Control of moisture can be mission-critical. Excess moisture in gas pipelines can cause corrosion, while trace humidity in precision manufacturing cleanrooms can spoil batches of high-value products. In some gas systems, unstable water levels can even threaten human safety.
For four decades, Michell Instruments has been providing these high-value industries with precision tools to measure the water content of gases, helping them maintain optimal moisture levels.
But demand for humidity measurement does not stand still. Emerging applications such as hydrogen fuel storage and carbon capture systems need purpose-built moisture measurement tools. And established industries need ever greater precision to deliver more advanced products and meet tightening standards.
Michell Instruments is constantly innovating to meet these changing industry and laboratory needs. Over the last year, it has worked on a number of new and evolved product lines.
For example, its new Natural Gas Dew Point Analyser supports gas pipeline safety by detecting the conditions for liquid formations of both heavy hydrocarbons and water vapour. The measurement of both plays an important role in corrosion and process operations, but previous instruments could only measure one.
It has also developed a High-Temperature Chilled-Mirror Hygrometer that measures humidity directly from hot industrial/calibration environments where conventional sensors lose stability or are prone to contamination. This marks a new business line for Michell, which previously focused on low dew point temperatures.
And its Trace Moisture Analyser for CO2 monitors moisture in carbon dioxide streams, which is essential for preventing corrosion in carbon-capture processing.
All of these introduce new measurement challenges, with high levels of precision and complexity. To trust that these innovations are reliable, Michell needs to test their instruments under the full range of conditions they will face in the real world, and compare them to national primary standards for humidity to confirm their level of accuracy. Such high precision testing and validation was beyond its own in-house capability.
To overcome these challenges, Michell worked with NPL’s humidity measurement experts through three Measurement for Business (M4B) projects – one for each of these three new products.
Using its multi-gas, multi-pressure primary humidity generator and other specialist test systems, NPL created test gases at precisely defined humidities, temperatures, and pressures. These simulated the real-world conditions each product would face in the field – from ultra-dry gas streams and high-pressure transmission systems to high-temperature, moisture-rich industrial atmospheres.
By comparing Michell’s prototype instrument readings with NPL’s reference standards, the team could identify where instrument results deviated from the true measurements.
This highlighted areas where adjustments – such as design tweaks, calibration setups, and measurement compensation factors – could deliver major improvements in measurement accuracy and repeatability.
“In some cases, we found external factors were introducing small measurement errors that our own testing wasn’t sensitive enough to pick up,” says Richard Gee, Managing Director at Michell Instruments. “Having identified those through NPL’s testing, we could make changes or introduce ways to compensate for those issues. And as a result, we've got a much stronger product”.
By working with NPL through M4B, each of these three products has emerged more accurate, reliable, and credible – giving Michell confidence to go to market, backed by the UK’s national standards laboratory.
As a result, Michell’s natural gas dew point analyser has an improved calibration approach and is now entering production with confidence in its performance.
Its high-temperature chilled-mirror hygrometer now has verified accuracy across industrial operating conditions, giving Michell a credible position as it enters the industrial humidity measurement market.
And its trace moisture analyser for CO2 has launched as a new product specifically designed and calibrated for measuring moisture in CO₂.
Together, these M4B projects gave Michell the ability to go to market with confidence that their new products perform to the high specifications their customers demand. This improves customer trust and reduces the risk of post-launch revisions. Whilst it's early days for the products, they have already seen initial sales, helped by the backing of NPL validation.
“Without this work, we could have taken another year for each product, and would have had to rely on on-site customer testing to fully validate performance,” says Richard Gee.
“NPL accelerated our launch by helping us spot and resolve issues early, then validating the final products against the highest standards. NPL’s validation – with supporting data on levels of accuracy – means our customers have confidence from day one. That was undoubtedly valuable in getting those all-important first few sales, not to mention for ensuring our continued reputation as a trusted high-precision measurement provider.”
Richard Gee, Managing Director - Michell Instruments