Flow meter having vertical rotor shafts

Claim 1

A flow meter comprising: a casing having an inlet passage and an outlet passage at both sides thereof; an upper side plate and a lower side plate provided in said casing and defining a fluid passage which forms a horizontal flow passage together with the inlet and outlet passages, said upper side plate and the casing defining an upper chamber, and said lower side plate and the casing defining a lower chamber; means for introducing fluid in the flow passage into the upper and lower chamber; rotor shafts arranged in a direction vertical to the horizontal flow passage including the fluid passage and the inlet and outlet passages, said shafts penetrating through the upper and lower side plates; rotors fixedly mounted on said shafts and having a plane of rotation in a horizontal plane, said rotors rotating with the shafts in the fluid passage; an inner housing defining side surfaces of a space in which said rotors rotate; thrust bearing mounted on the casing side under the lower side plate and Pivotally supporting the lower ends of said shafts; radial bearings mounted respectively on said upper side plate and said lower side plate and supporting said shafts with respect to a transverse load; a counter section provided on the casing; and means including gears provided in the upper chamber, said means transmitting rotations of the shafts to the counter section, said introducing means comprising a first passage communicating said inlet passage with said lower chamber and a second passage communicating said outlet passage with said upper chamber, said shafts receiving an upwardly acting vertical force by the differential pressure between the fluid pressure in said lower chamber which is equal to the fluid pressure in said inlet passage and the fluid pressure in said upper chamber which is equal to the fluid pressure in said outlet passage, whereby a shaft load acting in a vertical direction due to the weights of said rotors and shafts is reduced.