Atrato high-accuracy, low-cost ultrasonic flowmeter

With accurate and cost-effective flow measurement becoming increasingly important to many industries, Titan Enterprises has developed this product with Cranfield University. The Atrato is capable of monitoring flows over a range of 200:1 and has an accuracy better than +/-1.5 per cent. Equally impressive, however, is its simple design and USB interface that together make it very easy to install and use.

Titan's Atrato uses the time-of-flight measurement principle in which a signal is passed along the pipe with the flow and back up the pipe against the flow, the difference in these signals indicating the flow rate. Until now, this technology has been deemed expensive and sometimes inaccurate; however, Titan's founder, Trevor Forster, believes the Atrato's fully symmetrical, concentric signals, coupled with the ability to achieve desired timing accuracies, will make it a new market leader. Furthermore, flow readings are largely independent of viscosity.

USB interface

The Atrato is aimed at a wide customer base, including industrial engineering, plant operators, medical equipment supply, drink dispensing, and laboratory instrumentation. According to Forster, one of the unique aspects of the Atrato is the computer interface: "The USB connection permits the user to monitor the rate and total on their laptop in addition to operating parameters such as the pulse resolution units. At a later date, data logging and operation statistics will also be possible."

Having championed the technology, Forster states: "Fundamentally, my position is that the future of flow measurement is going to be ultrasonic or Coriolis. They are the only two long-term viable technologies because they are not intrusive.

"I am delighted, after designing flowmeters for around 40 years, to launch the Atrato, which I believe is a true contender in challenging conventional flow meter thinking, the world over!

"We have a successful business selling well over 250,000 flowmeters and I have an experienced team of staff and family behind me. I think it is our integrity and problem-solving approach which has led us to a 95 per cent repeat business rate and customers in over 40 countries."

Professor Mike Sanderson, Emeritus Professor of Fluid Instrumentation at Cranfield University, adds: "The Atrato's unique clean-bore construction makes it ideal for hygienic applications. The use of low-frequency ultrasound and advanced signal processing to interrogate the flow ensures that the flowmeter provides high accuracy over a wide turndown range. In addition, the technology developed for the Atrato has the flexibility to provide the basis of a family of flowmeters suitable for an even wider range of flows and applications."

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