The World Market for Primary Elements, 2nd Edition

Details of the Current Size of the Worldwide Primary Elements Market, the Leading Suppliers’ Market Shares, and Market Forecasts for the Next 5 Years

The study presents:

• 2018 market size in US dollars and unit volume for primary elements worldwide
• 2018 market shares of the leading primary element suppliers worldwide
• Forecast of the growth market for primary elements in dollars and unit volumes through 2023
• Segmented data both worldwide and for each of eight global regions
• Product analysis for the significant primary element suppliers
• Industries and applications where primary elements are used, plus market growth sectors
• Market and product strategies for primary element suppliers
• Company profiles for significant primary element suppliers worldwide

Why the primary element market is growing:

The rise of crude oil prices since early 2017 has revved up oil & gas exploration and production activity worldwide. That surge has increased sales of differential pressure (DP) flowmeters, which are among the most widely used flowmeters in the industry. This is good news for primary elements, which suppliers combine with DP transmitters to create DP flowmeters.

Other factors are also fueling the growth of the primary elements market:

Environmental standards and regulations for monitoring flare gas and stack gas emissions. In response to continuous emission monitoring (CEM) requirements, primary elements companies developed averaging Pitot tubes that use measurements at multiple locations to compute flow for the entire pipe, duct, or stack.

Increasing popularity of multivariable and integrated DP flowmeters. The multivariable DP transmitter market is growing as new suppliers of these more sophisticated devices enter the market. In addition, integrated DP flowmeters in which the transmitter and primary element are paired at the factory and sold as a single unit are also gaining in popularity.

Technological improvements. Product enhancements designed to solve specific application needs include extreme high-pressure wedge elements, cone-based meters, single and dual chamber housings, and hybrid combinations (i.e. flow nozzle with elements of an averaging Pitot tube).

Strong installed base. DP flowmeters have a very large installed base that almost guarantees the primary element – and differential pressure flow transmitter -- market will continue to hold its own within the instrumentation world.

How primary elements work:

Primary elements place a constriction in the flow line that creates a pressure drop in the line. The DP transmitter uses the difference between upstream pressure and downstream pressure in the line as a basis for computing flow.

DP flow measurement – and the use of primary elements -- officially dates to at least the 17th century -- though the measurement of flow using nozzles actually goes way back to Roman times. In the early 1600s, Italian scientists Benedetto Torricelli and Evangelista Castelli arrived at the concepts that underlie differential pressure measurement today: that flowrate equals velocity times pipe area, and that the flow through an orifice varies with the square root of the head.

In 1738, Daniel Bernoulli developed his famous equation for flowrate calculation that shows increasing velocity by constricting a flow path increases fluid pressure.

The first commercial orifice plate flowmeter appeared in 1909 and was used to measure steam flow. Shortly thereafter, the oil and gas industries began using orifice plate flowmeters due to the ease of standardization and low maintenance. Since that time a range of other primary elements have gained popularity.