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Overview

Retrofitting buried pipelines of the drinking water supply system with flow measuring equipment is often connected with high expenditures:

In order to install a magnetic inductive flow meter, which is commonly used in the drinking water supply industry, underground construction to uncover the pipeline must be done first. If the pipeline is located under a highly frequented street, the necessary construction leads to considerable traffic interferences. Furthermore, the installation of the meter in the pipe requires shutting it off, which means supply downtime.

Non-invasive flow measurement with ultrasound is, by now, one of the established standard measuring technologies in the water sector, not only because of its advantages in case of retrofitting. In order to avoid any interruptions of supply in the drinking water system, the IP68 submersible transducers of FLEXIM are the best solution: the extremely robust clamp-on transducers are simply mounted on the outside of the pipe. For this, the supply pipe only needs to be uncovered briefly.

The access can be filled in again right after the installation. Expensive shaft construction is not necessary. The use of permanent coupling pads guarantees durable acoustic coupling and therefore a maintenance-free measurement. The VARIOFIX C transducer mounting fixture provides additional mechanical protection with its sturdy stainless steel housing and strong stainless steel straps. This keeps the ultrasonic transducers firmly in place. The longitudinally watertight transducer cables are led subterraneously via an empty conduit to an electric control box at the roadside. This box also houses the transmitter and the communication electronics for transmission (possible via GSM) of the measuring data to the grid control system.

Advantages

  • Accurate and reliable non-intrusive flow measurement buried in the ground
  • Simple retrofitting, without pipe work and without supply downtime
  • No tapering of the cross section, no pressure loss
  • Long-term stable measurement with IP68 transducers and permanent coupling pads
  • Underground installation directly in the ground without expensive shaft construction
  • Low construction expenditure, only short interruption of traffic
  • No adverse effect on corrosion protection, pipe lining and coating remain intact