Most of our calibrators are designed to use standard replaceable Alkaline batteries. You know, the ones you can buy at the corner store. That’s a good choice because of the relatively high power density and mostly flat discharge curve of these cells. They start out with a high terminal voltage (1.5 V  or more). A really strong point for these batteries is the long shelf life. If you don’t use your calibrator much, that would be a good reason to use Alkalines. New ones typically have a shelf life of 3 years or more.

On the flip side, if you are a heavy calibrator user, rechargeable batteries, especially very high energy density Nickel Metal Hydride batteries would be a good choice. What is meant by high energy density? Energy in the battery world is measured in Amp hours. For small batteries, it’s most commonly milliAmp hours.

AA Alkaline batteries are typically rated at 2000 mAH. They’re small so they have a high density. Even inexpensive Nickel Metal Hydride batteries now come with 2700 mAH ratings. They have another plus. Although the battery terminal voltage for NiMH batteries starts out at 1.2V, the discharge cycle is extremely flat and the internal resistance is lower. They work right up to the end, so to speak.

You may get as much as 40% more usage from the NiMHs than the Alkalines when they are fully charged. But, that’s the rub. The shelf like of rechargeable batteries is not good in 2 ways. One, they need to be charged regularly, and, two, they will lose their charge when not being used. Infrequent users may find their rechargeable batteries are dead just when they want to use their calibrators.

Here are the tips in short form.

1. If you use your calibrator everyday and use it a lot, consider switching to rechargeable batteries. They are reliable and efficient and you’ll help save the planet. You will recharge your calibrator every night.
2. If you have poor access to replaceable Alkaline batteries, also consider changing to rechargeable batteries. Just remember to keep them charged.
3. If you don’t use your calibrator much, stick with the Alkaline batteries. They’ll be ready when you are unless you have situation 2 above. In this case, if you do use rechargeable batteries, just remember to charge them once a week or at least a couple of times a month.

The most exceptional thing can often be the simplest thing, too.

A lot of companies have some sort of “open door” policy that allows employees to access the higher ups. At Martel, that means anyone can walk in Tom’s office and let him know what they are thinking, ask questions, whatever.

A few employees are fairly regular visitors who come to him with ideas for handling problems and the like. I guess the thing that’s surprising is that many employees wouldn’t even consider making a trip to the corner office. I’m sure they’re being held back by that old thing “tradition” that says a trip to the boss’s office is like a trip to the principal’s office at school. You only do it when you’ve been bad.

I also know that in some companies, the peons are not allowed to socialize with the elite. At really large companies, that almost makes sense. Bill Hewlett and David Packard (HP founders) made the reverse trip with management by wandering around. They did it just so they could see for themselves (and hear for themselves, too) exactly what was really going on in the company.

So, I think our little company is pretty exceptional to have employees AND management that make it a point to communicate in such a basic way.

In a recent post, I said that one of the important features in a calibrator is flexibility or versatility. You might say it’s the Swiss Army knife (a registered trademark of Wenger S.A. and Victorinox A.G.) effect. I know that sometimes mashing things together makes a whole that’s a lot less than the sum of its parts, but…

For calibrators that’s not the case. In fact, because they are often the most highly engineered products a company offers, multi-function calibrators may offer the best overall performance in a company’s line. There don’t really need to be too many tradeoffs.

Sure, the multi-function calibrator is likely to be larger than its single function relatives and certainly a bit more complex, but having every tool you need everytime you need it is worth it for many. Our MC-1200 has the capabiltiy of a loop calibrator (and just as easy to use), a high performance temperature calibrator (just about every T/C and RTD curve you can think of), a wide ranging pressure calibrator (29 ranges and styles of Beta pressure modules), DC voltage and frequency (with pulse train output).

That’s what I mean about versatile.

Valve Location

I’ve been posting a lot about the BetaGauge 330 lately because we’ve had a lot of new developments for it. With the revolutionary built-in battery operated test pump, it has become our flagship product. So, we spend a lot of time trying to make it even better.

The good news/bad news is that the strength of the 330 (built-in pump) is also its Achilles heel. Contamination of the pump valves will make it leak and/or not work. We considered that in the initial design and made those valves easy for the customer to access (picture at left) and clean (video at YouTube).

That, by itself, might be good enough for some.

However, we want to go even further and stop a potential problem before it even starts. In this case, the potential problem is liquid being sucked into the pump mechanism from the device under test. When this happens, you’re looking at more than just cleaning the valves. It’s time for a full rebuild, which is time consuming and more difficult.

LDT-500 Liquid/Dirt Trap

So, we’ve designed and are building a liquid/dirt trap accessory for the BetaGauge 330, The LDT-500. Beginning this month, all 330s will ship with this device as standard. It mounts on the calibrator’s pressure port between the calibrator and any potential contaminant. With its clear body, it’s easy for the technician to see when a problem might be occuring and prevent it. The LDT-500 will also be available separately for users who already own a BetaGauge 330 and want to protect it.

The design of the LDT-500 is pretty clever, too. It’s virtually tooless as it screws into the calibrator port and seals with an o-ring. No pipe sealant tape required. The open process port is Martel’s unique NPT/BSP thread for universal use. Cleaning of the LDT is tool free, too. The end caps unscrew by hand, making it easy to clean out. If needed, replacement o-ring seals are available as a maintenance kit.

We’re working on even more improvements for the BetaGauge 330, so keep in touch.

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.

Preproduction Testing

In preparation for a new product launch, Martel is adding new temperature calibration equipment. The 2 major pieces are a Fluke Hart Scientific 9210 Triple Point of Water and a Fluke Hart Scientific 7341 High Precision Temperature Baths.

Here are some pictures of the new equipment, which is shown being used in preproduction testing now. By the end of our summer they will become the foundation of a production temperature calibration lab.

Hart 9210 Triple Point of Water

Hart 7341 Precision Temperature Bath

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!

The current issue of Control Magazine (digital edition here) has a whole page of links to worthwhile calibration resources from some of the big players in the industry.

Most of them are white papers, but one is another web site with a “ton” of great links to other resources.

If you need to learn or know more about important calibration issues, you should have a look.

There is an interesting discussion thread going on at Linked In about whether plant operators should be allowed to adjust or change instrument settings (including calibration).

If you are on Linked In, you can find the discussion here http://bit.ly/1ez5lo. If not, you’ll need to sign up for a free account.

My personal and professional opinion for calibration is a decided NO. Actually, it’s NO, NO, NO, NO!

Inadequate calibration maintenance is already a plague at most process plants and allowing anyone other than a qualified calibration professional with the right tools to make a change that affects calibration is sheer madness and dangerous to boot.

While a little tweak may appear to fix things momentarily, pretty soon it will add up to a huge problem.

I feel qualified to make this statement having worked on both sides of the equation. Operators do need to feel and be empowered, but that should be limited to making setpoint adjustments, which even then may need to be limited. It’s easy to lose the big picture when you’re having a problem in the control room. Setpoints, calibration, etc. all have to come together to make the big picture pretty.

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.