Portable ultrasonic flow meters and fixed ultrasonic flow meters almost covers all of type of ultrasonic flow meters, so it will make a sense to know their difference and what type to select for your application. If you are a new man to ultrasonic flow meters or you are first time to select ultrasonic flow meters, it will give you a brief introduction about them. Here Portable ultrasonic flow meters include standard portable ultrasonic flow meter and handheld ultrasonic flow meters.
1. Power Supply
Both portable ultrasonic flow meter and handheld ultrasonic flow meter have built-in battery pack and can work well without continuous external power supply after recharging. Meanwhile, portable flow meter can work well with external AC power supply. But fixed type ultrasonic flow meters usually need external power supply, the external power can be AC power or DC power. Without external power, fixed ultrasonic flow meter can’t work well. But as our ultrasonic flow meter is low power consumption(working current is about 50mA without output), our fixed ultrasonic flow meter can be solar powered with lead-acid battery.
2.Output Requirement
Portable ultrasonic flow meters are usually is equipped with built-in data logger or mini printer(e.g. our standard portable ultrasonic flow meter),thus, in order to export the storing data to PC for further processing, portable flow meter usually has serial port(RS232 or RS485). Of course, some companies have added USB port to portable ultrasonic flow meters,but USB port is not necessary and also improves material cost sharply. A RS232-USB or RS485-USB converter is enough and very cheap to find. Fixed ultrasonic flowmeters have more outputs ways,e.g.analog output(4-20mA), pulse output, replay output, serial port,etc. In order to meet more request, we have also developed SD data logger for our fixed ultrasonic flow meters. The storing capacity can be from 1G-8G and data is stored at TXT file in SD card and easy to process in PC.
3. Installing Method
Portable ultrasonic flow meters usually need to carry in a bag or case and take it to different spots. Portable flow meters are usually used for flow survey, flow check, flow comparison,etc. Fixed ultrasonic flowmeters are usually installed at a fixed place and used to on an exact pipe for long term. Fixed flowmeters can be used for flow measurement and process control.
4. Parts and Material Cost
As portable ultrasonic flow meters usually need more function for real-time flow measurement, they are always equipped with many necessary parts,e.g. compact small enclosure, protection case, recharging battery pack, communication cable, etc. Thus, portable flow meter has a higher cost than fixed ultrasonic flow meters. Fixed ultrasonic flow meters are usually used in a fixed point, thus their parts are much less than portable flow meters.
No matter portable ultrasonic flow meters or fixed ultrasonic flowmeters, they are main selling items of ultrasonic flow meters.Thus, it is necessary to know their difference so that for better understanding of ultrasonic flow meter. Only know it deeply, user can do a right selection and using.