UK meter facility goes with the flow

In contrast to the many highly automated process facilities it supplies into, the Krohne Ltd flowmeter plant at Wellingborough, UK is a highly labour-intensive operation; its key processes include precision welding and assembly, backed by advanced calibration and tube pre-tensioning techniques. The operation, however, shares many of the issues that impact its client base in terms of meeting the demands of a dynamic global market where process resources and expertise are often stretched thin.

The UK facility is a Krohne centre for the manufacture of its Optimass brand Coriolis mass flowmeters and one of 14 production facilities operated by the Duisburg, Germany-based flow and level instrumentation group.

Rapid market demand is the most obvious driver for Krohne UK, which is soon to add 2,000 square metres of manufacturing space to meet “phenomenal growth in demand over recent years”. The expansion of the current 5,000m2, 60-employee facility at Wellingborough will also involve the addition of 12 more staff.

“We are losing business because of capacity constraints,” said Eddie Bridges, product group manager at the Krohne facility, adding that the operation is also moving to a more linear, conveyor belt production for its “fast mover” products. This, he said, will include automating processes, especially in the welding areas. Krohne is achieving growth of about 15-20% annually in the global market for Coriolis meters, said Bridges, which compares favourably with estimates of overall market growth of 8-10% from Frost & Sullivan.

The German company, however, is a distant No3 - behind Emerson Micro Motion and Endress + Hauser - in the global Coriolis meter market, which is currently running at around 100,000 devices a year, said Bridges.

However, Krohne expects to take a big step forward, with the launch of the Optimass 2000 range, its first major push into the oil and gas industries. The range of twin, straight-tube meters is available in three sizes - four-inch, six-inch and ten-inch - has a process pressure capability up to 150 barg and covers flow rates from 7,000kg/h to 2,300,000kg/h, with a measuring accuracy of 0.1%.

Krohne has many applications in smaller diameters, but now aims to get into the bigger diameter market, especially in the oil and gas industries, said Bridges.

High prices for oil and gas - plus many other products - and the focus on accurate custody transfer and fiscal metering is creating a huge requirement for flow measurement around transfer by rail, road and shipping, said Bridges, adding that “measurement skids is probably a key area where we will find a lot of business.”

According to Bridges, supplying the oil and gas market can be very challenging. “You will not believe the amount of effort to sell into the sector. It is therefore very important that we piggyback on Krohne’s existing oil & gas group. Otherwise we don’t get past the receptionist.” “And,” he noted, “if you make a mistake on one of these projects, the penalties are quite severe. There is a lot of care and planning involved.”

Oil & gas customers tend to be very conservative, with Coriolis still considered a new technology by many customers. Ultrasonic devices are still the main technology for larger diameter applications as they can offer almost the same accuracies at much less cost.

Indeed, Coriolis meters have traditionally been regarded as too expensive for large diameter applications. However, since 2003 there has been increasing acceptance of larger devices in the market.

In developing the Optimass 2000, Krohne aims to join what has now become “a very big party,” said Bridges. The range, he claimed, offers unique features in terms of accurate measurement across a wide range of flow rates. The largest model, he added, is probably as big as the oil & gas industry will require, especially in terms of matching the savings in verification, validation and maintenance to the cost of the device. “Cost of materials such as steel is the main factor at the moment,” Bridges noted. “We are also probably pushing the limits of the technology, with, for example, the drive energy in the meter limited by the amount of current you can use in hazardous area environments.”

Krohne managers are concerned that customers wrongly think a higher flow rate specification means a better buy. For example, they said, flow rates of 50m/second are being quoted for devices sold into the oil and gas industries, even though these applications do not tolerate flow velocities higher than 10m/second.

“We specify a flow rate of 10m/s for the oil & gas industry, the limit for critical oil & gas applications,” said Wesley Beckley, international product manager, mass flow, at Krohne Ltd. “Against this, commercial directors will see bigger as better in flow meters Our emphasis is on providing a meter that is right for the application. You could ship a two-inch meter for a 2-inch application, but it may not work.”

A major challenge for Krohne is in getting the message about its technologies over to the decision-makers in the process industries. This, said Bridges, is being hampered by the growing skills gap in the process industries.

“The number of experienced engineers at big companies is becoming less and less. Companies are relying on consultants and on the equipment manufacturers themselves. This loop hasn’t been closed yet,” he commented.

“Final decisions are being left to commercial managers who just do price comparisons and if you do not appear competitive enough to them on paper you struggle,” continued Bridges. This is especially the case with projects based in Asia, though also prevalent in other global regions, he added.

Krohne recently did a lot of development work on a quote for a new paint manufacturing facility in China. The flow metering was complex as paint, a non-Newtonian fluid, is a very viscous in the tin but shear- thinning on application. Krohne’s testing delivered very good results, but the company did not get the quote as the commercial director opted instead for devices from another supplier.

Without the application development work, however, many of the meters installed were mis-sized for the applications they were put into. As a result, Krohne engineers were called in a few months later by the plant maintenance department at the Chinese plant to replace the meters on a highly costly, device-by-device basis.

“In a lot of companies, especially in Asia, the commercial people are kept apart to restrict influence of vendors on the buying decision,” Beckley explained. “The engineering guys say what they need, then the commercial guys try to get the same thing for a better price.”

Krohne managers went on to note how many of the major chemicals companies, such as BASF, Bayer and Dow Chemicals, evaluate products and put them on a standard list. These are then specified as the only products the company will buy in an effort to minimise the chance of the wrong devices being bought for particular applications.

The majority of customer problems that Krohne gets are process-related, continued Bridges. At times, customers will weld other bits onto the meter and change the flanges because they didn’t order the right sizes - sometimes with near disastrous consequences.

“Customers also specify one fluid and we get a very angry phone call saying the meter has failed,” said the Krohne manager. “We go there and find they have used it on something completely different. They never give the corrosion resistance of the meter a second thought and asume it will work anywhere.”

Everybody is looking for this “magic, one-size-suits-everything” Coriolis meter, concluded Bridges. “We have had this discussion with the NAMUR group, the chemical industry in Germany, industry groups in the Netherlands. Maybe in 10 years’ time someone will develop something, but we’re not there yet.”


Tube sourcing is vital


At the core of Krohne’s Coriolis flowmeter is seamless drawn tubing in stainless steel, Hastelloy, titanium and even tantalum, which the company buys in. This can be very expensive, Krohne managers highlighting, for instance, that a titanium tube about one metre in length costs up to Euro1,200.

Titanium tubing, also, currently takes between 20 and 30 weeks to deliver, according to Eddie Bridges, product group manager at Krohne Ltd. He added that: “We got so badly burnt early last year with running out of tubing on certain sizes, we decided that the only way to keep ahead of the game is to have a big buffer stock. So, now, at any one time we have more than 18 months’ supply of tubing coming through the system.”

Krohne employs Hastelloy, titanium and tantalum tubing for more aggressive chemicals. Hastelloy is sourced from the US company Haynes International, while the titanium is sourced from Wah Chang, also of the US.

Titanium is used as it is generally resistant to most common chemicals, though, as an active metal, it is very susceptible to stress corrosion with chemicals such as alcohols that absorb oxygen and create an oxide layer.

The pharmaceutical industry, however, doesn’t like titanium as it can leach into medicine or baby foods. Therefore, stainless steel is much more common in the food and pharmaceuticals industry, managers explained.

Tantalum tubing is the most expensive product in stock at Krohne and is used for applications involving nitric, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, where very few other metals last long.