Anyone have any experience with the Molbox or Bios MFC systems?

[USMCPMEL]

I am looking  at both systems and I am kind of leaning towards the bios. It seems easier to use and less expensive than the Molbox system. I hope someone out there is familiar with both of these systems and can give me some guidance?

http://www.biosint.com/pdf/Calibrating_MFCs_with_Bios_Met_Labs_Series.pdf

[OlDave]

We have had the BIOS for almost 7 years now and have been EXTREMELY satisfied with it. The ML-800 series was still only a concept in Harvey's back lab then, so we have the ML-500 with all 3 available flow cells. I would love to upgrade to the ML-800 but this one really does all I need at this time.

I like it because it doesn't employ as much "smoke and mirrors" as the Molbox does for flow measurement. I can SEE the piston moving. I can verify the temperature and pressure easily and I can perform a leak test to verify the performance of the Bios. I know that piston diameter isn't going to change and I have never had a start/stop sensor change position.

I would buy it again and I don't think you will be disappointed if you go with it.

[USMCPMEL]

What's it cot to get that system calibrated? Do you use it for mass flow controllers?

[OlDave]

The ML-500 is $900/cell and $150 for the base unit. That is a NVALP 17025 calibration.

I just used it yesterday to calibrate a MFC scaled for NH3. You can just input the K factor into the BIOS and run it with N2, direct readout to match the MFC. Works real slick.

[USMCPMEL]

You remember what it cost you originally to buy the system?

[Kalrock]

I don't know about the Bios system, but the Molbox system is very expensive.  I think for our entire system it was over $100k, but we basically have two benches, clean and dirty.  The one thing that I did notice at the Bios website was the limited range their system has.  It looked like they only go to 500 lpm.  The molbox on the other hand can reach 5000 lpm.

So I guess if you don't have to go that high the Bios would work fine, but if you want high flow with the best uncertainty Molbox is the way to go.

Molbox system is also very fast and easy to use. 

[OlDave]

You remember what it cost you originally to buy the system?

$3200 for the base and $5600 for each cell. That was back in 2003.