Waukee Engineering, a member of United Process Controls, received an order for its Flo-Tronic Plus™ flow meters from Charter Steel, a leading U.S. supplier of carbon and alloy steel wire products. As part of the Charter Steel’s initiative to reduce maintenance costs, Waukee outfitted 10 furnaces with Flo-Tronic Plus flow meters and implemented a more cost-effective maintenance schedule that reduced maintenance time by 96%. The new flow meters are relatively low maintenance owing to the innovative magnetic flow-sensing technology that provides immunity to dirty oil and only requires biannual service.
The existing variable-area flow meters used on the super-sized batch furnaces were subject to loss of signal accuracy due to process fouling. Significant maintenance was required to restore signal accuracy and reliability. Shop operators would flush the sight-glass tube and replace the contaminated fluid weekly.