.
fail; whenever fine abrasive slurries can migrate An outboard set of seal faces confines the clean barrier
into the seal faces, the performance of mechani- fluid. The higher pressurization means the secondary
cal seals becomes especially unpredictable. Yet, barrier forms the inboard-seal-face fluid film. Seal face
virtually all modern process plants place great failure risks normally originating with micron-size-
importance on reliable mechanical seals. Facili- range particle contaminants are mitigated because
ties experiencing repeat failures may find that the seal-face operating environment is clean water at a
better slurry seals now available enable effective stable pressure.
remedial action. For mild slurries, single-type Delivery of the water barrier fluid is important to
heavy-duty mechanical seals with springs located application success. Traditional piping configurations
away from the pumpage (as illustrated in Figure are API Plan 53-A and API Plan 54. Plan 53-A is
1) often suffice. For more difficult slurry services, limited by a fixed volume of barrier fluid; a fluid-
best-in-class companies typically specify dual containing vessel or “seal pot” is externally pressurized
seals (Figure 2). by air or nitrogen. During process upset conditions,
the pressurized volume of fluid crosses the inboard
SPECIFICATION STRATEGIES seal face, and the seal pot must be recharged during
Today, top reliability professionals select these dual operation. This recharging process is not operator-
seals by invoking and further amplifying the Ameri- friendly — so there’s high likelihood the seal will run
can National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Hydraulic dry. Plan 54 is a centralized water-barrier distribution
Institute (HI) Rotodynamic (Centrifugal) Slurry
Pump Standard ANSI/HI 12.1-12.6-2011 [1]. Section SINGLE-TYPE MECHANICAL SEAL
12.3.8 of this standard describes general arrangement
details for mechanical shaft seals. It states that dual
pressurized seals have the advantage of providing
enhanced lubrication to the faces with a pressurized
barrier fluid. This arrangement prevents process fluid
leakage to the atmosphere and so improves safety. The
standard further notes that dual pressurized seals are Seal face set
used when the limits of heavy-duty single mechani-
cal seals are exceeded, when air potentially can be
entrained in the slurry, or when large volumes of air
can be introduced into the pump. Experience shows
that both the seal environment and seal face materials
must be carefully selected for the service. Buffer fluid
pressurization requirements and associated controls
are important as well. Figure 1. This type of heavy-duty unit often handles lime slurry services.
(877) 536-1538 or
www.fedequip.com
39” APV Pilot Spray Dryer, S/S 10 Liter GEA Collette NV High Shear Mixer,
Item Number 34995 UltimaGral 10, 316 S/S - Item Number 34168
Verify flowmeter performance in place with Micro Motion Smart Meter Verification.
Determining measurement integrity and performance of every meter in line means never
stopping your process flow. Emerson’s Smart Meter Verification for Micro Motion Coriolis meters is the only
automatic diagnostic tool that eliminates the need to break process seals, allowing you to avoid potential
safety issues and costly process flow interruptions. So to keep your workers safe and your operation running,
go to EmersonProcess.com/Verification
The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. © 2011 Emerson Electric Co.
By Christopher Jaszczolt
tion provided there’s not a great difference between the In addition, when there are electrical potential
potential (the voltage) of the medium and the reference differences, stray currents will occur between the
potential of the signal processing in the converter. product and the earth via the grounding rings and
the grounding cable. The grounding rings can be
Grounding Methods destroyed as a result of electrochemical reactions
There are several grounding methods available. with the product. Since they can be expensive, this
Standard grounding methods include conductive solution has significant cost implications.
non-lined pipe flange, grounding rings or grounding Grounding with grounding electrodes: With this
electrodes. In addition, there’s the virtual reference method, the grounding electrode is situated at the
method, which is done without separate grounding invert of the pipe and is in direct contact with the
of the medium. housing that’s connected to functional earth (FE) of
Conductive non-lined pipe flange: This is the sim- the EMF sensor. Often, the cost of this additional
plest grounding method, used in pipelines that are elec- grounding electrode is less than grounding rings.
trically conductive on the inside (for example, blank In the event of electrical potential differences in the
steel or stainless steel). The liquid in the pipe has the plant, these grounding electrodes can be destroyed
same potential as the grounded pipe. The signal voltage by electrolytic action, resulting in leakage or de-
on the electrodes thus has a fixed reference potential. struction of the whole EMF.
Grounding ring or discs: For ceramic, plastic or Abrasive solids in horizontal pipelines can also
concrete pipelines and for lines isolated on the inside, quickly destroy these grounding electrodes. In some
the product is brought to a known fixed potential, cases, deposits on the grounding electrode can pre-
usually by the use of metal grounding rings (ground- vent the proper function of the product grounding,
ing discs). The ring is in conductive contact with the thus inhibiting correct measuring results.
product and usually jointly grounded with the sensor. In the case of large EMFs with grounding elec-
When assembling the pipeline and the EMF trodes, significant deviations also occur when — as
flanges, two additional gaskets are usually necessary. is often the case — the EMF was calibrated in an
Groundings rings and gaskets must not disturb the electrically conductive pipeline and then used in an
flow profile at the measuring point. Careful selec- isolated pipeline.
tion and assembly of grounding rings and gaskets Virtual reference: Using this method, the EMF
will prevent leaks. sensor can be installed in any type of pipeline without
This method is technically reliable and has been grounding rings or electrodes. The converter’s input
proven for many decades. Disadvantages include amplifier records the potentials of the measuring elec-
higher costs when special materials are needed for trodes and a patented method is used to create a volt-
aggressive media or in the case of large pipe sizes. age that corresponds to the ungrounded liquid’s po-
There are some instances in which the cost of the tential. This voltage is used as the reference potential
grounding rings exceeds that of the EMF itself. for signal processing. Thus, there are no interfering
Vortex
Variable Area
As one of the world’s market leaders for flow measurement instrumentation, we’ve been
serving our customers in the process industries for more than 85 years with innovations that
set the standard for our markets.
KROHNE has the widest range of technologies and unique expertise. Our know-how applies
to general applications, and also to requirements that demand tailor-made solutions.
There’s practically no fluid that our devices can’t measure reliably and securely: Aggressive
or abrasive; high or low temperature, pressure or viscosity; media mixtures with high solids
content or high purity fluids as well as saturated or superheated steam.
KROHNE – process measurement engineering is our world.
info@krohne.com
Tel: 1-800-FLOWING
us.krohne.com
When it comes to making big decisions involving his judgment and occasionally seek his advice.
capital purchases, it’s best to do so with accurate infor- The Spirax Sarco sales engineer convinced GST to
mation. Having the right information requires having install an inline vortex meter into the main steam line
the right data, and sometimes having the right data re- for the building to determine the steam usage for the
quires making accurate measurements. Such is the case selected product line. The sales engineer worked with
with one company that sought to make changes in the GST’s personnel to ensure the meter was properly
way it generates steam for its manufacturing facilities. sized and using less steam in this building than it had
Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC (GST), a originally. Based on the sales engineer’s calculations
company that manufactures fluid sealing components and information from the company, it was recom-
such as compression packing, gaskets, expansion mended to reduce the line size from 6 inches to 2
joints and dynamic seals, uses steam to operate some inches to accommodate a 2-inch inline vortex meter.
of its manufacturing equipment. Their operation
encompasses several buildings. Therefore, the central Results Speak for Themselves
boiler that supplies each of them must produce super- With the line size reduced to accommodate the ap-
heated steam to accommodate the steam temperature propriate meter size for the application, the inline
requirements of each machine. vortex was able to accurately capture the steam flow
It takes a lot of extra energy to superheat steam over the entire flow range.
just to compensate the temperature drop that occurs With the inline vortex, GST was able to trend the
as steam travels to where the equipment is located. actual steam going through the pipes, which resulted
For this reason, GST plans to decentralize steam in the need for a 15,000-lb boiler instead of a 25,000-
generation at this location by installing a boiler for lb boiler for the specific product line. Vortex meters
each product line. require no maintenance and therefore, GST didn’t
Although a project of this magnitude is a signifi- have to worry about wear or recalibration.
cant commitment requiring a considerable invest- Now that the GST is able to quantify steam usage
ment, there are measurable benefits. Decentralizing accurately, they can potentially use the inline vortex
steam generation will allow GST to accommodate the to understand the characteristics of their system
equipment at each site without having to superheat to find leaks and other potential problems. If GST
the steam. It will also allow them to save energy and decides to move forward with other opportunities
lower maintenance costs. that can help them save energy, the inline vortex will
give them the information needed to enable capturing
Measuring Comes First those savings in the form of less steam usage.
For a company to measure benefits or savings, it must This meter application was successful because
first understand the benchmark to which it must the Spirax Sarco sales engineer took time to calculate
compare. Initially, GST estimated the steam flow steam usage and advised the customer regarding the
required for one of their product lines. Based on as- proper meter size to capture the entire flow range.
sumptions — instead of actual measurements — they The customer is impressed with the performance
thought they needed a 25,000-lb boiler. of the inline vortex flowmeter and the information it
Fortunately, GST has a close working relation- provides. Because of their satisfaction with this meter,
ship with its regional Spirax Sarco sales engineer. they intend to purchase and install another vortex
Because they rely heavily on this engineer, they trust meter for a different product line.
VLM10 Features:
• For mass, volumetric, and energy
flow measurement for steam,
liquid, and gas applications
• Internal RTD and Integral multi-
variable electronics
• Digital communications and
industry standard pulse and analog
outputs provide a wide range of
options to receive flow information
• Fully welded design, no gasket
design, insures safe measurement
of steam
• Internet accessible web server to
monitor and program remotely
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