Between orifice plate flowmeters and other types of flowmeters, which one would you design or use?
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Since the inception of custom design, orifice plate flowmeters have been rarely chosen. The main reasons are: (1) The cost of orifice plate flowmeters is not lower than that of other flowmeters； (2) Calculating with orifice plate flow meters is complicated (to be honest, one could say it’s impossible) ； (3) The most significant issue is that installation and maintenance are quite troublesome. For example, aligning the orifice plate is easy for small-diameter pipes, but it’s quite difficult for large-diameter ones (some special short sections are designed specifically for flow meters). (4) Instruments are developing rapidly these days, and there are already many flowmeters that can replace orifice plate flowmeters; it seems that orifice plate flowmeters are gradually falling out of use. So personally, my habit is to avoid using orifice plate flow meters whenever possible, haha. The above are merely personal opinions; I hope to share experiences and views with everyone.
Yeah, I think so too. Instruments are developing very rapidly these days; there’s basically nothing left that needs to be repaired. I feel it’s better to develop in a broader direction rather than in a more focused one
The original poster is right; the orifice plate has another fatal drawback, which is its relatively high pressure loss, resulting in energy waste. Personally, I think orifice plates still have a market; they are useful in applications such as high temperature and high pressure scenarios, as well as in integrated orifice plate systems. It’s too early to speak of eliminating them.
Orifice plate flowmeters belong to the category of classic flowmeters, and they still hold a significant market share. However, due to their high throttling effect and the need for frequent maintenance, fewer people seem to use them these days; we now use vortex flowmeters to replace many orifice plate flowmeters.
In our company, mass flow meters are mostly used in systems with complex controls (sequential control, batch processing, interlock systems). Orifice plates are used in both ordinary single-loop and cascade loops! And they constitute a large quantity. This trend continues in our new projects as well. Personally, I think it still has a certain market. Moreover, its measurement method is quite classical.
Agreed. In comparison, the orifice plate is the true “standard” flow meter
The choice of flow meter type depends on the properties of the medium, operating conditions, and site requirements. How is it possible that one of them has to be an orifice plate? This is the basic knowledge for working in design. According to the original poster, choosing between an orifice plate flow meter and all other flow meters is nothing but a notion and approach that ignores the actual circumstances.
The tone of this post is to undermine the effectiveness of using orifice plates! I personally disagree.
Hehe, to illustrate my point with an example: when measuring steam with a diameter of 300 or less, if I had to choose between vortex flow meters and orifice plates, I would go for the vortex flow meter. What I said might be a bit one-sided, so I’m sharing it here for everyone to criticize; it will also allow us to learn a lot from it.
In some environments, insert-type flow meters can be considered; these types of flow meters have low pressure loss, are easy to maintain, and the key advantage is that they can be repaired while the system is still in operation
Orifice plates are not so easy to replace; in some production processes, only they can be used~~~