Teledyne Hastings Instruments Blog

Teledyne Hastings Instruments introduced the IP-67 Enclosure Version for our high accuracy Digital 300 Series of thermal mass flow meters and flow controllers in 2018. The IP, or Ingress Protection rating, describes the instrument’s ability to operate in challenging environments. The first number, 6, indicates that the flow instrument has total protection against dust (particulate). That’s the highest-level of dust protection achievable under the IP Code. The second number, 7, refers to protection from liquids.

The Digital 300 Series with optional IP-67 enclosure can withstand water immersion up to one (1) meter for thirty (30) minutes. While it may not be obvious to everyone, it offers the liquid protection of the one meter / thirty-minute immersion as well as all lesser liquid codes (from dripping water through powerful water jets).

For more specific details on IP-67 and Ingress Protection ratings, please see our previous blog: Digital Flow Meters and Controllers now protected against dust and water - what that means for you!

What are the benefits of a mass flow meter (MFM) or mass flow controller (MFC) with IP-67 rating? It’s two-fold:

1. Employee safety is every employer’s primary concern. IP-67 enclosures help to protect your employees from making accidental contact with hazardous electrical components and potential electrical shock.
2. IP-67 enclosures also help protect your equipment from the ingress of solid particles and/or liquids. Most MFC enclosures contain a PCB assembly, thermal flow sensor, and a proportional control valve. By protecting your MFC from particulate contamination and/or moisture, you prolong the service-life of those components.
   
   
   

This protection against dust and liquids makes IP-67 MFCs ideal for demanding indoor and outdoor applications. Whether it’s a heavy-dust industrial environment or in a facility with routine sanitary washdown requirements, the Teledyne Hastings Instruments Digital 300 Series IP-67 MFCs endure.

Common applications include:

• Food and Beverage
• Heat Treating/Metals Processing
• Environmental Monitoring
• Biotech/Pharmaceutical
• Chemical/Petrochemical
• Gas Distribution

All internal components of the Digital 300 Series IP-67 MFMs and MFCs are either gasket or o-ring sealed for ingress protection. The electronics interface uses a 12-pin circular connector that facilitates Power (24vdc, Common, and Ground), Analog Input / Output (0-5vdc, 0-10vdc, 4-20mA, or 0-20mA), and Digital Communication (RS232 or RS485). 

All Digital 300 Series models (sizes) are available with the IP-67 option. These sizes combine to offer complete coverage from a minimum Full Scale flow rate of 5 sccm up to a maximum Full Scale flow rate of 10,000 SLM of N2 or equivalent. Selection details for each model are illustrated in this table:

Size	MFM Model	MFC Model	Nominal Tubing	Maximum Flow (N2 Equiv.)	IP-67 Option
S	HFM-D-300A	HFC-D-302A	1/8" and 1/4"	25 SLM
M	HFM-D-301A	HFC-D-303A	1/2" and 3/4"	1,000 SLM
L	HFM-D-305A	HFC-D-307A	1"	3,000 SLM
XL	HFC-D-306A	HFC-D-308A	2"	10,000 SLM

Most features of the Digital 300 Series MFMs and MFCs are supported by the IP-67 version. These include the totalizer, valve over-ride, soft start, fold-over protection and many more.

Visit https://www.teledyne-hi.com/en-us/what-we-do/thermal-mass-flow to learn more about Teledyne Hastings Instruments mass flow meters and mass flow controllers.

If you have questions about mass flow controllers, feel free to contact us by phone (+1-757-723-6531 or 1-800-950-2468), email Hastings_Instruments@Teledyne.com, or via Live Chat on our website www.teledyne-hi.com.

Teledyne Hastings designs and build mass flow controllers for a broad array of markets from clean laboratory environments to heavy industrial installations. Recently, we have been asked to provide our newest line of Digital 300 Flow Meters and Controllers into more demanding environments. And, we are proud to offer an optional IP-67 enclosure, which provides protection against dust and water. More on our product later in the blog.

But first, let’s explore the IP, or Ingress Protection, rating system.  NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) publishes a standard (ANSI/IEC 60529-2004) entitled, “Degrees of Protection Provided by Enclosures (IP Code)”. The corresponding international standard is IEC 60529. The introduction to the IP Code starts:

This standard describes a system for classifying the degrees of protection provided by enclosures of electrical equipment for two conditions: 1) the protection of persons against access to hazardous parts and protection of equipment against the ingress of solid foreign objects and 2) the ingress of water.

The IP Code rates the degree of protection by using two numbers. The first number describes protection against solid particles; the second number describes protection against liquids. The Wikipedia page describing the IP Code provides a couple of nice tables to help us quickly understand the numbers.

Which now brings us back to the Teledyne IP-67 rated enclosure. The first number, “6”, indicates that our enclosure is completely protected against dust. The second number, “7”, indicates that our instrument can withstand submersion in water up to a meter in depth for up to 30 minutes.

One side note about IP ratings, if you follow the battle between Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone, you may have seen an article published by CNET last September (2017). In the article, it was stated that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are certified with an IP67 rating, while the Samsung Galaxy S8 is rated IP68. And by the way, yes… according to Reddit, the whole putting the wet iPhone in rice thing to dry it out, does work.  

In order to claim the IP-67 rating, Teledyne Hastings has sent test instruments to NCEE Labs in Lincoln Nebraska. In general, there are two tests, one for dust and one for water. Aaron Steggs, Senior Test Engineer with NCEE explains, “The testing to receive the dust rating is not trivial. There is a vacuum test on the enclosure to ensure that no ingress of dust can occur. The vacuum pressure used is 2kPa.”

Aaron goes on to explain a little about the water test, “When talking about immersion testing, there is a greater chance of water being forced into any opening due to the weight of the water about the instrument under test.”

In any case, we have passed both the dust and water test and now you can have the accuracy and fast response of the Digital 300 Series in an IP rated enclosure.

For more info about our digital 200 mass flow meters and controllers, please visit www.teledyne-hi.com or click the button below for more inforamation on the IP-67 version now available.