New series of flow meters with packing glands simplify and speed process maintenance tasks

When process engineers specify ST Series Flow Meters from Fluid Components International (FCI) with the retractable packing gland option, maintenance engineers breathe a sigh of relief knowing that if these virtually maintenance free instruments ever require a simple wipe down cleaning that their process line doesn’t need to be interrupted, bypassed temporarily or completely shut down.

The industry leading thermal dispersion ST50, ST80 and ST100 Series Air/Gas Flow Meters all feature simple insertion style designs with FCI’s optional easy-maintenance packing gland kit. They provide both ease of installation, requiring just a single tap point into the process line, and the convenience of retracting their flow sensing elements from the line.

Insertion style design flow meters with packing gland kits offer the best of both worlds when it comes to simple, low-cost installation and easy maintenance. Unlike their cousins’ inline or spool piece meters, insertion style meters can be installed rapidly or retracted quickly through a single tap point in the pipe.

In comparison, installing a large spool piece meter requires shutting down the line, bringing in a crew to chop the pipe, slide in the spool piece meter (sometimes with a crane), weld the pipe back together and re-pressurise the line. Spool piece meter maintenance requires repeating the same cumbersome, expensive process just to access the flow sensor.

When it comes to maintaining insertion style meters such as FCI’s ST Series, the sensor assembly is simply retracted from the pipeline through a ball valve/packing gland. When retracted, the ball valve is closed. There is no crew, no special work permits or compromising of the plant’s production quota due to maintenance.

The FCI retractable packaging gland kit for the ST Series flow meters comes in low or medium pressure configurations. The low pressure kit is suitable for lines pressurized up to 50 psig [3,5 bar (g)]. The medium pressure configuration is designed for lines pressurised up to 500 psig [34 bar (g)]. They are available with a choice of graphite or Teflon® packing material

and one threaded or flanged process connection. The Teflon packing material is required when the process media is ozone, chlorine or bromine.

The ST50 flow meter is a compact, low cost solution for accurate, repeatable flow rate measurement of air, compressed air or nitrogen. This dependable thermal dispersion insertion-style flow meter has no moving parts and is available in probe lengths for installation into pipe diameters from 2.5 to 24 inches [63 mm to 610 mm]. It is easily connected into the pipe via a 0.5 inch or 0.75 inch NPT compression fitting.

The ST80 Series Flow Meter is a high performance, rugged thermal dispersion technology air/gas flow meter for line sizes 2 inches (51 mm) and up that combines ultra-reliable, feature-rich electronics with application-matched flow sensors to provide a truly superior solution for industrial processes and plant applications. It combines these features with a robust, rugged transmitter enclosure and industry’s broadest selection of process connections to provide longest service life and ease-of-installation in your installation’s pipe or duct.

The ST100 Series Flow Meter is an innovative, thermal dispersion air/gas flow meter for line sizes from 1 to 60 inches (25 to 1524 mm) that combines feature- and function- rich electronics with advanced flow sensors for a state-of-the-science flow metering solution. Its intelligent transmitter is unsurpassed in meeting current and future need for outputs, process information and communications. Outputs available include 4-20 mA analog, frequency/pulse, or digital bus communications such as HART, Foundation fieldbus, PROFIBUS, or Modbus.