CN214815504U - Holder for flowmeter and flowmeter - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to a keep ware and flowmeter for flowmeter. According to the utility model discloses a holder includes hollow tubular part, and this tubular part includes: a first end, the first end being open; a first side portion that is flat and is for engaging a pipe outer wall of a flow meter; a second side disposed opposite the first side and having an opening disposed thereon that extends into communication with the first end. The holder can be easily fixed to the outer wall of the pipe, and the holder can ensure easy insertion and removal of the resistance temperature sensor fixed thereto in a small space.

Description

Holder for flowmeter and flowmeter

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a holder for a flowmeter, and more particularly to a holder for mounting a resistance temperature sensor (RTD). The utility model discloses still relate to the flowmeter including this holder.

Background

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.

Flow meters are widely used in industrial processes to meter fluid flowing through a pipe. When a flowmeter is used for measuring fluid in a pipeline, the temperature of the fluid in the pipeline needs to be measured to compensate the measured value, so that the final measured value is more accurate. At present, a commonly used method for measuring the temperature of fluid in a pipeline is to install a temperature sensor, particularly a resistance temperature sensor (RTD), outside the pipeline to measure the temperature of the fluid in the pipeline.

In order to measure the temperature of a fluid in a pipe at a specific location, it is necessary to fix an RTD on the outer wall of the pipe, and in particular, it is common to fix an RTD on the outer wall of the pipe between a support plate of a flow meter and a manifold. The method of fixing the RTD includes fixing with and without a holder.

When the RTD is not secured using the holder, the operator needs to secure the RTD with one hand while wrapping the adhesive tape with the other hand. This requires a large operating space in designing the flowmeter, and is disadvantageous for a compact design of the flowmeter. Therefore, there is now an increasing trend in the industry to use retainers to secure RTDs.

When using a retainer to secure an RTD, it is necessary to spot weld the retainer to the outer wall of the pipe first. The retainer includes a flattened front end portion and an elongated hollow rear end portion. For this reason, it also takes time to flatten the front end portion of the holder to be suitable for spot welding. If the tip end portion of the holder is not flattened, the welding torch is less likely to press the holder, and the tip end portion of the holder is more likely to be burned out. In addition, the holder lengths currently used are large, and if the space for mounting the holder, particularly the distance between the support piece and the manifold, for which the flow meter is designed is small, there is insufficient space for the RTD to be inserted into the holder. In addition, since the entrance at the end of the holder for inserting the RTD into the holder is small, the RTD coated with the resin glue is easily scratched by the entrance when being inserted into the holder, so that the resin glue cannot be completely wrapped on the RTD, resulting in inaccurate temperature measurement.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a holder for a flow meter, which can be easily fixed to an outer wall of a pipe and can ensure convenient insertion and removal of a temperature sensor, particularly a resistance temperature sensor (RTD), fixed in the holder in a small space.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a holder for a flow meter, the holder comprising a hollow tubular portion, the tubular portion comprising: a first end, the first end being open; a first side for engaging an outer wall of a pipe of a flow meter; a second side opposite the first side, an opening being provided on the second side, the opening extending to communicate with the first end.

Providing an opening at the second side may facilitate the protrusion of the welding head through the opening into the interior of the holder and enable the welding head to abut directly on the first side, thereby enabling easy spot welding of the holder to the pipe outer wall of the flowmeter.

Further, if the installation space of both ends of the tubular portion is narrow, the RTD may be restricted in that the installation space cannot be inserted into or pulled out from the holder. And the opening extending to one end of the tubular portion allows the RTD to be mounted from the opening instead of from the end of the tubular portion, thereby increasing the mounting space of the RTD and facilitating insertion and removal of the RTD.

Preferably, the first side is substantially flat, which not only facilitates manufacturing, but also enables the retainer to be stably placed on the outer wall of the conduit of the flow meter, thereby enabling stable spot welding.

Optionally, the tubular portion of the holder is flattened at a second end opposite the first end such that the second side extends obliquely at the second end towards the first side. In this case, the retainer of the present invention can be formed by cutting off a part of the material on the side of the original retainer having the second end portion flattened, thereby allowing the old type retainer to be used after simple processing, to save materials and reduce the cost.

Preferably, the tubular portion of the holder further comprises two radiused side walls between the first and second sides, such that the tubular portion of the holder is oblong in cross-section.

Preferably, the length of the holder is equal to the length of the RTD, so that the space occupied by the holder is minimized, thereby enabling the structure of the flowmeter to be designed as compact as possible; and a length of the opening is less than a length of the RTD such that the RTD can be at least partially received in the holder.

Preferably, the cross-sectional area of the hollow portion of the holder is larger than the cross-sectional area of the RTD, which makes it possible for the RTD to be completely wrapped with the resin gel.

Preferably, the width of the opening of the holder is larger than the width of the RTD, and the opening thus arranged is significantly increased in area compared with the inlet originally arranged at the end, so that the RTD wrapped with the resin glue is also easier to insert into the holder without being scraped off by a large amount of resin glue, thereby completely wrapping the RTD with the resin glue and improving the temperature measurement accuracy.

Optionally, the tubular portion of the holder further comprises two straight side walls between the first and second side portions, such that the holder is rectangular in cross-section.

Optionally, the opening is rectangular, trapezoidal or the side of the opening opposite the first end is curved.

The utility model also provides a flowmeter, keep ware as above including being located on the pipeline outer wall of flowmeter. An electrical resistance temperature sensor is held within the hollow tubular portion of the holder.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the retainer can have the following advantageous effects, in addition to being easily fixed to the outer wall of the pipe and ensuring convenient insertion and extraction of the RTD in a small space:

1. the original retainer can be processed to manufacture a new retainer, so that materials are saved, and the cost is reduced.

2. Can be stably arranged on the outer wall of the pipeline of the flowmeter, thereby being capable of stably carrying out spot welding.

3. The occupied space is small, and the structure is compact.

4. The temperature measurement precision is high.

Drawings

The above features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily understood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. The figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a portion of a flow meter having a retainer according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 1;

figure 4 is an enlarged view of the retainer portion of figure 2 according to the present invention;

fig. 5 is a perspective view of a retainer according to the present invention;

figure 6A is a top view of a holder with an RTD installed therein according to the present invention;

FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view taken along line C-C in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7 is an operational schematic of spot welding a retainer according to the present invention to an outer wall of a conduit of a flow meter;

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line D-D of FIG. 7;

figure 9 is an enlarged view of the retainer portion of figure 8 according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the operational steps for securing a retainer according to the present invention to the outer wall of a conduit of a flow meter; and

figure 11 is a block diagram of the operational steps for installing an RTD into a holder according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment with a holder 10 according to the invention mounted on a flow meter 1, fig. 2 and 3 being cross-sectional views along the line a-a and the line B-B in fig. 1, respectively. As can be seen from fig. 1 to 3, the flowmeter 1 comprises two pipes 101 and 102 arranged in parallel and having a substantially Ω -shape, with a common support plate 103 provided at both ends of the pipes 101 and 102 and a common manifold 104 connected thereto. In this embodiment, a retainer 10 according to the present invention is provided on the pipe 101, and the retainer 10 is fixed between the support sheet 103 and the manifold 104 by spot welding for retaining a temperature sensor, particularly a resistance temperature sensor RTD 20, which measures the fluid in the pipe.

Fig. 4 shows an enlarged view of the holder 10 according to the invention in fig. 2. Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of the holder 10 according to the invention in isolation. Fig. 6A shows a plan view of the holder 10 with the RTD 20 installed therein. Fig. 6B is a sectional view taken along line C-C in fig. 6A. With reference to fig. 4 to 6B, it can be clearly seen that the holder 10 has an elongated hollow tubular portion, the tubular portion of the holder 10 having a first flat side 11 and a second likewise flat side 12 opposite to the first side 11, the first and second sides 11 and 12 being connected by a preferably circular-arc-shaped side wall, so that the cross-section of the holder 10 is oblong, the holder being of a configuration suitable for being stamped and formed from a metal tube of circular cross-section. The holder 10 is open at a first end 15 and flattened at a second end 14 opposite the first end 15 such that the second side 12 extends obliquely towards the first side 11 to substantially close the second end 14. The holder 10 is provided with an opening 13 on the second side 12, which opening 13 extends in the length direction of the holder 10 to the end of the first end 15, communicating with the open first end 15. Fig. 6A shows that the opening 13 is rectangular, but it is not limited thereto, and the opening 13 may be other shapes, such as a trapezoidal shape gradually increasing toward the first end 15 in the length direction, or the side of the opening 13 near the second end 14 may be arc-shaped, and so on.

However, flattening the retainer 10 at the second end 14 is not required. One aspect of this design is that the RTD 20 may be initially secured at the second end 14 when the RTD 20 is inserted into the holder 10. As can be clearly seen in fig. 6B, after the RTD 20 is inserted into the holder 10, the end of the RTD 20 abuts the flattened second end 14 of the holder 10, thereby achieving the effect of initially fixing the RTD 20.

As can be seen in fig. 4, the first side 11 of the holder 10 is attached to the outside of the pipe 101, preferably by spot welding. The flat first side 11 not only facilitates manufacturing, but also enables the retainer 10 to be stably placed on the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flowmeter 1, thereby enabling stable spot welding.

It can also be seen in figure 4 that the cross-sectional area of the hollow portion of the holder 10 is larger than the cross-sectional area of the body portion 21 of the RTD 20, and in these spaces not filled by the RTD 20, the resin glue will be filled, thereby enabling the resin glue to completely wrap the RTD 20 and fix the position of the RTD 20 in the holder 10 when the resin glue sets.

As shown in fig. 3 and 6B, the RTD 20 has been mounted in the holder 10, and the RTD 20 includes a body portion 21 and a lead portion 22, wherein the entire length of the RTD 20, i.e., the total length of the body portion 21 and the lead portion 22, substantially corresponds to the length of the holder 10. The width of the opening 13 should be sufficient to allow the RTD 20 to be inserted into the holder 10 via the opening 13, in other words, the width of the opening 13 should be larger than the width of the body portion 21 of the RTD 20. So, not only can make RTD 20 insert the holder 10 through opening 13 easily, can also guarantee not scraped the resin glue of parcel RTD 20 by opening 13 when RTD 20 inserts to guarantee that the resin glue can wrap up RTD 20 completely, and then guarantee temperature measurement's accuracy. In addition, the length of the opening 10 should be greater than the length of the body portion 21 of the RTD 20, but less than the overall length of the RTD 20, so that the opening 10 can be configured to both facilitate insertion of the RTD 20 and to provide stable retention of the RTD 20 by the retainer 10 after insertion of the RTD 20.

Since the distance between the first end 15 of the holder 10 facing the manifold 104 and the manifold 104 is very small, it is easy for a person skilled in the art to find that it is difficult to insert the RTD into the holder via the inlet at the first end if an original holder without an opening is used. In contrast, since the embodiment of the present invention is provided with the opening 13 on the upper side of the holder 10, the operator can put the RTD 20 through the opening 13 and the open entrance of the first end 15 communicating with the opening 13, so that even if the space gap between the first end 15 of the holder 10 and the manifold 104 is small, the RTD 20 can be conveniently put into the holder 10. On the other hand, the provision of the opening 13 also facilitates welding of the holder 10 to the conduit of the flowmeter 1, as will be described in further detail below.

Fig. 7 shows an embodiment of spot welding a retainer 10 according to the present invention to the outer wall of a tube 101 of a flow meter 1; FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line D-D in FIG. 7; and figure 9 is an enlarged view of the retainer 10 according to the invention in figure 8.

As shown in fig. 7-9, the welding horn 30 of the resistance welder may enter the hollow portion of the holder 10 through the opening 13 and eventually abut against the inner wall of the first side portion 11 of the holder 10 to press and secure the holder 10 against the outer wall of the conduit 101 of the flow tube 1. In this case, applying an operating voltage to the weld head 30 causes the contact surface between the outer wall of the conduit 101 of the flow tube 1 and the first side 11 of the holder 10 to generate a large amount of heat under the influence of the current, due to the high electrical resistance at the contact surface, which causes the material at the contact surface to melt and solidify together, completing the spot weld. For this reason, it is no longer necessary to perform spot welding at the flattened second end portion 14, and therefore flattening of the second end portion 14 is also unnecessary, saving production steps.

The operation steps of fixing the holder 10 according to the present invention on the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flow meter 1 will be described below with reference to fig. 10.

In step 201, the retainer 10 is placed on the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flow meter 1 such that the first side 11 of the retainer 10 is in abutment with the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flow meter 1; thereafter, in step 202, the welding head 30 of the resistance spot welder is operated to pass through the opening 13 of the holder 10 and abut on the inner wall of the first side 11 of the holder 10, so that the outer wall of the first side 11 of the holder 10 is fixed against the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flowmeter 1; then, in step 203, an operating voltage is applied to the welding head 30, spot welding the holder 10 on the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flowmeter 1; finally, in step 204, solder is applied between the holder 10 and the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flowmeter 1, and the pipe is soldered in a soldering furnace.

According to the above method of the present invention, the welding head 30 of the resistance welding machine can be operated through the opening 13 due to the provision of the opening 13, thereby facilitating welding of the holder 10 to the outer wall of the pipe 101 of the flowmeter 1 even in a narrow space.

The operation steps of installing the RTD 20 into the holder 10 according to the present invention will be described below with reference to fig. 11.

In step 301, the RTD 20 is first wrapped with a resin adhesive; in the following step 302, the RTD 20 wrapped with the resin adhesive is inserted into the holder 10 through the opening 13 and the open end (the first end 15 in the present embodiment) of the holder 10 communicating with the opening 13; thereafter in step 303, the RTD 20 is translated along the length of the holder 10 until abutting the flattened second end 14 of the holder 10 to position the RTD 20; finally, the resin gel surrounding the RTD 20 is cured in step 304, thereby installing the RTD 20 into the holder 10.

According to the above-mentioned method of the utility model, because RTD 20 is put into through the combination of opening 13 and the open end of the up end of holder 10, compare with the scheme that only put into the RTD through the open end of holder among the prior art, even also can carry out convenient operation in narrow and small space, simultaneously putting into RTD 20 in-process, also can not scrape too much and fall the resin glue around the parcel RTD 20 to can improve follow-up RTD 20's steadiness and measured temperature's accuracy nature.

Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise embodiments herein described and illustrated, and that other modifications and variations may be effected by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the holder is not limited to having an oblong cross section, but may have a rectangular cross section, or the like; all such variations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, all the components described herein may be replaced by other technically equivalent components.

Claims (10)

1. A holder for a flow meter, the holder comprising a hollow tubular portion, the tubular portion comprising:

a first end, the first end being open;

a first side for engaging an outer wall of a conduit of the flow meter;

a second side opposite the first side, an opening being provided on the second side, the opening extending to communicate with the first end.

2. The retainer of claim 1, wherein the tubular portion of the retainer is flattened at a second end opposite the first end such that the second side extends obliquely at the second end toward the first side.

3. The holder according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the tubular portion of the holder further comprises two radiused side walls between the first and second sides, such that the tubular portion of the holder is oblong in cross-section.

4. The holder of claim 1, wherein the hollow tubular portion of the holder is configured to hold a resistive temperature sensor, the holder having a length equal to a length of the resistive temperature sensor, and the opening having a length less than the length of the resistive temperature sensor.

5. The holder of claim 4, wherein the hollow tubular portion of the holder has a cross-sectional area greater than a cross-sectional area of the resistive temperature sensor.

6. The holder of claim 4 or 5, wherein the width of the opening of the holder is greater than the width of the resistive temperature sensor.

7. The holder according to claim 1, wherein the tubular portion of the holder further comprises two straight side walls between the first and second sides such that the tubular portion of the holder is rectangular in cross-section.

8. The retainer of claim 1, wherein the opening is rectangular, trapezoidal, or has an arc shape on a side of the opening opposite the first end.

9. A flow meter, characterized in that it comprises a holder according to any of claims 1-8 on the outer wall of the conduit of the flow meter.

10. The flowmeter of claim 9, including a resistive temperature sensor located within the hollow tubular portion of said holder.

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