Liquid Flow Meters - Applications in Agriculture and Food Processing

Abstract : In the context of the refined development of the agricultural and food processing industries, the collaborative system consisting of turbine flow meters, electromagnetic flow meters, ultrasonic flow meters, quantitative control boxes, and data loggers has become a core piece of equipment for improving the efficiency of liquid management. This article focuses on the characteristics of these three types of flow meters and elaborates on the application value of this system in optimizing work processes, saving resources, and ensuring quality in three major scenarios: agricultural irrigation, agricultural processing, and water resource management. It also demonstrates its role in promoting the intelligent upgrading of the industry.

Keywords : turbine flow meter; electromagnetic flow meter; ultrasonic flow meter; quantitative control box; data logger; agricultural application

In the process of refining agricultural production and food processing, the "measurement-control-recording" system, composed of liquid flow meters, quantitative control boxes, and data loggers, has become core equipment for improving resource utilization and product quality. These three types of equipment do not operate independently but form a tightly integrated technological loop: the liquid flow meter acts as the "sensing terminal," enabling real-time capture of various liquid flow rates; the quantitative control box serves as the "execution center," automatically regulating fluid delivery based on preset parameters; and the data logger acts as the "memory carrier," completely preserving data from the entire process and providing a basis for subsequent analysis and optimization. The coordinated operation of these three components fundamentally solves the problem of the extensive "experience-based operation" in traditional farming and lays a solid data foundation for intelligent management in the industry. Its application scenarios have deeply covered key aspects such as agricultural irrigation, water resource management, and food processing, becoming an important technological support for driving industrial upgrading.

Agricultural Irrigation: Technological Support from Flood Irrigation to Precision Drip Irrigation

Flow meter selection and adaptation: matching the characteristics of irrigation water sources

Agricultural irrigation is the core application scenario for liquid flow meters and related equipment. The combination of these three components has completely changed the traditional irrigation management model of "watering according to weather and controlling the amount by feel," providing a reliable technological path for water-saving agriculture. In the "dual control of well and electricity" projects widely promoted in Hebei, Shandong, and other places, turbine flow meters , ultrasonic flow meters, and electromagnetic flow meters have become the "eyes" of the irrigation system. Electromagnetic flow meters, with their advantages of simple structure and strong resistance to impurities, are suitable for irrigation water sources containing a small amount of sediment; ultrasonic flow meters, with their non-contact measurement characteristics, avoid errors caused by pipe wear. Both can collect irrigation water flow data in real time and transmit it accurately to the quantitative control box via pulse signals. Farmers can operate the system with great convenience. They only need to set the target irrigation volume on the control box touch screen or start the system by swiping an IC card, and the equipment will run automatically. When the flow data reaches the preset value, the control box will immediately issue a command to automatically shut off the water pump or solenoid valve. The entire process requires no manual intervention, avoiding water waste caused by over-irrigation and preventing crop growth from being affected by insufficient irrigation. In the corn-growing areas of Dezhou, Shandong, the adoption of this system has reduced the "leakage" phenomenon in traditional irrigation by 80%, and significantly improved irrigation efficiency.

Data Recording Enables Scientific Irrigation Decision-Making

The data logger acts as an "invisible steward" in this process, with a storage capacity of tens of thousands of data entries and power-loss protection to ensure data is not lost in the event of a power outage. It not only synchronously records core data such as the flow rate, duration, and start/stop times of each irrigation, but also links with soil moisture sensors to form a complete "irrigation-soil moisture" curve by combining soil moisture data at different depths. After implementing this system in wheat bases in Weibei, Shaanxi, farmers analyzed the data exported from the logger to accurately grasp the water requirements of wheat during key growth stages such as jointing and grain filling. This allowed them to scientifically adjust irrigation timing and volume, reducing water consumption per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares) from the traditional 300 cubic meters to 220 cubic meters, achieving a water saving rate of 27%. Simultaneously, the thousand-grain weight of wheat increased by 5%, and the yield per mu increased by nearly 100 jin (a Chinese unit of weight, approximately 50 kg). Furthermore, the data logger supports daily and monthly data reports , facilitating data organization and archiving for farmers. It also provides agricultural technicians with detailed first-hand data for conducting field trials and developing regional irrigation plans, promoting a shift in irrigation management from "experience-driven" to "data-driven."

Agricultural processing: A "measuring line of defense" to ensure stable quality.

Food processing: Efficient coordination between flow meters and control boxes

In the fields of food processing and agricultural pharmaceutical formulation, liquid metering directly affects product quality and production efficiency. The synergistic application of these three technologies constructs a "metering defense line" to ensure stable quality. In edible oil bottling production lines, turbine flow meters, with their high repeatability, have become the core equipment for monitoring oil flow. The quantitative control box is equipped with advanced large and small valve graded control technology. At the initial stage of bottling, the large valve is opened for rapid filling; when the flow approaches the preset value, it automatically switches to the small valve for slow replenishment, effectively avoiding metering errors caused by liquid impact and strictly controlling the filling error of 5L bottles of peanut oil within the industry's high-quality standard range. When the cumulative flow reaches the set value, the control box immediately triggers a valve-closing signal. The entire process response time is less than 0.1 seconds, ensuring that the net content of each bottle meets the standard while avoiding raw material waste. At a large edible oil company in Shandong, after this system was put into use, the raw material loss rate of a single production line decreased from 1.2% to 0.3%, reducing losses by over 100 tons annually.

Agricultural pesticide preparation: The unique advantages of electromagnetic flowmeters

The formulation of agricultural pesticides demands stringent metrological standards. Dosage deviations not only affect pest and disease control efficacy but can also lead to excessive pesticide residues or environmental pollution. In this scenario, electromagnetic flowmeters demonstrate unique advantages. Operating based on Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction, they are unaffected by factors such as pesticide viscosity and temperature, and can stably measure pesticide solutions containing suspended particles. The quantitative control box automatically adjusts the flow ratio of each component solution using preset formula parameters, ensuring consistent concentration in each formulation. The data logger records detailed data for each formulation, including raw material usage, mixing time, and ambient temperature, generating a unique batch number. Operators can quickly trace the formulation process of each batch of pesticides using this number. This "triple guarantee" model, after being applied in vegetable planting bases in Henan, has increased pesticide utilization by 15%, and the pass rate for pesticide residue sampling of agricultural products has remained at 100% continuously. In the production of condiments such as soy sauce and vinegar, the combination of flow meter and control box also plays an important role. By precisely controlling the flow rate of raw materials such as fermentation liquid and brine, it ensures the stability of product flavor, improves efficiency by 40% compared with traditional manual control methods, and reduces batch scrapping caused by human error.

Water resource management: a "data hub" for achieving scientific allocation.

Management of remote irrigation areas: The practical value of ultrasonic flow meters

In agricultural water resource management, the combination of liquid flow meters, quantitative control boxes, and data loggers has become the "data hub" for water departments to achieve scientific scheduling, playing an irreplaceable role, especially in water resource management in remote irrigation areas. In some irrigation areas of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, due to the vast area and scattered farmers, traditional manual meter reading management is difficult and suffers from problems such as inaccurate measurement and lack of supervision. Now, the combination of ultrasonic flow meters and intelligent control boxes has completely solved this problem—the ultrasonic flow meter is installed at the well outlet, without direct contact with the water flow, effectively avoiding wear and tear on the equipment caused by high sand content in the well water; the intelligent control box integrates functions such as card-based billing and remote control. Farmers can start water collection by swiping their real-name IC cards, the flow meter measures water consumption in real time, the control box calculates the cost simultaneously and deducts it automatically, and the system will issue an audible and visual alarm when the card balance is insufficient; if the farmer does not recharge in time, the pump will automatically stop. The data logger stores data such as the time, flow rate, user information, and water level changes for each water draw in real time. Water department staff can periodically visit the site to read the data using dedicated equipment, or collect data in batches through the local area network, completely eliminating the tediousness of manual meter reading.

Data-Driven Decision Making: Achieving Rational Allocation of Water Resources

By summarizing and analyzing the data from the recorders of each well, the management department can accurately grasp the total agricultural water consumption and the water consumption of each farmer in the region, providing data support for formulating scientific water rights allocation plans and adjusting agricultural planting structures. Simultaneously, this system also has an anomaly monitoring function. When flow meter malfunctions, pipeline leaks, or malicious water theft occur, the control box immediately triggers an alarm signal, and the data recorder records detailed flow change data during the abnormal period, providing strong evidence for troubleshooting and liability determination. After implementing this system in Hengshui, Hebei Province, the water resources department, by analyzing the recorder data, implemented a "surcharge for exceeding quotas" policy for areas planting high water-consuming crops. This effectively guided farmers to adjust their planting structures, reducing the planting area of high water-consuming crops. The region's groundwater over-extraction decreased by 18% compared to the previous year, successfully achieving the planned water use target and providing a solid guarantee for the sustainable use of water resources.

Summary and Outlook

The synergistic application of liquid flow meters, quantitative control boxes, and data loggers is reshaping liquid management models in agriculture and processing. Its value lies not only in its technological efficiency but also in driving innovation in industry management concepts. From water-saving and yield-increasing irrigation in fields to quality assurance in workshop production and scientific allocation of water resources, this system, based on precise metering, overcomes the pain points of traditional liquid management: "difficult metering, coarse control, and poor traceability." With intelligent control at its core, it reduces the intensity of manual operation and improves production management efficiency. Supported by data recording, it provides a reliable basis for the industry's refined and standardized development. As agricultural modernization accelerates, the application scenarios of this equipment will further expand. Whether it's integrated water and fertilizer management in facility agriculture or precise ingredient proportioning in deep processing of agricultural products, their technological support is indispensable. In the future, with the improvement of equipment intelligence, the synergy among the three will become even closer, injecting stronger momentum into the high-quality development of modern agriculture and helping to achieve multiple goals: increased agricultural efficiency, increased farmer income, and environmental protection.