Environmental regulations and sustainable technologies become a bigger concern for water and energy services with each passing day. Having these issues in mind already for some time, a couple of years ago Axioma Metering launched water and heat meters with durable composite flow body parts that currently are setting a new standard in the metering industry.
Lightweight and durable – a new normal for meters’ flow body parts
Typically, water and energy meter flow body parts are made from brass alloy to ensure long-life and accurate, wide flow range metering with tolerance for low-quality water. Unfortunately, compared to composite, brass itself has a greater weight that might lead to higher transportation costs. For example, our energy meter QALCOSONIC E3 (brass flow body part) weighs 2-6 times more (depending on the size) than QALCOSONIC E4 (composite flow body part) - and it is all because of a lighter flow body part!
Despite the low-weight advantage, composite alloys are more durable than traditional brass. Rustless composite material is made from a mixture of plastic and fiberglass and has better chemical resistance than metal to corrosion caused by chemicals used in drinking water. In fact, composite material suitability for contact with drinking water is confirmed by sanitary and hygiene certificates (WRAS; ASC; KTW).
Meeting customer demands with a lower price
By producing our composite flow body parts in-house, we can offer shorter manufacturing and delivery times as well as a range of different product variations to meet the needs of our customers. And in addition to improving the strength characteristics of products, composite materials are not susceptible to fluctuating copper prices. By adding up the lightweight of the final product – we can ensure more competitive pricing for our customers who choose composite meters instead of brass.
Contribution to sustainability
As mentioned before, the composite material is much lighter than brass and therefore contributes not only to the lower cost of transporting the product but also to lower CO2 emissions. In addition, composite material does not contain any metal, and because of using it the amount of rare or toxic metals used in manufacturing processes is extremely reduced.
All these advantages bring direct benefits to the global ecosystem. We are delighted that our smart metering products directly contribute to ensuring a more sustainable ecosystem and help to conquer global environmental problems.
Learn more about our composite ultrasonic meters:
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For accurate water flow measurement: QALCOSONIC W1
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For heating and cooling solutions: QALCOSONIC E4