SENSORS, TEST & MEASUREMENT | FLOW MEASUREMENT
“In the past,
As well as being
modular, the FLS110’s
functionality is also
customisable, giving
customers even
greater control over
how the sensor is
integrated into their
manufacturers working
on flow-related projects
have always had to deal
with any mechanical
and fluidic challenges
encountered in the product
development phase,
resulting in increased risks,
costs and longer development
times. As a workaround, many
manufacturers use pressure sensors
to measure the pressure difference
between two points in a flow path
and then use that to infer flow.
However, despite being cheap and
easy to work with, membrane-based
pressure sensors are known to drift
over time, as well as being sensitive
to external pressure, relative
humidity and temperature.”
The FLS110 measures flow rate
across a range of 0.001 to over 500
standard litres per minute, delivering
a fully temperature-compensated
flow signal. One of the applications
Flusso is targeting includes active
filter monitoring in vacuum cleaners,
which would give manufacturers
and consumers better insight into
performance and could provide
prompts to check or change filters.
A similar principle could apply to air
conditioning units, with the sensor
sending maintenance alerts if a
piece of equipment is not performing
optimally.
Flusso says the combination of
low cost and ultra-compact size
means the sensor can
be installed virtually
anywhere. Portable
health equipment such
as smart inhalers and
peak flow metres – used
for home monitoring of
chronic lung conditions
such as COPD and asthma
– are another potentially
significant market. According
to De Luca, the firmware integrated
into the FLS110 is modular, and
customers in different sectors will
only pay for what they need.
“In addition, they’ll have the
option to decide how they want
to calibrate depending on their
application requirement - from an
electronic perspective or fluidically
at a system level,” he explained.
“In short, customers only pay
for the electronics, firmware and
calibration they really need, no
more and no less. The overall
advantage being that they can adapt
the FLS110 flow sensor to meet their
system requirements, rather than
having to design their mechanical or
fluidic elements around constraints
or barriers imposed on them by the
flow sensor and its manufacturer.”
As well as being modular,
the FLS110’s functionality is also
customisable, giving customers
even greater control over how
the sensor is integrated into their
systems.
“Each module can be easily
configured via an SDK (Software
Development Kit, also supplied by
Flusso),” De Luca continued. “For
example, the user can implement
different readout modes to save
power, different levels of averaging
to reduce noise or to get more data
faster, or use different driving modes
to save power or increase accuracy.”
Given how 2020 has been
dominated by one story in
particular, it seems obvious to ask
whether the FLS110 could play a
role in the fight against COVID.
The challenges around ventilators
have been well documented,
but the urgent need for those
devices during the first wave of
hospitalisations earlier in the year
has, thankfully, subsided. In the
UK, fewer patients are requiring
intubation, but increasing numbers
are reporting health issues that
persist beyond the initial recovery
from the disease – a phenomenon
known as long COVID. It is the
treatment of this where De Luca sees
a possible role for the new sensor.
“In theory the FLS110 could be
used in ventilators but a much more
likely and larger market would be
to use it to reliably and accurately
measure and report flow in smart
inhalers, breath monitoring, fitness
training masks and other hand-held
devices,” he said. !
systems.
18 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | DECEMBER 2020
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK