1、 Industrial production process
Flow meters are one of the major categories of instruments and devices in process automation. They are widely used in various fields of the national economy, such as metallurgy, power, coal, chemical, petroleum, transportation, construction, textiles, food, medicine, agriculture, environmental protection, and people's daily lives. They are important tools for developing industrial and agricultural production, saving energy, improving product quality, enhancing economic efficiency and management level, and occupy an important position in the national economy. In process automation instruments and devices, flow meters have two main functions: as detection instruments for process automation control systems and as total quantity meters for measuring material quantities.
2、 Energy metering
Energy is divided into primary energy (coal, crude oil, coalbed methane, petroleum gas, and natural gas), secondary energy (electricity, coke, artificial gas, refined oil, liquefied petroleum gas, steam), and energy carrying working fluids (compressed air, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, water), etc. Energy metering is an important means of scientifically managing energy, achieving energy conservation and consumption reduction, and improving economic efficiency. Flow meters are an important component of energy metering instruments. Commonly used energy sources such as water, artificial gas, natural gas, steam, and oil all use an extremely large number of flow meters, which are tools for energy management and economic accounting.
3、 Environmental Protection Engineering
The discharge of smoke, waste liquid, sewage, etc. seriously pollutes the atmosphere and water resources, posing a serious threat to the human living environment. The country has made sustainable development a national policy, and environmental protection will be a major issue in the 21st century. To control air and water pollution, it is necessary to strengthen management, and the basis of management is quantitative control of pollution levels.
China is a country that relies mainly on coal as its energy source, with millions of chimneys continuously emitting smoke into the atmosphere. Smoke emission control is an important pollution project, and each chimney must be equipped with smoke analysis instruments and flow meters to form a continuous emission monitoring system. The flow rate and volume of flue gas pose significant challenges, including large and irregular chimney sizes, variable gas composition, wide flow velocity ranges, dirt, dust, corrosion, high temperatures, and the absence of straight pipe sections.
4、 Transportation and Communications
There are five ways: railway and highway, aviation, water transportation, and pipeline transportation. Although pipeline transportation has long existed, its application is not widespread. With the prominent environmental issues, the characteristics of pipeline transportation have attracted people's attention. Pipeline transportation must be equipped with flow meters, which are the eyes of control, distribution, and scheduling, as well as the tools for safety monitoring and economic accounting.