Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Pressure sensors are made for corrosive fluids

Measuring aggressive media directly can lead to a short life for sensors if they have not been designed and tested for use with a corrosive fluid. The Grundfos direct sensors range of pressure sensors have been developed for long lasting service on boilers, heating and other water management systems. The Grundfos range includes a RPS gauge reference pressure sensor and a DPS differential pressure sensor for 0.6, 1, 1.6, 2.5, 4, 6 and 10bar system pressures.

The sensor technology is based around an exposed silicon chip diaphragm with a diffused piezoresistive strain gauge bridge which is coated with a thin film diffusion process with a metal glass alloy.

This corrosion resistant coating is one of the key components in producing a low cost and accurate pressure sensor that can tolerate aqueous liquids with a pH ranging from 2 to 11 over a temperature from 0 to 100C.

The RPS and DPS pressure transducer both include a temperature sensor which is located on the silicon chip in direct contact with the media for optimum thermal contact and response.

The uncompensated signals from the pressure and temperature sensors are fed into a microprocessor where algorithms compensate using coefficients obtained from calibration data the incoming signal and convert it to a 0.5 to 3.5V analogue output.

The accuracy achieved after compensation is 2% for the pressure signal over +20 to +80C and 1C for the temperature sensor.

The RPS and DPS water pressure sensors are packaged in an IP44 composite housing and can be either integrated into an OEM design or incorporated by a system integrator when supplied with the installation kit.

The Grundfos RPS and DPS liquid pressure sensor combines corrosion resistance, accuracy and affordability with an innovative and patented sensing technology to reduce costs on industrial water systems and introduce more control in domestic heating installations.