Wow! It’s one new thing after another…

Most of our calibrators use replaceable and convenient Alkaline batteries either AA or 9V types. They’re readily available in all markets. But, for reasons of economy or ecology, some people prefer rechargeable batteries. We’ve sold these as an option for everything we make.

NiMH Battery Kit

Now, we have a new purpose designed and made battery pack for the BetaGauge 330 Pressure Calibrator. Because of its built-in electric pump, the 330 uses (8) AA cells. Previously, to use rechargeable batteries, you had to take out all 8 cells, put them in one or more chargers and then reinstall them. That’s a bit user unfriendly. Being the smart and friendly people we are, we decided to create a sealed battery pack with external charger to make this quick and easy.

Our new battery pack also offers a bit better performance with a total of 2.7 Ah available energy against 2.0 Ah from the Alkaline cells. Since the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries have a lower internal resistance than Alkalines, they are able to squeeze more out of each charge, too.

A fully depleted pack can be recharged in about 2 hours and can be expected to provide up to 400 complete pump cycles from 0 to 150 PSI.

The charger is a universal type (100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz input) that comes with a set of snap in adapters for use with any type of mains connection outlet.

BetaGauge330

In June, we started shipping the BetaGauge 330 with available absolute pressure internal sensors. The 330 is now available with a 30 PSIA (2 barA) or a 150 PSIA (10 barA) internal sensor.

The new ranges offer the same ±0.025% of full scale accuracy (6 month specification) as the previously offered gauge ranges (30, 150 & 300 PSI).

Some of the other useful features of the 330 are

• built-in loop calibrator (input and output
• large multi-variable display
• 24 VDC instrument power supply
• automatic pressure switch test
• available gas custody meter calibration kit
• 17 engineering unit displays
• external pressure module compatible

For a surprisingly low cost in a surprisingly small and lightweight package, the BetaGauge 330 has a lot to offer.

We have updated the very popular and powerful BetaGauge 311 and BetaGauge 321 Advanced Pressure Calibrators. The new models are the single range BetaGauge 311A and dual range BetaGauge 321A. What we didn’t change are the great performance and ease of use we already had.

Here are the new features:

• Super rugged “Power-Tool-Tough” housing. We’re using the same plastic used in high end cordless drills and the like to make the BetaGauge 311A/321A virtually indestructible.
• Custom engineering units. If you don’t like any of the 19 built-in engineering units, you can configure up to 2 additional units. If you give us the factor information and unit name at the time of order, we’ll even put it in for you at no extra cost.
• Enhanced measurement stability. We updated the circuit design on the pressure sensors with our latest technology to provide better all around performance over a wide range of temperatures and with less long term drift.
• User selectable resolution. Sometimes, there’s too much resolution for the intended application. Those extra digits can make the job harder not better. So, you can reduce the displayed resolution by a single digit in any application.
• More compatible ranges. With 29 possible ranges, we let the user choose what’s right for them. Now, we’ve made the ranges more compatible with long time industry practice by providing compound measurement on most ranges below 500 PSI (35 Bar).

See our web site for more details. The new calibrators are available NOW!

At the upcoming ISA EXPO 2009 in Houston, Texas, we’re introducing a new software package for data logging on the BetaGauge PI or BetaGauge PIR digital test gauges. The dates for the EXPO are October 6 through 8. Our booth number is 2316. Come see us.

BetaGauge PI Reference Class with MECP500 Pump

Our customers already know how rugged, reliable and useful these gauges are. Now, they’re even more useful. Detailed information about the software and its capabilities can be found here.

Here are some highlights:

 • Ability to log both pressure and ambient temperature (UNIQUE).
 • Up to 8500 data points logged.
 • Data stored in industry standard spread sheet formats (CSV or Excel).
 • Multiple log runs stored in gauge
 • Demand (ad hoc) or Download (computer) configured log runs

Applications supported include:

 • Hydrostatic pressure testing
 • Leak detection
 • Transient pressure spike detection
 • Well head monitoring

You can ask your local Martel Distributor for a quote.

Sometimes our customers actually have problems with our products. When they do, they need help fast. We take pride in our level of customer service in that we apply the resources needed to deal with an issue promptly. Here’s another unsolicited response from a now happy customer.

“Thanks for the speedy assistance.  I don’t usually see that kind of response to a problem.” – Mike

And here’s another,

“We normally get great service from Martel and that’s what keep’s us coming back.” – Dan

Not only is our response fast, but we also have lots of field tested applications experience that we can apply to helping our customers make the best use of their Martel BETA calibrators.

We think it’s important that our customer service starts with whoever answers the phone and extends all the way to our president. Our goal is to have no unhappy customers, so be sure to throw those problems our way. We’ll do our best.

Do you need to know more or wish you knew more about flowmeters?

Our friends at OMEGA Engineering have an excellent on-line tutorial in their Transactions material. I think you can also request this in hard copy from them.

The tutorial starts out with some interesting history about the development of flowmeters. I’ll bet you didn’t know that the earliest flowmeters are from around 5,000 BCE!

The material is technical enough to be of interest, but doesn’t really require much beyond algebra and a little knowledge of physics to be understandable.

The topics cover differential pressure type flowmeters, mechanical (positive displacement) flowmeters, various electronic flowmeters including magnetic flowmeters, vortex meters and ultrasonic flowmeters. There’s also a section on mass flow measurement using coriolis and thermal flowmeters.

It’s worth a look. You can find it here.

Many people don’t realize that we make a custody transfer flowmeter calibration kit for the BetaGauge 330-30. This adds a high range pressure module and LTP100A RTD probe to the standard calibrator.

The integral pump and internal sensor are used for the differential calibration portion of the flowmeter. A high pressure external sensor is used for the static portion, and, of course, the RTD provides the data for the temperature compensation calibration of the flowmeter.

Q. Can the BetaGauge 330 be field recalibrated?

A. Yes. The BetaGauge 330 is calibrated through the serial port like many Martel calibrators. Other than a computer with a terminal emulation program (we normally recommend HyperTerminal), a LEM232 serial communications cable is needed along with a URA-1 RTD adapter. Both of these can be purchased through your Martel distributor.

You will also need some adequate standards for pressure, current (mA), voltage and resistance.

The procedure is available from the factory or your local Martel distributor.

Martel Electronics’ BetaGauge 330 pressure calibrator is featured in the February/March issue of Reportero Industrial. It’s a pan-Latin America publication covering the industrial markets with sections for Instrumentation and Analysis.

Reportero Industrial

The articles are all in Spanish, but that’s good for its intended audience. There’s also a section in Portugese specifically for the Brazilian market.

Q. How often do I need to change the batteries?

A. On the BetaGauge 330-150, we have tested the battery life by repeatedly cycling the pump to 150 PSI. Similar to the test for pump life, the cycle went to 150 PSI ten times and then rested for ten minutes.  This is a much higher duty cycle than normal use.

With this test, we were able to get more than 300 cycles to full pressure on a fresh set of Alkaline batteries.

If you are only going to lower pressures or are using the BetaGauge 330-30, it’s possible  to get more than 1,000 cycles on a fresh set of batteries.

I estimate that under heavy use of an average of 4 calibrations per day, the batteries would need replacement after about 2-1/2 weeks (12 working days).