Patent ID: 8720280

Claim:
An ultrasonic flowmeter apparatus detachably secured to a conduit made of a resilient and soft material for measuring a flow rate of a fluid flowing through said conduit comprising: four plate-like members each having a flat inner surface; a hinge mechanism for coupling said plate-like members to be folded freely to constitute a clamping hole by said inner surfaces, said clamping hole having a rectangular cross sectional configuration; a clamping mechanism for maintaining the clamping hole to have the rectangular cross sectional configuration; and a pair of ultrasonic signal transmission and reception elements arranged in an inner surface of one of said four plate-like members such that the ultrasonic signal transmission and reception elements are separated in a longitudinal direction of the conduit; wherein said clamping hole is formed to have a size such that when the conduit is clamped within the clamping hole, the conduit is resiliently deformed to have a substantially rectangular cross sectional configuration and is brought into intimate contact with the inner surfaces of the plate-like members, and said ultrasonic signal transmission and reception elements are arranged at positions such that an ultrasonic beam emitted from one of the ultrasonic signal transmission and reception elements is received by the other ultrasonic signal transmission and reception element after the ultrasonic beam is reflected at a portion of an inner surface of a plate-like member which is opposed to the plate-like member in which the ultrasonic signal transmission and reception elements are arranged.