Pressure measurement
Air pressure sensors deployed in high-precision measurement systems
When Surrey Sensors Ltd. (SSL) needed more accurate, smaller and cost- competitive pressure sensors for use in their pressure measuring systems, they found that sensors from Honeywell were the only solution that met their list of strict requirements
conducts advanced research in the field of experimental and computational fluid dynamics. SSL’s specific goal is to commercialise the novel and innovative technologies emerging from the university’s
S
urrey Sensors Ltd. (SSL), formed in 2015 as a partnership between private venture and the University of Surrey,
experimental laboratories in its Centre for Aerodynamics and Environmental Flow (CAEF). SSL designs and manages fully- automated experimental measurement systems for the National Centre for Atmospheric Science EnFlow (Environmental Flow) national laboratory, which includes two medium-scale wind tunnels and an atmospheric boundary layer tunnel. SSL applies their cutting-edge technologies
to the design and manufacture of bespoke, cost-effective measurement products for a wide range of sectors, including Formula 1/motorspor t, avionics, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), healthcare, commercial agriculture, and elite spor t. Several SSL products address specific
measurement needs at ultra-low pressures (less than 6,985 Pa (1 psi/27.8 inH20). Working in this par ticular band of the pressure continuum requires pressure sensors that must meet a set of performance factors that are generally difficult to achieve in the same sensor. They must be more accurate and sensitive to smaller pressure changes: more stable, and have a higher threshold of burst and over pressures. SSl also needed precalibrated and
temperature-compensated pressure sensors, which eliminated costs associated with in- house amplification, signal conditioning, increased design and production time, and extra materials. Precalibrated sensors would also free up PCB board space which, in turn, would directly contribute to reducing the final product size, an impor tant consideration.
32 SSL products use the Honeywell TruStability
RSC and HSC Series board mount pressure sensors as the core pressure sensing components in several flagship products.
PreSSure SenSorS Interface card These cards, designed around the RSC and HSC Series pressure sensors, are for use in pressure prototyping, calibration and simple acquisition systems. They include all the power, signal conditioning and digital systems required to drive these high-precision, digital pressure sensors. The RSC Series uses a higher accuracy, 24-
bit, analogue-to-digital conver ter, an impor tant consideration in an age when modern digital pressure sensors no longer provide simple analogue-propor tional outputs. This feature allows sophisticated digital sensors to talk directly to legacy systems such as analogue data acquisition systems, providing access to digital functionality. “We found the TruStability sensors more accurate than the calibration equipment we use in the lab,” explains Dr. David M. Birch, director of Research at SSL. The TruStability sensors also provide
data streams in actual SI engineering units, instead of voltages, an unforeseen benefit that allows for simpler integration, which SSL only discovered after star ting work with these sensors.
64-cHanneL moduLar PreSSure Scanner SyStem This system provides multi-channel pressure
January 2019 Instrumentation Monthly
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