Company Introduces new AMR Register
Invensys Metering Systems, formerly Sensus Technologies, has introduced a new AMR System Register for its water meters. The company claims the register will "evolutionize" if not revolutionize the state of the art for such devices.
Among the register's primary benefits are its reliability and higher resolution. It also brings practical and affordable automated meter reading capabilities to multi-jet meters and is engineered to be backward compatible and can be mixed in with existing Invensys AMR systems such as RadioReadRegistered, PhonReadRegistered and TouchReadRegistered.
The AMR System Register's reliability is achieved through the application of a new technology called "Magnetic-Field Position-Sensing" that eliminates traditional mechanical wipers and electrical contacts that created friction and drag and were potential wear spots. Also eliminated in the new Register are snap-action spring mechanisms that add a torque-load to a meter's sensing element, such as a paddle wheel or positive displacement piston.
With all such drag and torque eliminated, the register can be used with the Invensys line of PMM multi-jet meters, a product line acquired by the company with its purchase of the Precision Meter Company of Orlando, FL.
The register uses the same basic encoder technology of its predecessors. A mechanical, gear driven odometer assembly is used for traditional visual-reading functions. The electronic reading of data is derived directly from the rotational position of the register's odometer wheels.
The new register provides for higher reading resolution with the addition of decimal places on its face. For example, gallons can now be read in tenths, and more precise incremental units can be read for cubic feet and cubic meters than previously was possible.
Given the register's eight odometer wheels are all functional, the zeros traditionally printed on dial faces to indicate a theoretical unit of measure have been eliminated. Also eliminated has been the traditional sweep hand that indicated fractional units, as such increments are now displayed on the odometer wheels. The new register also incorporates a new, combination testing-pointer and leak detector.
The new register extends the company's use of standard ASCII protocol, which it first used in AMR registers in 1984. Although additional data fields have been incorporated in the register, it can be read by any hand-held or AMR reading devices that could read earlier Invensys AMR registers. Therefore, the new registers can be mixed into a utility's existing Invensys AMR system without the need to replace older registers.
Each register incorporates a never-duplicated identification number that is factory-set into the register's non-volatile electronic memory, thereby providing an error-free linking of a particular meter and the customer it serves with a utility's billing computer.
To prevent infiltration of moisture that could interfere with the register's accurate operation, especially critical when meters are installed in in-ground pits and vaults, two deterrents are used. A patented, impenetrable barrier-film protects the register's electronic components just as effectively as does a hermetically-sealed register on a standard, visual-read meter. To prevent moisture infiltration, connection components are encapsulated at the factory with a special epoxy formulation.