Paddle wheel impeller and magnetic pickup sensor technology based flow metering instrumentation for measuring motion of a substance.
Related Technical Terms
A paddle wheel or pelton wheel device consists of a wheel with profiled blades which are driven around an axis perpendicular to the direction of flow.
A fixed pickup sensor counts each time a blade containing a magnet passes which when combined with a time measurement, the rotational speed of the blades can be calculated. The frequency output can then be converted to a any output signal or display reading for monitoring or controlling the speed of a substance passing the paddlewheel sensor.
A flow meter is category of device that is assigned to any instrument which can measure either directly or indirectly the quantity of a substance passing through a specific location.
A flow meter will typically measure the speed of flow as the primary reading, and some depending on the technology, may include additional secondary readings to compensate for variations in flow due to pressure, temperature, density and viscosity changes. Some flowmeters include additional instrumentation to manipulate the flow reading to provide other functions such as the total quantity indication, or alarms each time a batch has been completed.