changes What’s driving the process industry

Autonomous measuring

Not everywhere in the world has access to a power grid when there is a need to measure how much water is flowing through a pipeline. For such situations Endress+Hauser has developed the battery-powered Promag W 800 flowmeter, for autonomous operation even at inaccessible locations.

Text: Richard Backhaus
Grafic: 3st
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Whether for humans, our fellow animals or plants:

There is no life without water. In order to reach the consumer, this precious substance must sometimes travel great distances through long pipelines and be accurately monitored and measured. But the more remote corners of our planet in particular often lack the external power sources that the measurement instruments need to do their job, not to mention cables for transmitting the measurement values.

Added to that is the challenge of transmitting those measurement values over long distances. “We developed a completely wireless measurement instrument specifically for these application scenarios,” explains Matthias Reist, product manager at Endress+Hauser. “Thanks to the battery, the Promag W 800 enables flexible and autonomous operation even in off-grid locations, because it requires no external power source and has a maintenance-free service life of up to 15 years.”

In order to reliably transmit the measurement data, and conversely receive other data, the instrument also features an integrated mobile communications module. “This gives the water provider remote access to the measurement values from anywhere in the world, regardless of how distant the measuring point is from the control center,” reports Matthias Reist.

Despite a high degree of technical sophistication, the developers were able to keep the dimensions of the entire system, including the electronics, battery, data logger and wireless module, extremely compact. That means the electromagnetic instrument can also be easily integrated where space is scarce, such as in distribution networks with large numbers of densely packed pipelines.

Key data from the Promag W 800 stands to play a major role in future: according to projections by the United Nations, irrigation demand in agriculture alone will grow 50 percent by the year 2050. So the capability to precisely monitor and calculate consumption of drinking and process water will be increasingly important. With measurement instruments such as the Promag W 800, Endress+Hauser is supporting the creation of active water management systems around the world for monitoring and controlling the distribution of this valuable commodity.

Heart

Comprehensive diagnostics
Endress+Hauser Heartbeat technology handles diagnosis, monitoring and verification of the Promag W 800. This facilitates legally required test functions, continuous self-diagnostics and instrument verification without interrupting the process.

Handy

Operation
With the SmartBlue app for smartphones and tablets, all communication parameters are preconfigured so that users can commission the instrument via plug-and-play.

Lock

Data security
End-to-end encryption in accordance with current technical standards protects the Promag W 800 data during transmission and cloud storage, so providing safeguards against data manipulation.

Puzzel

Simple integration
The data connection is adaptable to individual application scenarios. Customers can choose between an instrument without data transmission, a solution for integration with their existing communications infrastructure or connectivity to the Netilion cloud from Endress+Hauser.

Akku

Long service life
Smart electronics adapt the measurement interval and data transmission as needed. When flow rates fluctuate, the system measures more frequently and immediately notifies the control center when threshold values are exceeded.

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