SPP Pumps is a major British pump supplier with more than 500 employees world-wide, and their fire pumps and support services are recognised globally. For this large kitchen manufacturer, SPP used Katronic KATflow 230 portable non-invasive flowmeters to measure flow rate on two pumps, one diesel powered and the other electric. The electric pump usually operates alone, with the diesel pump present purely as a backup in case of emergency.
SPP engineers used Katronic’s simple chain-based clamping system to fit a pair of small ultrasonic transducers to the outside of the pipe, connected to the KATflow 230. They then followed simple onscreen instructions to optimise the transducer positioning and make the measurement. The flow measurement is obtained by externally monitoring the time taken for a series of ultrasonic pulses to travel both upstream and downstream within the pipe between a pair of ultrasonic transducers. The electric pump was tested on an ascending section of pipework, primarily to prove the accuracy of the mechanical flow meter that was already in place.
The diesel pump was more challenging to measure, with no operational meter present and only a very short run of straight pipework available. The galvanised steel pipe was measured at an outside diameter of 221.2 mm, and a Katronic Wall Thickness gauge measured the pipe wall at 6.1 mm. With the aid of the on-board diagnostic and measurement optimisation tools built into the KATflow 230, it was a relatively straightforward task to check that a strong signal was achievable.
