Setra Blog


June 19, 2017

What does shock and vibration do to a pressure transducer?

There are numerous environmental factors that can interfere with the performance of a pressure transducer.  Two commonly overlooked factors are shock and vibration. Knowing the system where the pressure transducer is installed can help avoid high shock and vibration conditions, minimizing premature failure of your instrumentation. 

Continue Reading →

June 15, 2017

How are power meters used in LEED projects?

LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the largest driving force behind the increased development of green buildings in the world. One of the most important factors that LEED uses in their certification process is energy consumption and the owner’s ability to track usage and identify potential savings. While most conventional buildings have simple meters provided by the utility company for billing purposes, the advanced standards for LEED certification require more robust and more precise monitoring capability.

Continue Reading →

June 12, 2017

What is a Vivarium?

To most people, the term “vivarium” conjures up the image of a small fish tank-like glass box where a pet rat or gecko lives. While this is not incorrect, vivariums in biomedical research facilities are a bit more robust than what you might see in a high school science lab.

Vivarium Defined

Vivariums are enclosed areas designed to provide a stable environment for animals and plants for observation or scientific research. Often, vivariums contain a portion of an ecosystem for a particular species with controlled environmental conditions on a smaller scale. A vivarium you would find in an academic research setting contains multiple racks of various sizes depending on the species it contains.

Continue Reading →

June 08, 2017

What is Total Harmonic Distortion?

Imagine a tone being played by two musical instruments -  let’s say middle C (261.63 Hz). While the pitch played on a piano may be the same as on an electric guitar, its timbre is very different. The sound wave generated from a piano or a simple synthesizer is relatively simple and clean, but the sound wave coming from an electric guitar is often very distorted for effect and contains natural harmonic overtones.

Continue Reading →

June 05, 2017

What is Hysteresis?

Hysteresis Defined

According to Merriam-Webster, hysteresis is the “lagging of a physical effect on a body behind its cause (as behind changed forces and conditions)”. When outside forces act on an object, that object will either immediately spring back to its original state, or more likely, it will somehow change or exhibit properties from previous deformations.

Continue Reading →

June 01, 2017

What is the difference between Rogowski Coils and conventional CTs?

Understanding specific job requirements, such as performance, installation, amperage load and environmental factors is critical to selecting the proper current transformer for an application. Conventional current transformers (CTs) come with their limitations as they are difficult to install and are lacking in performance and measurement range. Rogowski coils have significant advantages with regards to installation, cost and performance.

Continue Reading →

May 25, 2017

What is the difference between strain gauge and capacitive transducers?

Setra is best known for pioneering the variable capacitance principle, the technological innovation behind capacitance-based pressure transducers. Variable capacitance transducers demonstrate industry-leading accuracy especially in low pressure HVAC and critical care applications with accuracies as high as ±0.25” water column (±0.009 PSI).

Continue Reading →

May 22, 2017

Why it's important to accurately measure barometric pressure

While changes in barometric pressure aren’t immediately obvious to human perception (except when your ears pop while hiking up a mountain), its effects can manifest themselves in many other ways. This is especially true in sensitive industrial and laboratory settings.

Continue Reading →

May 18, 2017

What is the difference between opening and closing gap sensors?

In many pressure sensing applications, high accuracy is a must-have. Whether you’re working with thousands of PSI or only a quarter inch of water column, the most demanding jobs require the best tools available. While there are many types of pressure sensing devices on the market, none quite match variable capacitance transducers in terms of accuracy and quality.

Continue Reading →

May 15, 2017

What is Submetering?

Submetering is the installation of metering devices with the ability to measure energy usage after the primary utility meter.  Submetering offers the ability to monitor energy usage for individual tenants, departments, pieces of equipment or other loads individually to account for their actual energy usage.  With submetering, a clear and accurate picture of how and when energy is being consumed inside a facility is created.

Continue Reading →