Brooks Instrument Blog

Process production can be tricky. In the past, we’ve covered ways to ease the pain of process manufacturing, and today we’re excited to introduce a game-changing development to the industry. Our vacuum measurement expert Ken Tinsley will be presenting a poster session at SVC TechCon 2013 in Providence, R.I., where the XacTorr CMX line of vacuum gauges will take center stage.

The XacTorr CMX line will break new ground, as they’re the first digital capacitance manometers to enter the market. The secret is the Mark-IV sensor built into the gauges. The surface chamber has areas allocated for vapors and particles to group without affecting the sensor. This feature not only extends the sensor life but also increases productivity by reducing the need to re-zero.

Tinsley’s presentation, “Advantages of Digital Calibration in Second Decade of Capacitance Diaphragm Gauges”, will take place today at the Rhode Island Convention Center from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. As a proud sponsor of the show, we’re offering free admission to anyone interested in learning more about our vacuum technologies. If you’re in the area and would like free admission to the show, simply email your name, company and email address to BrooksAM@BrooksInstrument.com.

We hope to see you at the show!

Big news here at Brooks. We’ve got another product launch underway. This one involves a redesign of our MT3809 VA flow meter. That great instrument just got even better.

The new MT3809 works accurately across a staggeringly wide range of operating temperatures — from -50°C to 420°C (-58°F to 780°F) — and at pressures to 1380 bar (20K psi). Even in the most demanding applications measuring gases, liquids, and steam, the MT3809 delivers 2% full-scale/1.6 VDI accuracy. We’ve given the new MT3809 an explosion-proof housing that meets the world’s most stringent hazardous-area classifications, and we’re offering a flameproof option for IIC/Class 1 Division 1 locations.

All in all, you’ve got unprecedented flexibility to use a single flow meter regardless of application, process configuration or flow rate.

Of course we always like to design for value as well as quality and durability, so you can expect the new MT3809 to save you plenty of time and money over the course of its long service life. For starters, installation is fast and easy. That includes retrofitting. Maintenance is simple, too. Weldneck flanges provide long-term durability in all configurations. You don’t need back pressure for gas applications, and we’ve met ASME sealing specifications with a standard gasket, saving you the cost of custom gaskets.

As always, we’d be happy to tell you more about it. Email me, or call us at 1-888-554-3569.

On a sunny Saturday in Holland, team members from Brooks Instrument hit the ground running for the SolarRun, a 5k/10k fun run that benefitted the Solar Without Borders organization.

Brooks Instrument was eager to participate in the event as it helps to increase funding and awareness for Solar Without Borders, a charity that works with a variety of industries to provide photovoltaic panels to hospitals, schools, and orphanages in countries with limited electric infrastructure. Solar Without Borders originally started in West Africa and now operates in numerous countries around the globe including Guatemala, Kenya, and Mongolia.

Poor conditions often exist in hospitals with no or little electricity. Solar panels on these buildings will help to keep medications refrigerated and thus fresh for longer periods of time. Electric lighting also reduces dependence on oil lamps commonly used in maternity wards. The lanterns are known to emit harmful chemicals into the air.

Solar panels can impact literacy rates in impoverished countries. In Burkina Faso, where the literacy rate is only 28.7%, Solar Without Borders hopes to increase literacy by providing electric lighting for children to complete their homework.

The SolarRun is organized by Tempress Systems, a Dutch customer of Brooks Instrument active in the solar industry. Tempress believes strongly that a healthy world is important and they encourage their employees to keep physically fit and to stay energetic. Brooks Instrument shares these values and was excited to both sponsor and participate in the event. Read more…

The longstanding popularity of variable area flow meters is well warranted, as it’s been the go-to piece of equipment for the measurement of gas, liquid and steam flow for a century.  But as the times change and processing of petrochemicals and other petroleum-based products becomes more globalized, finding cost-effective and reliable measurement devices is growing in importance.

Our free webinar, “One World One Product: Bringing a Global Perspective to Metal Tube Variable Area Flow Meters,” on April 16 you will give you the opportunity to learn about the most recent innovations in VA flow meters, including a brand new product just entering the market now.

You will learn how to use the best product for your project or company to minimize plant downtime, get tips on making sure you have the right VA meter for your specs, and more.  Receive a thorough overview of exactly how a VA meter works from our experts, as well as tips on how to find a supplier that best suits your service, inspection, and team needs.

The key speaker will be Jim Dillon, a global product manager at Brooks Instrument and an expert in the field of both rotameters and engineering. So come and learn from the best. You can enroll by clicking here.

Here at Brooks, we’re gearing up for a big trip — to Shanghai! For the first time, we’ll be exhibiting at SEMICON China from March 19-21. We’re sharing booth 5505 with our valued partner SCH Electronics, and look forward to showcasing our high-performance digital solutions for flow, vacuum and pressure measurement.

But the big news is that Brooks will be launching the revolutionary GF135 pressure transient insensitive mass flow controller (MFC) at SEMICON China. The GF135 improves yield and uptime for semiconductor manufacturers with real-time integral rate-of-decay measurement and advanced diagnostic capabilities. These diagnostics enable users to verify accuracy, check valve leak-by and monitor sensor drift without stopping production. The MFC provides market-leading actual process gas accuracy and ultra-fast flow settling time for reduced process cycle time. Read more…

For the first time, Pittcon will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, and we’re thrilled to have the hustle and bustle of this show right in our backyard. Brooks will be at booth 702 offering product demos and showcasing our market-leading mass flow controllers, vacuum capacitance manometers and pressure transducers.

We’re most excited to reveal our expanded portfolio of GF 40/80 Series mass flow controllers at Pittcon. The GF 40/80 Series leads the market in long-term zero stability at less than 0.5% per year. What does that mean? The devices will return more reliable accuracy data for a longer period of time than competitive devices. And with MulitFlo™ inside, users can re-program the gas and/or range of the devices in minutes without the trouble and cost of removing them from service. Read more…

Next week is the Pittcon trade show. Boy, that came up quickly! If you are planning to head to Orlando, FL for Pittcon this year, be sure to stop by and see us at booth 961. In fact, click here if you want to schedule an appointment with one of our sales engineers at the show! If you do stop by, you’ll be able to check out our award winning products like the brand new GF40/80 Series mass flow controller / mass flow meter, the XacTorr Series capacitance manometer, SolidSense II pressure transmitter, and so much more!

Just so you know what to look for on the show floor, below is a picture of our booth. So be sure to hunt us down at Pittcon. We’d love to hear from you!

Winning Control Global’s Readers Choice Awards is probably one of the best awards that we can win because the winners are chosen by the users of instrumentation. You can check out the full press release about this here, but below is the gist.

Brooks was honored in three categories, variable area flowmeter, positive displacement flowmeter and thermal mass flowmeter. For variable area flow meter, this was the 15th consecutive year we have place 1st in this category. And for positive displacement flow meter, this is the 18th consecutive year we have placed 1st. Quite an achievement if I do say so myself! For thermal mass flow meter, we placed 4th this year.

Thanks to Control Global and a special thank you to all the readers of Control Magazine that voted for Brooks!

I was just informed that as of yesterday, January 3, 2012, our long-time Brooks sales rep, Webco Controls, Inc, merged with Miller Energy Inc. This is pretty exciting news for our customers in the Northeast United States who deal with Webco. This merger will really enhance the technical inside sales support for customers as well as providing them a very broad range of instrumentation and valve manufacturers. Read more…

While we were cleaning out our offices a few weeks ago a co-worker of mine handed me a great Norman Rockwell oil painting that we used to have hanging in one of our hallways. It was taken down when we were updating our facility. He wasn’t sure what to do with it. The reason we used to have it hanging up in the walls at Brooks (and the reason I’m going to find it another nice home on our walls) is because in the background of the picture you can see some Brooks Sho-Rate variable area flow meters between the two men on the left. Brooks provided Sho-Rate flow meters to  NASA for some of the first missions into space. Read more…