WIKA (Germany) - Press Release: The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted the WIKA ScrutonWell® design a patent (patent number: 11.959.810). The patent confirms the innovative development work that has gone into this long-standing and highly successful technology for thermowells.

The innovative design was developed to effectively suppress the vibration excitation generated by the Kármán vortex street. These excitations, also known as Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV), expose thermometers and their thermowells to high vibration loads in demanding industrial applications and reduce their service life.

Thanks to the innovative design of the ScrutonWell®, the vibration excitation is reduced by over 90 percent. This considerably improves the service life and operational safety of the temperature measuring point. The classic helical strakes were patented by Christopher Scruton as early as 1963 and are now state of the art. The WIKA patent, on the other hand, focuses in several variants on the design details between the helical area of the thermowell exposed to the flow and the process connection. The optimised transitions offer stability and extend the service life under critical process conditions. The response time of the ScrutonWell®, an important criterion in many applications, is not negatively affected.