Experts at the Swiss instrumentation and process automation expert ABB are breathing new life into an established technology to measure the most traditional of all industrial gases: oxygen.
The oxygen molecule has mystical magnetic properties which allow it to be measured using the paramagnetic technique, which has traditionally relied on a dumbbell with two glass spheres that contain nitrogen, which is suspended on a fine wire. The sample is passed over the dumbbell which is in a strong magnetic field. Oxygen in the sample gas mixture causes the dumbbell to rotate and the rotational torque can be measured to determine the amount of oxygen in the sample.
Despite decades of incremental product development, some paramagnetic oxygen analyser designs have suffered from a small, but noticeable drift, which led to the requirement for frequent calibration. A recent innovation from ABB has put that problem completely in to the rear-view mirror! Its Magnos28 analyser replaces the traditional nitrogen gas-filled dumbbell with a solid state electronic microwing: digitalisation, in its most fundamental form. The microwing sensor reacts very quickly and accurately to oxygen concentration changes due to its very low mass, high width-to-thickness ratio and optimised magnetic field distribution. Furthermore, the influence of moisture is drastically reduced with this patent-pending technology.
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