Flow meter

Abstract

The improved flow meter has a generally cylindrical first tube with a rod assembly received in the tube and centrally supported therein. The rod portion of the rod assembly is tapered at a generally uniform rate over at least a portion of its length. An orifice disk has an aperture which is positioned generally concentric with the rod. This aperture coacts with the rod for providing an indication of the rate of flow of a fluid through the meter and against the urging of a spring. When fluid flows through the meter, the disk moves towards the second end of the tube and the magnitude of the movement has a known relationship to the rate of flow. A second embodiment of the flow meter includes a magnetized sleeve and a follower, the latter confined for movement between the first inner tube and the second outer tube. The orifice disk, sleeve and follower move coincidently and the meter is thereby adapted for use with opaque fluids. In either embodiment, the inventive flow meter is configured to be easily disassembled and reassembled so that a particular orifice disk may be replaced by a disk having a metering aperture of a different diameter. The meter is thereby made useful to measure flow rates over two or more different flow ranges.