[labnetwork] Flow Meters and/or Flow Computers for tracking distributed nitrogen usage?

[Morrison, Richard H., Jr.]

Hi,

At Draper we have totalizer flow meters at all the main lines going into
the lab spaces, it cost us about $15K per installation point. We then
charge the labs for the amount of gas they use. We do have issues with
the totalizer units not working, it requires local reset. Overall the
system has been in place for 2 years and is working ok. We worked
through our N2 supplier to find the companies that sell the products, it
is very vanilla flavor instruments.

The install must be done by a good process piping company, you do not
want to contaminate the N2 lines. The entire system cost us around $50K
so it is expensive. When you see the amount of N2 you use it makes you
conserve whenever possible. We spent around $10K on a firm to come in
and find leaks, it was not really worth the effort. Big culprits are dry
boxes, fittings inside wet benches, glove boxes and purge lines.

Rick


Rick Morrison
Senior Member Technical  Staff 
Acting Group Leader Mems Fabrication
Draper Laboratory
555 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA  02139

617-258-3420



-----Original Message-----
From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu
[mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of John Shott
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 4:52 PM
To: Labnetwork
Subject: [labnetwork] Flow Meters and/or Flow Computers for tracking
distributed nitrogen usage?

Labnetwork:

Like many facilities, I suspect, we have a single LN2 tank that is used 
for delivery of gaseous nitrogen to the entire building.  While our 
shared laboratory is undoubtedly the largest user of that nitrogen, 
there are also a number of private labs in the building that consume 
nitrogen.  Because they do not pay for it, however, they have little 
incentive to conserve nitrogen.  Additionally, because we don't have 
great metering of our own nitrogen usage, we probably use more than we 
should in our facility.

Do any of you have experience with either totalizing flow meters and/or 
flow computers that can be used for tracking nitrogen flow and usage at 
15 or 20 distributed points that end up communicating to a central data 
collection point?

Any experience with systems of this type would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John




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