Flowmeter and vibrating plate thereof

Abstract

A flowmeter and a vibrating plate thereof, relating to the technical field of flowmeters. The vibrating plate comprises a body (100); two ends of the body (100) in a first direction are provided with recessed portions (101); and the inner wall of each recessed portion (101) is provided with at least two connecting portions (102), and the at least two connecting portions (102) are configured to be welded to the outer wall of a flow tube (200). The recessed portions (101) at two ends of the body (100) have openings, so that the flow tubes (200) enter the corresponding recessed portions (101) by means of the openings, thereby realizing fixed connection between the flow tubes (200) and the connecting portions (102). The use of the vibrating plate can improve the efficiency of assembly with the flow tubes (200), reduce the cost of assembly with the flow tubes (200), and improve the precision and stability of the flowmeter.

Description

Flow meter and vibrating plate thereof

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on October 30, 2023, with application number 202311421787.4 and invention name “A flow meter and its vibration plate”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the technical field of flowmeters, and in particular to a vibration plate and a flowmeter having the vibration plate. Background Art

[0003] As we all know, Coriolis mass flowmeters (hereinafter referred to as flowmeters) are instruments that can measure mass flow and density with high precision. As market demand for flowmeters increases, higher requirements are also placed on the production efficiency, cost, accuracy, and stability of flowmeters.

[0004] In the existing system, the vibration plate is one of the key components of the flow meter. By adding a vibration plate, the flow meter can isolate vibration to the greatest extent, reduce the impact of the external environment such as the pipeline on the flow meter, and greatly improve the accuracy and stability of the flow meter. At the same time, raising the rotating axis of the measuring tube from the root of the measuring tube to the vibration plate can significantly improve the service life of the flow meter.

[0005] In the process of implementing this application, the inventors discovered that the prior art has at least the following problems:

[0006] Flow meters are very sensitive to welding stress, and the structure of the vibration plate determines the welding method that can be used. The most common vibration plates currently available are generally directly made from 0.5-10mm stainless steel plates through laser cutting, wire cutting or other processing methods. Two circular holes suitable for the outer diameter of the flow tube are processed on the plate surface according to the center distance of the flow tube. However, such vibration plates are all closed structures. Among them, the full-contact vibration plate needs to be welded to the flow tube in a full circle. When vacuum brazing is used, the cost is very high, the time required is long, and the production efficiency is low. When argon arc welding is used, the welding time is long. Due to the inability to avoid deformation of the vibration plate, the welding consistency is difficult to ensure, affecting the accuracy of the flow meter. In addition, the residual stress after welding is very large, and the stress will be slowly released for a long time, resulting in unstable zero point of the flow meter and affecting the basic performance of the equipment.

[0007] Therefore, it is necessary for those skilled in the art to provide a vibrating plate that can improve assembly efficiency, reduce assembly costs, and improve the accuracy and stability of a flow meter.

[0008] Summary of the Invention

[0009] The present application aims to provide a vibrating plate that can improve assembly efficiency with a flow tube, reduce assembly costs with the flow tube, and improve the accuracy and stability of a flow meter. Another aim of the present application is to provide a flow meter comprising the vibrating plate.

[0010] To achieve the above objectives, the present application provides a vibration plate, including a body, wherein the body has recessed portions at both ends along a first direction, and the inner wall of the recessed portions has at least two joints, and the at least two joints are used for welding with the outer wall of the flow tube.

[0011] In some embodiments, the inner wall of the inner recess is provided with two coupling portions, and the two coupling portions are symmetrically distributed about the axis of the body along the first direction.

[0012] In some embodiments, an arc groove is formed between the two connecting parts, and the angle range of the arc groove is 90-180°.

[0013] In some embodiments, the end surface of any joint portion facing away from the arc groove is flush with the end surface of the body.

[0014] In some embodiments, any joint portion is provided with a joint surface, which is used to fit with the outer wall of the flow tube, and the joint surface is a curved surface or a flat surface.

[0015] In some embodiments, the joint surface is fixed to the corresponding flow tube by argon arc welding.

[0016] In some embodiments, recessed structures are provided at both ends of the body along the second direction.

[0017] In some embodiments, protrusion structures are provided at both ends of the body along the second direction.

[0018] In some embodiments, the body is provided with a wire hole between the two inner recesses.

[0019] The present application also provides a flow meter comprising any of the above-mentioned vibration plates.

[0020] Compared to the above background technology, the vibration plate provided in the embodiments of the present application includes a body, wherein the body has an inner recessed portion at both ends along a first direction, and the inner wall of the inner recessed portion is provided with at least two joints, and the at least two joints are used to weld to the outer wall of the flow tube. It can be seen that the inner recessed portion at both ends of the body has an opening, allowing the flow tube to enter the corresponding inner recessed portion through the opening, thereby achieving a fixed connection with the joint. The use of the vibration plate provided by the present application can bring the following beneficial effects:

[0021] First, compared with the traditional vibration plate with a closed through-hole structure, the vibration plate of the present application is provided with an inner recess. Obviously, the inner recess has an opening, so that the part where the vibration plate is connected to the flow tube is an open structure. In this way, after the flow tube and the diverter are welded, the flow tube can be placed into the inner recess from the opening and welded, which optimizes the welding process, eliminates the assembly time of the vibration plate into the flow tube and the tooling for fixing the vibration plate, and improves the welding efficiency. In actual testing, each set of flow meters can save 5% of the assembly and welding time.

[0022] Secondly, compared with the full-contact welding method with the flow tube, the vibration plate of the present application is provided with a joint on the inner wall of the inner recess, and is welded to the outer wall of the flow tube through the joint to achieve the purpose of fixing the flow tube. The weld length is short, which can be as little as 1 / 10 of the full-contact vibration plate, greatly shortening the welding time. This is beneficial to improving production efficiency, ensuring welding consistency, and greatly reducing residual stress after welding, thereby improving the accuracy and stability of the flow meter.

[0023] Third, through the structural design of the vibration plate, the outer edge part with little effect is discarded, and only the middle part that plays the main role is retained, thereby simplifying the structure. In this way, a lower-cost welding method can be used, such as argon arc welding instead of brazing, to solve the problems of high brazing cost, low efficiency, and difficulty in large-scale continuous production. In addition, the vibration plate of the present application can be completed by flat-plate laser cutting, without a special groove structure, and the overall size is 1 / 3 smaller than other existing solutions. The processing is very simple and low-cost. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are merely embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on the provided drawings without any creative work.

[0025] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a first vibrating plate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0026] FIG2 is a top view of the vibrating plate shown in FIG1 ;

[0027] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the assembly of the vibrating plate and the flow tube shown in FIG2 ;

[0028] FIG4 is a partial enlarged view of the connection between the joint portion and the flow tube in FIG3;

[0029] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of welding a first joint portion of the vibrating plate and a flow tube shown in FIG1 ;

[0030] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of welding a second joint portion of the vibrating plate shown in FIG1 to the flow tube;

[0031] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of welding a third joint portion of the vibrating plate shown in FIG1 to the flow tube;

[0032] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a second vibrating plate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a third type of vibrating plate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the fourth vibration plate in the embodiment of the present application.

[0035] in:

[0036] 100-body, 101-inner concave portion, 102-joining portion, 1021-joining surface, 103-arc groove, 104-concave structure, 105-convex structure, 106-wire hole;

[0037] 200-Flow tube. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of this application to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of this application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0039] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the present application, the present application is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific implementation methods.

[0040] It should be noted that the directional terms such as "upper end, lower end, left side, right side" described below are all defined based on the drawings in the specification.

[0041] Please refer to Figures 1 and 2. The vibration plate provided in the embodiment of the present application includes a main body 100. The main body 100 is provided with an inner recess 101 at both ends along the first direction (the so-called first direction may be the X-axis direction or the horizontal direction as shown in Figure 2), and the inner wall of the inner recess 101 is provided with at least two joints 102. The at least two joints 102 are used for welding with the outer wall of the flow tube 200.

[0042] It can be seen that the inner recesses 101 at both ends of the body 100 have openings. The openings at both ends of the body 100 allow the two flow tubes 200 to enter the corresponding inner recesses 101 through the corresponding openings, thereby achieving a fixed connection between the body 100 and the two flow tubes 200.

[0043] Taking into account the structure of the flow tube 200, the above-mentioned inner recess 101 is designed as a semicircular hole structure. The difference between the radius of the semicircular hole and the outer diameter of the flow tube 200 is not specifically limited. Generally speaking, as long as the radius of the semicircular hole is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the flow tube 200, it can be sufficient.

[0044] The vibrating plate with the above arrangement has a wide adaptability and is applicable to both micro-bend pipe models with small flow tube spacing 200 and large-diameter models with very large overall dimensions.

[0045] It's important to emphasize that the vibrating plates used in existing systems are mostly closed structures. This so-called closed structure means that two circular holes are machined on the vibrating plate surface, sized to fit the outer diameter of the flow tube 200 and based on the center-to-center distance of the flow tube 200. Both holes are closed. Therefore, the conventional welding sequence is to weld the flow tube 200 and the diverter first. However, since the vibrating plate cannot be inserted after welding, the assembly process must be adjusted to first insert the vibrating plate into the flow tube 200, then secure the vibrating plate with tape or other tooling in a position that does not interfere with welding, before welding the flow tube 200 and the diverter. This results in a lot of additional work and reduces production efficiency.

[0046] Compared with the traditional closed circular hole structure of the vibration plate, the vibration plate of the present application is provided with an inner recess 101. Obviously, the inner recess 101 has an opening, so that the part where the vibration plate is connected to the flow tube 200 is an open structure. In this way, after the flow tube 200 and the diverter are welded, the flow tube 200 can be placed into the inner recess 101 from the opening and welded, which optimizes the welding process, eliminates the assembly time of the vibration plate into the flow tube 200 and the tooling for fixing the vibration plate, and improves the welding efficiency. In actual testing, each set of flow meters can save 5% of the assembly and welding time.

[0047] In other words, the vibration plate of the present application optimizes the welding process, and the positioning and welding of the vibration plate can be performed after the diverter and the flow tube 200 are welded, which simplifies the process and improves production efficiency.

[0048] In addition, compared with the full-contact welding method with the flow tube 200, the vibration plate of the present application is provided with a joint portion 102 on the inner wall of the inner recess 101, and is welded to the outer wall of the flow tube 200 through the joint portion 102 to achieve the purpose of fixing the flow tube 200. The weld length is short, which can be as little as 1 / 10 of the full-contact vibration plate, greatly shortening the welding time. This is beneficial to improving production efficiency, ensuring welding consistency, and greatly reducing residual stress after welding, thereby improving the accuracy and stability of the flow meter.

[0049] Through the structural design of the vibration plate, the present application discards the outer edge part with little effect and only retains the middle part that plays the main role, thereby simplifying the structure. In this way, a lower-cost welding method can be adopted, such as using argon arc welding instead of brazing, to solve the problems of high brazing cost, low efficiency, and difficulty in large-scale continuous production. At the same time, the vibration plate of the present application can be completed by flat-plate laser cutting, without a special groove structure, and the overall size is 1 / 3 smaller than other existing solutions. The processing is very simple and low-cost.

[0050] Of course, according to actual needs, the number of joints 102 in each recess 101 can be designed according to welding needs. In order to ensure the accuracy and stability of the flow meter after welding, the number of joints 102 in each recess 101 can be two, or more than two.

[0051] In some embodiments, two coupling portions 102 are provided on the inner wall of the inner recess 101 , and the two coupling portions 102 are symmetrically distributed about the axis of the body 100 along the first direction.

[0052] In this way, the vibration plate as a whole is a symmetrical non-enclosed structure, and its two ends can be fixedly connected to the flow tube 200 through the joint 102. When the two flow tubes 200 are welded to the vibration plate, the symmetrical structure can ensure the accuracy and stability of the flow meter.

[0053] Please refer to Figure 3 as well. It can be seen that an arc groove 103 is formed between the two joints 102 of the inner recess 101. The arc groove 103 is an effective avoidance structure of the main body 100 for the flow tube 200. Its function is to reduce the length of the weld and facilitate the use of argon arc welding process with lower welding cost.

[0054] In some embodiments, the angle of the arc groove 103 ranges from 90° to 180°.

[0055] It can be understood that the so-called angle range of the arc groove 103 is 90-180°, which means that the central angle of the arc groove 103 is within the range of 90-180°. Its function is to be able to combine the connecting portion 102 of the vibration plate and the flow tube 200 in a stress-insensitive area (non-vibration direction). The stress-insensitive area is an area where the angle with the vibration rotation axis of the flow tube 200 (i.e., the axis AA' / BB' of the flow tube 200 as shown in Figure 3) is less than 45°.

[0056] In other words, in order to further reduce the post-welding stress reaction, the welding position between the vibration plate and the flow tube 200 is concentrated in the non-vibration direction so that the welding stress occurs at the position with the least impact on the flow tube 200. In this way, the impact of the post-welding stress of argon arc welding on the performance of the flow meter is reduced, which can effectively ensure the stability and accuracy of the flow meter.

[0057] In some embodiments, the end surface of any joint portion 102 facing away from the arc groove 103 is flush with the end surface of the body 100 .

[0058] That is, the two joint portions 102 are provided at the two end portions of the inner recess 101 , so that during welding, only the top and bottom portions of the flow tube 200 need to be welded.

[0059] Since the vibration plate and the flow tube 200 are only welded at the joint 102 , there are only four welding positions on the vibration plate, and the welding positions are symmetrically arranged in the axial direction and the radial direction.

[0060] This welding position can realize automatic batch welding by robots, greatly reducing the difficulty of welding and improving welding efficiency.

[0061] Please also refer to FIG. 4 . Any joint portion 102 is provided with a joint surface 1021 . The joint surface 1021 is used to fit with the outer wall of the flow tube 200 .

[0062] 5 , 6 and 7 , the joint surface 1021 can be a curved surface or a flat surface. Compared to a flat surface, a curved surface structure can fit more tightly with the outer wall of the flow tube 200 .

[0063] In some embodiments, the joint surface 1021 is fixed to the corresponding flow tube 200 by argon arc welding.

[0064] The overall use of argon arc welding technology has completely gotten rid of the need for equipment and space for brazing. The welding quality is more controllable and time is greatly saved, from 6-10 hours per batch to 10 minutes per set, which greatly improves production efficiency and can achieve large-scale continuous production.

[0065] In addition, the structures of other parts of the vibration plate are not specifically limited, and a concave structure 104 or a convex structure 105 may be provided.

[0066] In some embodiments, please also refer to FIG. 8 , recessed structures 104 are disposed at both ends of the main body 100 along the second direction.

[0067] In some embodiments, please also refer to FIG. 9 , protrusion structures 105 are provided at both ends of the main body 100 along the second direction.

[0068] Compared with the protruding structure 105 , the arrangement of the concave structure 104 can greatly reduce the overall weight of the vibration plate.

[0069] It should be noted that the so-called second direction may be the Y-axis direction as shown in FIG. 2 , or a vertical direction, and the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction.

[0070] 10 , the body 100 is provided with a wire hole 106 between the two inner recesses 101. The provision of the wire hole 106 facilitates the positioning of the line during the flow meter measurement process and prevents the line from being misplaced on site.

[0071] Of course, the number of the wire holes 106 can be adjusted according to actual needs, and this embodiment does not impose any specific limitation on this.

[0072] In addition, the thickness of the vibration plate is not specifically limited, and different thicknesses can be used according to different calibers or customization requirements.

[0073] This application provides a flowmeter comprising the vibrating plate described in the above embodiments. This vibrating plate is a Coriolis mass flowmeter vibrating plate, and can also be applied to other types of flowmeters. The Coriolis mass flowmeter also includes one or more components, such as a chassis, a flow divider, a support beam, and a measuring mechanism. This application does not specify the design of the chassis, flow divider, support beam, or measuring mechanism.

[0074] It should be noted that, in this specification, relational terms such as first and second are merely used to distinguish one entity from other entities, but do not necessarily require or imply any actual relationship or order between these entities.

[0075] The flowmeter and its vibrating plate provided by the present application are introduced in detail above. Specific examples are used herein to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of the present application. The description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the scheme and core ideas of the present application. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this technical field, without departing from the principles of the present application, several improvements and modifications can be made to the present application, and these improvements and modifications also fall within the scope of protection of the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. A vibration plate, characterized in that: The invention comprises a main body (100), wherein the main body (100) is provided with inner recesses (101) at two ends along a first direction, and the inner wall of the inner recess (101) is provided with at least two joints (102), and the at least two joints (102) are used for welding with the outer wall of a flow tube (200).

2. The vibrating plate according to claim 1, wherein: The inner wall of the inner recess (101) is provided with two combining portions (102), and the two combining portions (102) are symmetrically distributed with respect to the axis of the body (100) along the first direction.

3. The vibrating plate according to claim 2, wherein: A circular arc groove (103) is formed between the two connecting parts (102), and the angle range of the circular arc groove (103) is 90-180°.

4. The vibrating plate according to claim 3, wherein: The end surface of any one of the coupling portions (102) that is away from the arc groove (103) is flush with the end surface of the body (100).

5. The vibrating plate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: Any one of the coupling parts (102) is provided with a coupling surface (1021), and the coupling surface (1021) is used to fit with the outer wall of the flow tube (200), and the coupling surface (1021) is a curved surface or a flat surface.

6. The vibrating plate according to claim 5, wherein: The joint surface (1021) is fixed to the corresponding flow tube (200) by means of argon arc welding.

7. The vibrating plate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The main body (100) is provided with recessed structures (104) at two ends along the second direction.

8. The vibrating plate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The main body (100) is provided with protruding structures (105) at two ends along the second direction.

9. The vibrating plate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The body (100) is provided with a wire passing hole (106) between the two inner recesses (101).

10. A flow meter, characterized in that: Comprising a vibration plate as described in any one of claims 1-9.

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