Kisvin Science produces both conventional sap flow sensors and the latest thin-film types. Conventional type have an advantage in that they have successful introduction and high accuracy, but their cost is relatively high. On the other hand, the thin-film type is low cost, but it has hardly been introduced yet and relatively low accuracy. This depends on whether thermopiles or thermistors are used as the thermal sensor. Therefore, the thin-film type is currently available to sell as an engineering sample. Use it to increase measurement granularity at low cost.
Sensors could certainly be lowered in total cost. Nevertheless, you may be worried about the high cost of logger systems. If you are going to use a sap flow sensor for your research, you should use a high end logger like the CR1000. Otherwise, the KS-Logger might be useful. It will take some development, however, but you are free to connect sap flow sensor to a third-party data logger. Use what you are comfortable with. Our sap flow sensor can be wired directly into an analog channel on your data logger or a digital signal can be passed to your logger via the KS-Logger's serial port.
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Kisvin Science has been working with partner companies to improve the quality and stable supply of sap flow sensors. Conventional type is manufactured by Mie Hitachi (Hitachi Metals and Ibaraki Technos) and thin-film type is manufactured by Nippon Mektron. With the help of large corporations, we have established a production system that was previously. Furthermore, we are collaborating with OMRON and Kagawa University to develop an advanced sap flow sensor using MEMS technology.