We have posted a new video on YouTube that details the cleaning process for the BetaGauge 330 pump valves.

The 330 has been a really trouble free product except that many users don’t bother to try cleaning the pump valves if they become contaminated. They end up sending it in for service that they could do themselves in about 10 minutes.

While the cleaning process is described in the user manual, a video is a better way to get the message across.

Valve contamination occurs during the normal use of the pump in many industrial environments. We designed them to be trouble free and really easy to clean.

The video shows the whole process in about 5 minutes.

Did you know that the accuracy and validity of natural gas custody transfer metering is covered under the US Sarbanes Oxley law?

I didn’t either until I read this informative post by Jim Cahill over at the Emerson Process Experts blog.

Here’s my short take on what’s required to do a professional job at custody transfer metering for many industries.

• Proper design and installation of metering equipment, which includes selecting the right equipment in the first place. This is a very competitive market and there’s plenty of great hardware available. So, this really boils down to quality installation design and implementation.
• Routine and regular verification of the performance of the system. This is where Martel comes in the a range of useful calibration products such as the BetaGauge 321A. Our calibrators have the performance, reliability and features needed to do a great job of calibrating gas custody transfer systems.
• Technicians who are professionally trained professionals. This may be the hardest piece of the puzzle to fit in. Finding, keeping and motivating quality personnel is a major challenge for corporations world-wide.

It’s ironic that one of the events that instigated the Sarbanes Oxley Act was the implosion of Enron Corporation, a company that started out in the natural gas energy business.

BetaGauge 321 Dual Range Pressure Calibrator

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!

Wanted Dead or Alive

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE!

OLD BETA, PROMAC OR MARTEL CALIBRATORS

If you have an old BETA, Promac or Martel calibrator, it’s worth money even if it doesn’t work!

When you buy a new DMC-1400 Documenting Multifunction Calibrator, MC-1200 Multifunction Calibrator, BetaGauge 311 or 321 or the new BetaGauge 330, your old calibrator is worth $300 towards the purchase.

You can request more details on our web site or just call Tracy at 800-821-0023, extension 103. She’ll be glad to help. You can also send an email to sales@martelcorp.com to request more information.

On Monday, Martel was featured in the Derry/Londonderry issue of the New Hampshire Union Leader. An article by Kimberly Pietz related our story of a small company with a big impact on the process control calibration market.

Most of our competitors are Fortune 500 companies or, at least Fortune 1000 companies. Fortunately for us, some of them are also our customers. That makes our small business the tail that wags the dog, so to speak.

The article speaks about how we market our brand products (sold under the Martel BETA logo) to a world-wide audience of power plants, chemical plants and the like. It also mentioned that our BetaGauge 330 and it’s siblings are used extensively in the natural gas pipeline business around the world.

Calibration is important for safe and efficient operation of plants everywhere and the reporter got that message and presented it loud and clear.

Another big highlight in the printed copy of the article (unfortunately not included in the on-line edition) was a picture of one of our talented assemblers, Liana, putting pressure sensors on a calibrator circuit board. For the on-line article go here.

BetaGauge 330 Pressure Calibrator

Control Global has a listing for our new pressure calibrator with integral electric pump on their web site.

To locate the feature go to www.controlglobal.com. Click on the Product Info tab (just right of center). In the search box, type “Martel” and it will take you to the right place. Here is a direct link.

The BetaGauge 330 is revolutionary in that it is the first pressure calibrator capable of generating pressure up to 150 PSI (20 Bar) without any pumping on the part of the user.

It has neat user friendly features to make it a highly productive tool such as,

1. Precise vernier control of the pressure signal
2. Variable pressure release valve so the pressure signal can be controlled while venting
3. MilliAmp measurement and simulation with 24 VDC instrument loop power
4. Voltage measurement
5. RTD input for accurate temperature measure, which facilitates calibration of mass flow meters or computers
6. External pressure module connection port for access to any of 29 ranges of BetaPort-P pressure modules.

There’s a lot more, check it out on Control Global or go here  on our web site.

BetaGauge 330 Pressure Calibrator

The December 2008 issue of Machinery and Equipment MRO Magazine featured the new BetaGauge 330 in their “What’s New” section.

For more on the BetaGauge 330, go here.

A big thanks goes out to Mark Reid at our Canadian distributor TechniCAL Systems for making this happen.

BetaGauge 330 Pressure Calibrator

Today we began shipping the first end user designated BetaGauge 330 pressure calibrators. Previously, we have shipped about 50 demo units to distributors.

The BetaGauge 330 is our pressure calibrator with the built-in ELECTRICALLY OPERATED pump. It can generate up to 150 PSI or 20 Bar simply by pressing a button. In a normal dead ended test system with about 1 meter of 1/8″ diameter tubing, maximum pressure is reached in less than a minute.

This eliminates the tedium and pain of generating test pressures for calibration. Fine tuning of the test pressure is made easy with the calibrator’s pressure vernier control.

In addition to pressure, the BetaGauge 330 can generate a vacuum to about -12 PSI (-0.8 Bar), also with the press of a button. Venting is controlled by a variable release vent valve to allow the use of descending test pressures as well as ascending test pressures.

Some of the other major features of the BetaGauge 330 include:

1. RTD temperature measurement to facilitate calibration of mass flow meters or flow computers.
2. Large easy to read display with backlight
   ·24 VDC loop power supply.
3. 4 to 20 milliAmp measurement and simulation for loop testing and troubleshooting.
4. Built-in sophisticated pressure switch test function that automatically captures set, reset and dead band values.
5. External pressure module interface for any of our 29 ranges of BetaPort-P pressure modules.
6. Pressure display in user’s choice of 16 engineering units.

There’s a lot more. Click here to see more on our web site or find a distributor.

Martel recently updated our main calibrator web site to make it more useful to our customers and distributors. Here are some of the main changes:

1. The look was changed to match our new corporate identity color scheme and imaging. It’s not a functional change, but it sure looks hot.
2. Links to our world wide network of distributors are available with plans to enhance this even more so it’s easier to buy a Martel calibrator or BetaGauge. (By the way, have you read the history of the BetaGauge on this blog?)
3. It’s easier to find the product information about you’re looking for.
4. It is highly optimized for important calibrator keywords, so Google and other search engines find and list us as a calibrator provider.

There’s an easy to click link to the latest on this blog, too.

In addition to these changes, our first web video is on the site.

The video is a “tour’ of our new facilty in Derry, New Hampshire. It only takes 2 minutes to get a good idea what we are all about and to see some shots of our people at work. It will take you from a bare circuit board through to a finished pressure or temperature calibrator. You’ll see our top flight customer service team on the phones and learn why at Martel we say “Calibration Technology Starts Here…”

We plan to produce and publish more videos of the “how to” type in the future. Feel free to offer suggestions by commenting back to this blog.