Ratemeter
Ratemeter is an instrument that indicates the counting rate of an electronic counter. It is commonly included as a standard feature on totalizers and count control products. Ratemeters are used where it is necessary to monitor the speed of a process. Conveyors, baking ovens, material flow and motor speed are characteristic of the types of processes in which ratemeters are applied. Ratemeters display motor or shaft RPM.
In a system, it is often used with a single channel analyzer to determine the frequency of occurrence of nuclear events of specific energy. the rate meter is also useful for system set up by indicating whether or not the instruments preceding it are processing signals.
In a rate meter, the rate of input is determined by counting the number of pulses that occur over a certain period of time. it is similar to a counter and timer combination; however, the ratemeter performs this determination through analogue means and displays the results on a meter directly, in counts per second. in the counter/timer combination, the timer controls the amount of time for which the collection of counts will occur. in the rate meter, the choice of time constants determines the integration time over which the averaging occurs. the integrator signal is converted to meter current. if the time constant was chosen is too long, fast input rates and transients will not be observed accurately. if the time constant is too short, the ratemeter will respond to fluctuations of input count rate. thus, time constant selection is an extremely important parameter to consider when determining which ratemeter to choose for a particular application. ratemeter's count rate range, zero offset capabilities, input voltage range, linearity, recorder output voltage, readout accuracy and the type of display.
