Sensor is better by design

Ceramic moisture sensor has been designed using a development process which looked at the needs of all potential stakeholders in the product

Michell Instruments says its latest ceramic moisture sensor has been designed using a development process which looked at the needs of all potential stakeholders in the product, from the technical requirements of the customer, through ease of manufacturing and service, to the look and feel of the instrument to the user.

All Michell's impedance instruments use the advanced ceramic moisture sensor.

Operation of the sensor depends upon the adsorption of water vapour into a porous non-conducting sandwich between two conductive layers built on top of a base ceramic substrate.

The active sensor ayer is very thin - less than one micron (a millionth of a metre) and the porous top conductor that allows transmission of water vapour into the sensor is less than 0.1 micron thick.

Therefore the sensor responds very rapidly to changes in applied moisture, both when being dried (on process start-up) and when called into action if there is moisture ingress into a process.

Despite this extreme sensitivity to changes in moisture content, Michell says the ceramic moisture sensor is incredibly rugged due to the nature of its construction.

To protect the sensor further against contaminants and large particulates it is housed in a protective sintered stainless steel guard.

Michell's ceramic moisture sensor has been proven time and again in virtually every application, from pure gases to corrosive processes, it says.

The sensor can withstand the most aggressively acid media - for example virtually 100 % hydrogen sulphide - conditions in which no other humidity sensor will survive.

If oil, other liquids or solid matter contaminates the sensor, it can be safely cleaned using distilled water, high purity solvent such as acetone, or a combination of the two.

This cleaning process will not damage the sensor or affect its calibration accuracy, provided recommended procedures are observed.

The ceramic moisture sensor handles not only high gas pressures, but also rapid changes in pressure, without damage.

Some less robust dew-point sensors will be damaged by rapid pressurisation/de-pressurisation due to the inferior method of construction.

The ceramic moisture sensor is constructed in such a way that virtually instantaneous pressurisation right up to the 30MPa (300 bar) limit will not cause failure.

All ceramic moisture sensors are calibrated over the full dew point range from -100 to +20C dew point using state-of-the-art computer controlled humidity generators with mass flow controller operation.

Each sensor is individually calibrated at 10C dew point intervals with the exact calibration data stored in an on-board processor memory.

This ensures both the optimum calibration accuracy and makes re-certification very easy to perform, allowing users to maintain conformance with quality assurance requirements.

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