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Flowmeter Calibration: Five Best Practices You Need To Know

Regular calibration of flowmeters is important to ensure accurate measurements in critical applications such as HVAC, utilities, and pharmaceuticals. Even the most rugged flowmeters can lose accuracy over time due to wear, damage, or process variations. There are five best practices for flowmeter calibration: 1) Use a calibration standard that is four times more accurate than the flowmeter, 2) Ensure the calibration standard is traceable to recognized standards, 3) Maintain a steady state rate of flow between the standard and flowmeter, 4) Measure the same media with both the standard and flowmeter simultaneously, and 5) Perform calibration under conditions matching the flowmeter's typical operation.

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86 views

Flowmeter Calibration: Five Best Practices You Need To Know

Regular calibration of flowmeters is important to ensure accurate measurements in critical applications such as HVAC, utilities, and pharmaceuticals. Even the most rugged flowmeters can lose accuracy over time due to wear, damage, or process variations. There are five best practices for flowmeter calibration: 1) Use a calibration standard that is four times more accurate than the flowmeter, 2) Ensure the calibration standard is traceable to recognized standards, 3) Maintain a steady state rate of flow between the standard and flowmeter, 4) Measure the same media with both the standard and flowmeter simultaneously, and 5) Perform calibration under conditions matching the flowmeter's typical operation.

Uploaded by

Greenkings
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Flowmeter calibration: Five best practices you need

to know
A flowmeter measures the rate that fluid or gas moves through it. Test and measurement
professionals use them in a wide variety of applications where accurate flow measurements are
critical, including (but not limited to) HVAC, energy and utilities, water management, aerospace,
agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry. In applications like these, its important to calibrate
the flowmeters that make the measurements. Regular calibrations assure you that the flowmeters
measurements are as accurate as their specifications say they are.
Even the most rugged flowmeters can fall out of calibration. All instruments performance degrades
over time; parts wear out or break. Flowmeters can be affected by corrosion or dirt within the
media that flows through them. They may also be damaged by impact, variations in the process, or
by improper installation.
Standard best practices in calibration apply to flowmeter calibration as they do for all test
equipment; flow calibration also has some specific best practices to keep in mind:
1.
The standard that you use to calibrate a flowmeter must be accurate enough to perform the
calibration. The general rule of thumb is that your standard should be four times more accurate
than the unit under test (UUT); however, this can vary depending on the requirements of the
calibration.
2.
Your standard should be traceable to a recognized standard. Traceability provides an
unbroken chain of documentation that shows how the measurements it makes compare to even
more accurate standards. Traceable measurements help you prove that your measurements are
what your flowmeter says they are, within specific ranges.
3.
The rate of flow between the UUT and the calibration standard must be in a steady state.
Since the flow rate of the standard and the UUT are compared in real time during calibration, the
system flow rate should not vary with time.
4.
All media measured by the calibration standard must also be measured by the flowmeter at
the same time. In other words, there should not be any leaks or significant temperature changes in
intermediary volumes that might affect the measurement.
5.
You should perform the calibration under conditions that are typical of the flowmeters actual
operation. For example, the viscosity, density or heat content of the liquid being measured can
affect the flowmeter based on its operating technology. It is important to match the calibration with
the flowmeters application.

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