Does anyone have any positive or negative feedback on Ultrasonic Flow meters on hydraulic systems. Especially in high vibration areas?

Thanks

I looked at using Ultra-Sonic Flow Meters in the past. They looked like a great and simple way to test flow in a Non-Invasive way.

However, when I got the literature from different companies they all said that Clean Fluids such as Hydraulic Oil, (at least it should not have particles larger than 10 Microns for typical Bang-Bang circuits and no larger tha 5 Microns for Servo nd Proportional circuits)have nothing to bounce the pulses off of so the velocity can be figured. They suggested the possibility of injecting Air Bubbles into the flow stream and bouncing the signals off of the bubbles to get the velocity of te flow. Then they had charts mde up to relate the Velocity to Flow for different Conduit I.D.

Did'nt sound like a real workable idea for a Hydraulic Circuit and if you could make it work it would not be any easier than breaking the plumbing and installin an Inline Flow Meter. Possibly workable on a new system that had input ports pre-installed and some high pressure Air Tanks to inject the air into pressure circuts. Still not a real good situation for hydraulics thatwork best when devoid of contamination even when it's air.

I was all fired up about the possibility since a lot of Trouble Shooting situations are related to Flow and no one has Flow Meters in a circuit since they add cost and if they are constantly in the flow stream the ones I am familiar with don't last long enough to check the first system failure.

I have proposed using a pair of 3-Way Ball Valves in critical lines. If they had Flange Ports you coud install a Flow Meter off to the side and only use it when Trouble Shooting. So far no one has wanted to spend te money to do that type installation. At least not until the first circuit failure that takes tw0 or three days to diagnose.

Someday, Maybe??????


My th