Asset Management Solution

Asset Management 

According to a study by Grand View Research, the Global Plastics Market is expected to reach USD 654.38 billion by 2020. The plastics sector is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States. As the industry continues to substantially grow, monitoring this valuable commodity becomes essential.


Problem: A top flooring manufacturer who purchases plastic resin from one of the nation’s largest plastic distributors needed help monitoring and electronically accessing their material. Their current method of level measurement was climbing to the top of the silo and manually verifying the level measurement. They also needed a way to contact the plastics distributor and have them deliver material on time in order to avoid shutting down production.

Solution: FLO-CORP provided a solution that would measure the accuracy of their material, display the level in both silos, and communicate wirelessly to their network server. Now purchasing, accounting, and operations are all able to view the tank levels, data logged events, and receive alarms all from the convenience of their PC. One of the most important things FLO-CORP’s solution provided was the ability to send out an email alert to the plastics distributor when the tank was getting low. The plastics distributor would then send a truck to fill the silo back up and costly downtime is avoided.  Learn More...

FLO-CORP's New Connex 3D™

FLO-CORP's New Connex 3D™ Wireless Cellular Monitoring System Will Revolutionize The Inventory Asset Management Industry

FLO-CORP, a leading U.S. manufacturer of flow, level, and monitoring instrumentation, announces the release of the CONNEX 3D™, a wireless cellular monitoring system that increases plant safety, protects inventory assets, and expands worker efficiency.

INTRODUCTION 
In process industries, such as oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, energy, and agriculture, asset management is critical, essential, and mandatory. With EPA and government regulations on the rise, it is imperative to implement reliable technology to monitor and manage valuable commodities and inventory assets.  Learn More...

Keeping Things Simple

Over the past 27 years of providing personalized, quality flow & level monitoring and control solutions to our customers, FLO-CORP has demonstrated that keeping things simple in complex environments has its advantages. A few years ago we had a customer with a challenging flow metering application and they came to FLO-CORP to help solve the problem.

PROBLEM: The company needed a flow meter to measure industrial coolants in a piping system that had little to no straight run of piping. They needed to measure the ethylene glycol coolant at very low flows to relatively high flows in a 3/4” piping system with a high degree of accuracy. Because the metering locations were not always readily accessible, the flow meter had to be extremely reliable without requiring regular maintenance.

SOLUTION: The FLO-CORP solution was to provide our MEMFlo™ MFTV Volumetric Flow Meter and Flow Transmitter. The MEMFlo flow meter requires no straight run of pipe, measures accurate flow rates over large flow ranges and as an added benefit, has required NO maintenance since it has been in their application (over 4 years). Plus, FLO-CORP expects the flow meter to be maintenance free for several more years. The secret to the success of the FLO-CORP MEMFlo flow meter is the simplicity of design and quality of craftsmanship, which are two manufacturing characteristics that seem to have been lost in the general flow metering world. No spring wheels, no fancy electrical coils or generating vortices, just time proven physics and attention to detail.

Industry Terminology 

FLO-CORP has compiled and written definitions for several industry terms. This list is designed to be a glossary that helps you better understand the elements of our industries. Process instrumentation is used in an extremely wide range of applications anywhere measurements are needed for media that flows or is stored in a container or tank. Many of these terms will help you understand the technologies used in such measurements.

Accuracy – The accuracy of a flow meter gives the maximum plus or minus deviation between the meter’s indication and the true value of the flow rate, or in the flow total. It is the interval within which the true value of a measured quantity can be expected to be in with a stated probability. Accuracy may also be referred to as uncertainty. Accuracy include the combined errors due to linearity, hysteresis, and repeatability. Accuracy can be stated as a percent of span or full scale, as a percent of rate, or as a percent of upper range value or upper limit value. it is important to understand the differences between the stated value. 

Back Pressure – A reference to pressure as opposed to the desired flow of gases in a given pipe diameter. It is any condition where the pressure in a system becomes greater than the supply pressure. Back pressure is caused by obstructions in the pipe, pipe direction or orientation, pipe surfaces and pipe types as well as tight bends. Because of air resistance, friction between molecules, the term Back Pressure is misleading as the pressure remains and causes flow in the same direction, but the flow is reduced due to resistance. Back Pressure is often confused with Pressure Drop. Back Pressure can contributes to the release of vapor from liquid and are a function of head loss in liquid flow piping systems. This condition is often referred to as Cavitation.

Cavitation – If a liquid enters a flow meter at a pressure near its vapor pressure, the pressure reduction in the meter can cause the liquid to flash partly to a gas. If, with pressure recovery, the gas pressure rises back above the vapor pressure, the bas bubbles will implode, causing cavitation to occur. Plashing and vaccination can destroy many piping systems and many types of flow meters.

Density – The property of a fluid expressed as weight or mass per unit volume. Liquid density is generally a function of temperature. Gas and vapor density varies with changes in temperature and pressure. As an example, water has a density of 62.34 lbs. per cubic foot at 60º F. And a density of 60.13 lbs. per cubic foot at 200º F. 

Learn More...

Monitoring Cooking Oil

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the consumption of vegetable oil worldwide is around 175 million metric tons per year. Vegetable oil is used in a wide variety of applications but one of the common uses is in the food industry. A large quantity of used vegetable oil is produced and recycled around the world. With so many EPA and FDA standards in place the food and beverage industry needs to have accurate, reliable measurement readings. We’ve recently had a fried food manufacturer come to FLO-CORP to help solve their problem.

PROBLEM: The fried food manufacturer was using an older ultrasonic level system to monitor their cooking oil. The old system was not giving them accurate or reliable readings. Typically ultrasonic level transmitters don’t provide an accurate reading with factors such as foam, heavy vapors or surface turbulence since they can affect the returning signal. The company needed a solution quickly so they turned to FLO-CORP for assistance.

SOLUTION: FLO-CORP provided the AccuTank™ Cooking Oil Management System. The system features a Guided Wave Radar (GWR) level transmitter instead of an Ultrasonic Transmitter. We recommended our Tracer 1000™ GWR Level Transmitter because it is extremely accurate and performs well in challenging applications such as boiling surfaces, foam and vapor. The AccuTank System can schedule the reorder of new cooking oil, notify the manager to filter fryer oil, prevent tank theft, schedule a pickup of used cooking oil and tank overflow prevention. The system ships pre-calibrated for easy installation and extreme precision. The customer is very pleased with the AccuTank Cooking Oil System and is planning to implement the system throughout all of their plants.

Advantages of Using Flow Meters to Reduce Pressure Drop

ADVANTAGES OF USING FLOW METERS TO REDUCE PRESSURE DROP

INTRODUCTION

Plant operators rely on plant air pressures to maintain properly working equipment and systems. One of the most common problems affecting processing plants that utilize compressed air systems is the ability to maintain reliable air pressure throughout the distribution system. Insufficient air pressures may be due to undersized distribution piping, but it’s more commonly found that the cause is flow restrictions in the distribution system such as filters, check valves, and fittings, as well as flow meters and gauges. Leaks in the distribution system actually rank low as the common cause of “pressure drop”. Pressure drop is the loss or reduction of pressure from the compressor discharge to the actual point of use. The system will appear like there is a lack of air pressure but the real problem is pressure drop, which will cause excessive energy consumption. This white paper will explain the causes of pressure drop, a variety of solutions and ultimately how to eliminate costly downtime.

Challenge: Unfortunately, the solution is not as easy as just cranking up the air pressure at the delivery point, as this will cause other issues such as leaks, excessive component wear and maintenance. Every 1 PSI of excess operating pressure increases air compressor power consumption by around 0.5 percent. As can be seen from the pressure drop formula in figure 1, increasing the system pressure will actually increase the pressure drop. Unregulated equipment on the system will increase demand and increase inefficiency of the system.

Solution: Proper Equipment

Minimizing pressure drop can be obtained by selecting equipment such as air treatment equipment, filters, dryers, flow metering and instrumentation with the lowest amount of pressure drop. Additional ways to decrease pressure drop would be to maintain air filtering and air treatment to reduce moisture that can create corrosion and increase friction on the piping system. Also, reduce the distance the air travels through the distribution system so as to create the shortest runs possible to reduce loss. Select the correct pipe sizes and pipe material with the effort to stay away from hoses or corrugated products that will reduce pressure. Sizing pipe is critical for efficiency with the goal of keeping air velocities in the distribution header less than 20 to 30 ft./sec. Increased velocities will increase pressure drop. Learn More...

FLO-CORP Launches New Logo and Website

FLO-CORP (Flow Line Options Corporation), a leading manufacturer and supplier of flow, level and monitoring instrumentation, has announced the release of their refreshed logo, and completely redesigned website, www.FLO-CORP.com . Their new site features fresh content, product and application filtering tools, and a request-a-quote cart.

Dave Grumney, President of FLO-CORP, says the decision to update the company brand was necessary in order to increase visibility in the process measurement market. Grumney added that,

“FLO-CORP invested time and resources to develop a new website that is cleaner, easier to use, and provides process solutions for both flow and level applications. The website provides a complete, advanced catalog of monitoring, flow metering, and tank level products offered by FLO-CORP.”

The company’s new website offers a simplistic, intuitive, and user-friendly design while guiding users to quickly and easily find what they are looking for. FLO-CORP’s inspiration for their rebranding efforts comes from their customers. Ellen Nichols, marketing manager at FLO-CORP said, “Our customers are everything to us. We listen to their feedback and requests, then mold our products and sales tools to better serve them.” As the market continues to evolve and expand, FLO-CORP will continue to make the appropriate changes necessary to best serve their customers.  Learn More...

2017, The Year of "New"

New website, logo, and company name

There have been so many NEW things happening at FLO-CORP in 2017 and we wanted to share it with you. At the beginning of 2017 we changed our company name from Flow Line Options Corp. to FLO-CORP. It has been our acronym for many years and people recognized us as "FLO-CORP", so we decided it would be beneficial for all. In spring we completed a company rebrand, with a refreshed logo and completely new website. The logo is fresh, clean, and updated. The website is user friendly, mobile friendly, sleek, and intuitive. Just when you thought we could do any more "new" things...In summer we relocated our corporate headquarters to a larger facility in Medina, OH. New website, new logo, new tagline, new company name, new mailing address, new physical address, new products. Needless to say, 2017 has been the year of "new" for FLO-CORP. We're excited to see what Fall brings!

Agriculture Tank Monitoring Solution

Success Story

There are over 1 billion people who work in the agriculture industry worldwide generating 2.4 trillion dollars, according to the American Economic Association. As this industry continues to rapidly grow, it is imperative to increase efficiency, standardize cost-saving methods, and utilize low-risk reliable equipment.

PROBLEM: An agriculture and environmental services company was driving over 5 hours a day to customer sites to check the tank level measurement of flowable sludge material. The customer didn't know what their tank levels were and the tanks would empty and fill so fast it was easy for overflows to occur.

SOLUTION: We mounted an ultrasonic level transmitter onto the tank to accurately read the level measurement. We wired the level transmitter to our cellular monitor to take remote readings and transmit them to our web portal. The customer was then able to remotely monitor the tanks from anywhere in the world at any time - a valuable, time-saving system they cannot live without.

De-icing Aircraft Solution

Success Story

As the winter quickly approaches, airports are getting their deicing equipment ready for another season of snow, frost and ice. It is extremely important that aircrafts are completely free of snow and ice build up for many safety reasons. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates each airline's deicing policies and procedures.

PROBLEM: A specialty chemical company signed a contract with the FAA to supply deicing fluid to the nation's airports. Since the product is highly regulated with many compliance issues, the chemical company needed to automate their process and find a reliable, accurate system.

SOLUTION: FLO-CORP provided a solution to fully automate their blending process using advanced level monitoring, flow and controls. There are multiple fluids and gases that are used to make the deicing material. Since we manufacture level transmitters and liquid & gas flow meters we were able to create a high quality, complete system. They are implementing the system throughout the airports nationwide.