Liquid and gas flow, anemometry and volumes

Portrait

Daily, large quantities of liquids or gas are produced, shipped or distributed. A precise measurement of flow or volume is needed, be it for managing a process or a transaction. This can also be relevant to safety. With medical pumps that dispense highly efficient medicine into the body, for example, every drop counts.

Reliable measurement for meteorological observations, optimisation of ventilation systems or emission measurements require a calibrated instrument to measure air speed.

The laboratory develops, maintains and improves measurement facilities with the highest degree of accuracy, internationally recognised to verify, calibrate and perform type approvals for measurement instruments in the fields of liquid and gas flow, measurements of volumes and anemometry.

The laboratory’s quality system is based on the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and its certificates are internationally accepted and recognised.

Measure the smallest flows accurately

Services

The measurement services of the laboratory encompass calibrations, consulting, type approval and type testing. Feel free to contact us in case of questions.

Calibrations
Our calibration services ensure traceability to the national measurement standards. The laboratory’s quality system is based on the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and its certificates are internationally accepted and recognised.

Type of instrument

Measuring range

Uncertainty

Anemometers

(0.02 … 13.0) m/s

(0.10 … 50.0) m/s

(0.10 + 0.5/v)%

0.02 m/s for v < 1 m/s

2% for v > 1 m/s

Gas flow meters

(0.10 … 300) L/min (ambient air)

(0.10 … 4500) m3/h (ambient air)

(0.018 … 2500) m3/h (compressed air or gas, except H2 and He)

0.07%

0.16%

0.20%

Water and heat flow meters

 

100 nL/min … 5 mL/min

(6.0 … 10'500) L/h, DN02 à DN50

0.2 mL/min ... 400 mL/min

(0.1 – 0.6)%

0.2%

0.07%

Reference volumes

50 mL … 1000 L,
demineralised water

5 L … N ´ 1000 L

(60 – 100) ppm


0.05%

Type approval and type testing
We issue national type approval certificates for cold meters and perform the necessary tests for type testing according to the MID for flow (MI-001, MI-002 and MI-004). Please contact METAS Cert for further information on type testing.

Test and calibrate hydrogen filling stations
METAS has developed a system that can be used to test and calibrate hydrogen filling stations. This allows a traceable calculation of the hydrogen delivered in hydrogen vehicles according to OIML R139:2018. With its Hydrogen Field Test Standard (HFTS), METAS can perform on-site measurements at hydrogen filling stations. For further information please contact flow@metas.ch.

Research & Development

We are continuously improving our installations and procedures to fulfil our customer’s needs, maintain low uncertainties and extend our measurement services. This Research and Development effort is conducted internally as well as within projects involving other national metrology institutes, technical universities or industrial partners.

Our current focus of research lies on:

  • Development of a primary standard in liquid micro flow from 100 nL/min up to 1 mL/min
  • Development standard reference materials for non-Newtonian liquids

Microsite in English

Last modification 03.10.2024

Top of page

Contact

Federal Institute of Metrology
Laboratory Flow
Lindenweg 50
CH-3003 Berne-Wabern
T +41 58 387 01 11
flow@metas.ch

Print contact

https://www.ekm.admin.ch/content/metas/en/home/fabe/durchfluss.html