Digital panel meters might not be as fully featured as many of our high-definition LED products but they definitely serve a purpose when absolute repeatable accuracy is essential. Utilised extensively in process control equipment and factory automation, these digital panels are inexpensive ways to present simple numerical information and process data in a manner that’s easy to read and understand.
Also able to display voltage or current information, they can be used for a variety of applications where temperature, humidity and pressure need to be measured quickly and accurately. With that in mind, here are just five of the most common uses of digital panel meters.
Measuring oven temperatures
Industrial, continuous ovens are used in hundreds of industries, whether in mass-scale food preparation or curing rubber. In the latter case, precise temperature management is paramount in ensuring that the exact temperature is reached at every point of the process. Digital panel meters can connect directly to temperature sensors with alarms potentially set when temperatures reach outside a set range.
Monitoring humidity
Once it has been cut, hardwood lumber is dried slowly in special purpose kilns and in these kilns, the humidity needs to be controlled in a precise manner. Otherwise, the wood can split or crack, rendering it unusable. Mounting humidity sensors in the kiln will allow operators to maintain the optimal humidity, minimising both drying time and damage to the wood. Digital panel meters are ideal for this purpose.
Water temperature and flow
Digital panel meters can be used to display water temperatures, which could be very useful not only in situations such as swimming pools and fish ponds but in manufacturing too. For example, water is often used in an industrial setting to cool plastics and metals and, in these situations, it’s necessary for the temperature readings to be absolutely spot-on. They can also be used to measure water flow which is imperative in water treatment plants. Here, flow meters can be used to monitor the movement of water through various lines.
Electrical current
In thousands of different industries, electrical current needs to be measured efficiently and absolutely. Digital panel meters can be used to monitor electrical equipment by displaying voltage or current information. This is useful not only from an industrial perspective but from a health and safety perspective. With higher contrast displays that can be seen comfortably in lower light environments, digital panel meters are incredibly useful in all commercial and industrial applications where voltage or current needs to be read and understood.
Under pressure
In brewing, particularly beer, pressure is everything. Get it wrong and gas could build to dangerous levels but get it right and you end up with a tasty cask ale. Digital panel meters can actually work at all parts of the brewing process – from tank cleaning to flow monitoring and everywhere in between. But it is pressure monitoring that is arguably the most important part of the process in larger industrial scale brewing.
Image: CREATE STUDIO / Shutterstock.com
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