In the industrial field, measuring instrument referred to as fluid flow meter or flow table. Flow meter for industrial measurement of one of the most important instrument.
With industrial development, on the flow measurement accuracy and range of increasingly high demand, in order to adapt to multiple uses, various types of flow one after another, widely used in oil and gas, petrochemical, water treatment,glue stick food and beverage, pharmaceutical, energy, metallurgy, pulp and paper and construction materials industries.
Frost & Sullivan consulting firm (that is, consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, www.frost.com) using 360-degree view of the whole model, focusing on global, integrated application of industry, science and technology technology development, economic, competitive environment and industry users, and a number of module, a comprehensive study of the flow meter market. In this paper, positive displacement flow meters, turbine flow meter (a typical impeller-type flowmeter), differential pressure flowmeter, variable area flowmeters, electromagnetic flowmeters, ultrasonic flowmeters, vortex flow meter (a typical oscillating fluid flow dollars), Coriolis mass flow meter and plug-in thermal mass flow meter as the research object, the market analysis.
As shown, glue gun in 2008 the market size of the global flow reached 2.83 billion U.S. dollars, representing an increase of approximately 3.9% in 2007. It is predicted that by 2013, the global flow meter market will reach 3.48 billion U.S. dollars. 2008 to 2013 the average annual compound growth rate will reach 4.2%.
Globally, a major manufacturer of flowmeters include: the Franco-Swiss (ABB), Emerson (Emerson), Endress + Hauser (EndressHauser or E + H), Cologne (Krohne), Siemens (Siemens), Yokogawa (Yokogawa), and General Electric (GeneralElectric), Honeywell (Honeywell), Invensys plc (Invensys) and Yamatake (Yamatake). Flowmeter market concentration is relatively high, the top three vendors - Emerson, E + H and ABB of the total market share of nearly 50% of the market.
Market factors.
Drivers, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts from 2007 to 2030 the global energy infrastructure needs total investment of 26 trillion U.S. dollars (in dollar value in 2007 dollars). Among them, the power sector investment 13.6 trillion U.S. dollars, 52.3% of the total investment. The current financial crisis will not affect long-term investment, to 2030, is expected to maintain the current one is the ability to supply the energy needs of more than half of global energy investment funds, and by 2030, much of the world's oil, gas and electricity infrastructure will need to be replaced. In the long term, predictable flow of energy investment will oil and gas and energy industries in the sector, the application of no small development.
Face fierce competition, and in order to cope with the demands of the global energy conservation, all industrial users pay more attention to the production plant operating efficiency, reduce energy consumption as much as possible in order to improve competitiveness. Therefore, a lot of investment is used to improve factory automation and field data collection and real-time monitoring, process control to improve the efficiency of the plant. Such as in oil and gas and energy industries, closed transmission facilities that need reliable flow measurement equipment; chemical and pharmaceutical industries that need high-precision flow meters, etc. All these trends will lead the sensors and field devices (including the flow meter) development.
Flowmeter is the introduction of more electronic technology, such as digital signal processing (DSP) and microprocessors, which makes the meter with a self-diagnostic function, and can better communicate with the production control level. Improve the performance of the industry to better meet the needs of users, to flow, creating more space for market applications.
Inhibitors currently subject to further boost the global economy, industrial demand is not strong Sheng.
Slowdown in many industrial users to suspend investment in new projects or upgrading of equipment upgrades, waiting for signs of recovery in the global economy. Therefore, in the short term, this will flow in its main application to the development prospects of the industry to some extent.
Large global manufacturer of flow meter market, competition is fierce. Meanwhile, the flow meter manufacturers are faced with industrial users are more demanding on price, in order to make the product better penetration into the flow meter applications, the main industry, price competition among manufacturers and then the inevitable. This phenomenon in emerging economies, especially China, are common. Prices tend to be the most important decision to purchase the determinants of behavior. Over time, manufacturers pay more attention to pricing strategies, resulting in less product innovation and hinder market development.
Challenges.
Traditional mechanical flow meter, such as differential pressure flowmeter, volumetric flowmeters and variable area flow meter, has been in the universal stage, price competition, declining profit margins, less technological innovation, the market is relatively mature. Frost & Sullivan believes that to achieve product differentiation and manufacturer of customized production is intense competition in mature markets is an important breakthrough. According to Frost & Sullivan on the industry to analyze the needs of users, user groups, manufacturers hope to provide tangible benefits for the production of automation equipment. The user application process in the product will have specific needs, such as: The special environment in the petrochemical industry, the need for rugged design and explosion-proof certification; users straight tube Coriolis flowmeter design demand. How to effectively obtain the actual needs of users, and improvement of traditional products, is a manufacturer of differentiated and customized production process, not a small challenge.
Guide the user to accept and use of new technology flowmeters, such as ultrasonic flow meter, electromagnetic flow meter and thermal mass flow meter, are bigger and stronger producers to market another challenge.
In addition, the continued flow of new technology was introduced at the same time in various industries, rapid and efficient after-sales service is also essential for manufacturers. Especially the use of Foundation Fieldbus and ProfibusPA based bus meter, there are certain requirements of the software technology and effective service to provide users with more suitable solutions, and close to the user.
Trends.
From mechanical to electronic technology flowmeter flow meter flow meter innovation is one of the most important trends. Electromagnetic flowmeter, vortex flowmeter ultrasonic flowmeter and the use of electrical theory, thus avoiding the need to replace mechanical flow meter work, the moving parts. Meanwhile, the self-diagnosis function was introduced in the flow, making the flow meter is not just a simple measurement tool, more for system maintenance purposes, such as: air pipe to detect and self-inspection. And, in the electronic flow meter in combination with advanced communications technology, allows staff to remotely control the production site of the flow of real time data and historical data.
According to Frost & Sullivan research, approximately 89.0% of the current global use of mAHART meter communication protocol, since the flow meter communication protocol used mAHART difficulty in installation and operation requirements are lower than the flow meter with field bus protocol, and the introduction of field bus systems users is no small cost. However, as users continue to improve the automation level of the industry, hoping to get from the flow measurement of flow data in addition to more information than, for example, diagnostic information and status detection, the data transmission needs to rely on field bus support. Moreover, vendors such as Siemens and Emerson are taking efforts to implement fieldbus protocol flow measurement technology. Believe that this agreement will promote the flow field bus application prospects in various industries.
In addition, the wireless technology flow is gradually being accepted by users, the harsh environment of the fluid measurement of wireless technology is a good use of space. However, the user fully accepted and popular wireless technology will take some time to flow.