One of the oldest vendor companies in the entire automation space is the venerable Ashcroft Inc. "Over 150 years ago, Edward Ashcroft saw the need for safer, more sophisticated pressure and temperature instruments for use in the emerging steam industry. In response, he introduced a then-revolutionary new Bourdon tube pressure gauge. The rest is history," says the entry for Ashcroft Inc. on LinkedIn.
Times change, and companies change with them, or they die. Ashcroft has changed a lot, and now they've introduced a differential pressure transducer with the features that allow it to become a differential pressure flow transmitter.
From the release:
Differential Pressure Transmitter Adds Flow Measurement Capability
The Ashcroft(r) GC52 wet-wet differential pressure transmitter now
includes features that allow the instrument to provide direct flow
readings by measuring dp across a restriction. Simple push-button
settings let the user program the correlation between pressure and flow
rate while the on-board square root extraction calculation accurately
yields a representative flow measurement. In addition, a flow
totalization counter can be activated to display the accumulated volume
of passed fluid.
Unlike many releases, this one is short, sweet, and to the point. And just like Ashcroft, Heise, Weksler and Willy gauges and instruments before them, this product will very likely "work good and last a long time." After over 150 years, it is probable that Ashcroft gets it right.
