Liquid flow meter specialist Titan has expanded its line of ultrasonic flowmeters and patents ranging from signal processing methodology to novel mechanical design. The versatile Atrato line of ultrasonic inline flowmeters now has ASCII flow streaming capability via USB and is reverse flow enabled, enhancing its capacity to be optimized for the user’s application, in addition to its datalogging and diagnostic features.

The sophistication of the Atrato’s ultrasonic technology, together with the proprietary embedded signal processing software developed by Titan Enterprises, allows both viscous and non-viscous liquids to beSource: Titan Enterprises routinely measured precisely.

Neil Hannay, senior R&D engineer with Titan Enterprises, said: “The device’s USB connection gives the Atrato flowmeter computer interface capability, enabling the user to directly monitor the flow rate being measured and alter the operating parameters using a laptop PC. ASCII flow streaming capability has been a logical next step in the advancement of these ultrasonic flowmeters.”

The additional ASCII flow streaming means the measured liquid flow is output at 10 to 20 times per second in human-readable text form (ASCII encoded). This stream of data can then be interpreted and processed by software running on the USB host.

The advantages of ASCII streaming for the user are threefold:

1. The flow measurements are streamed directly over the USB connection to the PC.
2. No additional pulse counting or analog interface devices are required.
3. Flow measurements are configured directly to the user’s software system such as LabVIEW.

The Atrato ultrasonic flow devices are ideal for low flow applications and precision process control, laboratory processes and chemical dosing. Ultrasonic flow meters are also becoming an important flow metering sensor within petrochemical process applications; about 40% of ultrasonic flowmeter sales fall into the oil and gas industry, refining and chemical.

Using Titan’s patented ‘time-of-flight’ ultrasonic technology, the Atrato flow meters operate with unmatched accuracy over a flow range of 2 ml/minute to 20 liters/minute. The superior non-intrusive design and electronics, coupled with Titan’s unique algorithms, makes the Atrato an advanced signal processing flow measurement system with no moving parts, virtually eliminating mechanical wear, critical for long-life and repeatability.