Design and construction of a novel Coriolis mass flow rate meter

The Coriolis principle for measuring flow rates has great advantages compared to other flow measurement principles, the most important being that mass flow is measured directly. Up to now the measurement of low flow rates posed a great challenge. In a joint research project, the University of Twente and mechatronics company DEMCON worked on the mechatronic design and construction of a novel Coriolis mass flow meter for low flow rates. Innovations included shape and fixation of the meter tube, contactless (pure torque) actuation of the tube oscillation and contactless sensing of Coriolis force-induced displacements. As a result, the accuracy of the mini Coriolis is ten times better than that of existing, commercially available Coriolis mass flow rate meters. The resulting instrument is being produced and sold via Bronkhorst Cori-Tech.