A strawberry farm in the US needed a portable moisture measurement tool to conduct an in-depth soil moisture survey at the farm. Strawberries require highly moist soil with a continuous water supply (such as drip irrigation) during their active growth periods, therefore any moisture deficiency in the plant’s root zone can seriously impact product quality, yield, and overall profitability of the farm. Therefore, actively monitoring the root zone moisture content across the farm is a crucial step to ensure optimum plant growth.
The owners needed a transportable moisture measurement tool that is capable of providing quick and accurate moisture measurements even in rough operating conditions. Our HD2 Portable Soil Moisture Meter comes enclosed in a rugged cast iron body that houses proprietary TRIME® radar technology. This technology provides maximum penetration depth of magnetic flux resulting in maximum accuracy in a sample even in highly saline environments where other moisture measurement technologies, such as the capacitive sensors, will fail.
The HD2 Soil Moisture Sensor is compatible with several moisture probes such as our SONO or PICO probes to provide accurate measurements of soil salinity (conductivity), soil temperature, and volumetric moisture content %.
The HD2 digital moisture meter is a versatile instrument and is suitable for other materials as well such as sand, crushed stone, and other aggregates. Click here for more information.
A concrete factory in Houston, Texas, needed an on-line moisture sensor to be installed in their fresh concrete mixer with high measurement accuracy to minimize recipe errors. We installed our SONO-MIX moisture sensor that was integrated to their SCADA system for real-time averaged moisture readings at a rate of 4 per second.
The SONO-MIX Mixer Probe consists of a high grade steel casing with a removable wear-resistant sensor head made of hardened steel and ceramic. The sensor enables correlation of recipe parameters such as cement content and slump of fresh concrete. Even in the event of abrasion at the probe head of a SONO probe, the automatic measurement compensation enables significantly longer operating periods without the necessity of re-calibration. A built-in temperature sensor in the moisture probe enables the sensor to carry out temperature compensation for the measured material.
A wastewater treatment plant was looking to replace their de-commissioned 28″ electro-magnetic flowmeter on a raw sewage pipeline. The flow meter had corroded away because of chamber flooding through out its service life.
The customer needed an affordable replacement which would not require any system shutdown or pipe cutting. Reason being, replacing such a large in-line flow meter requires heavy lifting equipment, system shutdown, pipe modifications, and not to mention the cost of a new electromagnetic flow meter itself.
Hence, the customer reached out to us for a non-invasive metering solution. We first conducted a flow survey with our Compu-Flow™ Portable Doppler Flow Meter to ensure feasibility of installing a permanent clamp-on solution at this metering point. One of the biggest hurdles that we faced on the day of the flow test was the uneven pipe surface that created a challenge to create a consistent sensor surface contact with the pipe surface. After several trials, we found an ideal spot which allowed us to conduct a successful flow test as per customer’s expectations.
The customer later purchased our Compu-Flow™ Fixed Doppler Flow Meter for this metering point at a fraction of the cost of a new electromagnetic flow meter. Furthermore, the ultrasonic sensors on our flowmeter are rated IP68 and are suitable for water submersion in case of chamber flooding.
A water utility company in the US was looking to add a permanent metering point on this underground 48″ water pipe that was previously not monitored. Since the pipeline is located inside an underground valve chamber there is always risk of flooding during wet weather conditions. So, any flow meter proposed should be able to withstand temporary water submersion, hot temperatures, and high humidity inside the valve chamber. Furthermore, the customer did not desire any pipe cutting or drilling to eliminate risk of water leaks.
We performed a successful flow test with our Uf 801-P portable clamp-on flowmeter to assess the feasibility of a permanent clamp-on solution at this metering point. The customer was satisfied with the results so we proposed installing our Uf 811 Fixed Clamp-On Ultrasonic Flow Meter, which is completely non-intrusive and does not require any pipe alternation because the transducers are installed externally on the pipe and provide an accuracy of up to ±1%.
Furthermore, the Uf 811 comes with IP68 transducers to provide protection against water submersion. Lastly, the transducers are constructed out of corrosion-resistant materials to offer long-term protection against harsh environmental conditions.
Accurately measuring diesel consumption of a boat is extremely important for boaters and captains. This is because understanding the fuel economy (how much fuel is burnt per nautical mile) of your boat can help them plan ahead in terms of operational costs as well as estimating the range before planning each trip.
Our DFM Fuel Flow Meters come in various versions and are suitable for diesel engines that have a return fuel line (such as on a Yacht or boat) and require a differential fuel measurement. The DFM meters are highly intelligent and offer universal connectivity for seamless integration with any existing SCADA system.
This private Yacht in The Ozarks, Missouri required communication over CAN j1939 protocol to extract a number of measurement variables in real-time from the DFM such as Fuel Rate, Total Fuel Used, Hours of Operation, and much more.
A pre-cast concrete factory in Kansas City needed a portable moisture measurement solution for construction aggregates of various grades for strict quality control of their final product. The objective was to precisely measure water content in all types of construction aggregates quickly on-site without the hassle of lengthy lab procedures. And to provide a reliable and robust solution that will stand the test of time and harsh working conditions of construction industry.
Seztec USA offers robust and low-maintenance moisture measurement solutions for the construction industry. Our moisture sensing probes are designed for repeated use on abrasive materials such as crushed stone up to 1-1/4” in size.
Up until now the customer used the traditional kiln drying methods in laboratories to determine water content in aggregates but they needed a more convenient and accurate measurement solution that would allow moisture measurements quickly on-site.
We offered our HD-2 Portable Moisture Meter with the versatile 2-rod SONO-M1 probe that is suitable for almost all construction materials such as sand, gravel, and crushed stone.
The SONO-M1 probe is rated IP68 and can withstand material temperature of up to 50°C. Moreover, in case of damage from long-term use, the sensing rods on SONOM1 can be replaced by the user without the need to replace the sensor electronics or sending the unit back to factory. This is a cost-saving feature that our competitors don’t offer.
Calibration curves of all standard aggregates are stored into HD-2 at the factory by default which allows the user to select the correct material from a user friendly interface. The moisture content is displayed on the screen in % in just a few seconds and the user is able to per-form multiple measurements for a better averaging. The measurement data can be easily transferred to a computer for further analysis and reporting.
Originally published Dec 4, 2021 1:00:00 PM
Copyright © 2022 Seztec LLC
This customer, a district cooling plant, had undergone a major overhaul of their cooling towers that had been in service for 10+ years and they needed a flow specialist to help them optimize their condenser water flow out of 4 separate chiller skids.
The objective was to accurately measure water flow at each of the 4 condenser lines feeding the cooling towers without system shutdown or any pipe cutting/drilling. And to optimize condenser pump flow to ensure that each cooling tower is operating at design conditions to produce maxi-mum cooling efficiency.
The condenser water lines did not have any flowmeters installed therefore the customer did not exactly know how much water was being pumped to the cooling towers.
They needed to measure flowrate on each of the four condenser lines to understand the hydraulic behavior of the condensers and their cooling towers to be able to optimize to maximum efficiency possible. Moreover, the customer did not desire any pipe cutting, system alterations, system shutdown, or any pipe intrusion as that would compromise the structural integrity of the whole chilled water system. We proposed using our clamp-on ultrasonic flow meter to measure water flowrates on each of the 24” pipes from outside the pipe without any pipe cutting or intrusion.
Our clamp-on flowmeters offer an accuracy of 0.5% RD (may vary depending on the site conditions) and it is exactly what the customer needed to conduct hydraulic balancing of their cooling towers.
Flow measurement of a slurry (mixture of mud water, stones, and grit) on a relatively old carbon steel pipe using the C6 Doppler Ultrasonic Clamp-On Flow Meter. The customer previously tried another doppler from a competitor but it failed to produce any measurements given the aggressive operating conditions.
