Product category:
Monitoring and sensor equipment and systems
News Release from: Hydramotion | Subject: Intrinsically safe viscometer
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 May 2006
Intrinsically safe viscometer for inline
testing
An intrinsically safe viscometer from Hydramotion has provided valuable insight into a polymer production process for Champion Technologies of Houston, Texas USA.
An intrinsically safe viscometer from Hydramotion has not only "exceeded expectations" of in-line viscosity measurement but also provided valuable insight into a polymer production process for Champion Technologies of Houston, Texas USA Champion Technologies, a Permian Mud Service company, is the largest privately-owned oilfield chemical company in the US, with a significant presence in the major oilfields of the world and sales and administrative offices in over 30 countries
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Intrinsically safe viscometers
The XL7 series of in-line viscometers gives excellent performance in the extreme conditions often encountered in petrochemical and chemical engineering applications.
Intrinsically Safe viscometer for epoxy resin
Until it was discovered the XL7 Intrinsically Safe on-line viscometer from Hydramotion, measuring the viscosity of epoxy resin had been a problem for Ventec Electronics (Suzhou) of China.
It supplies the global oil and gas industry with a complete line of proprietary specialty chemicals, including foamers, hydrate inhibitors, scale control agents and emulsion breakers (demulsifiers), liquid polymers that are used in the "dewatering" of crude oil.
Viscosity is important for quality control during emulsion breaker production, because the product cannot be applied in the field if it is too viscous.
The production process involves an oxyalkylation polymerisation reaction at 320degF (160C) in 3000-gallon (11,000-litre) tanks.
Further reading
Portable viscosity measurement made on site
Portable process viscometer can be used with any volume of fluid to give instant spot measurement of viscosity in the field, factory or lab without requiring any on-site set-up or calibration.
Viscosity measurement website expanded
Hydramotion has added sixteen new pages to its website, offering visitors valuable information, free downloads and an interactive viscosity units conversion table.
Engineers can follow the progress of the reaction by monitoring the viscosity of the mix, which builds from less than 1cP to over 500cP as the reaction proceeds.
Needing a robust and reliable in-line viscometer suitable for use in a Class 1 Div 1 Group D Hazardous Area, Champion Technologies came to Hydramotion.
"We chose Hydramotion because they could offer us an intrinsically safe instrument that's easy to use and low maintenance," said Jason Laws, Senior Process Engineer at Champion Technologies.
Mr Laws added: "Another important point was that the Hydramotion viscometer was very competitive pricewise against other machines." Hydramotion supplied an intrinsically safe XL7 high-temperature in-line viscometer tailored specifically to Champion Technologies' requirements.
As the reaction mixture is highly corrosive (pH <3), the monolithic sensor was constructed from Hastelloy C.
Using the instrument in the monomer and polymer stages, Champion Technologies was immediately able to get the narrow target viscosity it wanted: "It exceeded engineers' expectations when regarding in-line viscosity." In addition, obtaining continuous viscosity data at line temperature gave the engineers an insight into the process that had not been possible with earlier off-line measurements.
"The XL7 viscometer has helped us determine reaction issues that needed to be overcome.
We can see far more in the reaction than we expected," said Jason Laws. Request a free brochure from Hydramotion ...
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