An informative and educational resource specializing in process control instrumentation, analytical instruments, and related industrial equipment. Content includes technology basics, how-to's, new product developments, and application notes. Blog is courtesy of Alliance Technical Sales, a leading Manufacturers' Rep headquartered in Clarendon Hills, IL and serving customers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The METTLER TOLEDO Process Analytics division concentrates on analytical measurement solutions for industrial manufacturing processes. The division consists of two business units: Ingold and Thornton, both recognized leaders in their respective markets and technologies.
Ingold is a worldwide leader in pH, dissolved oxygen, CO2, conductivity and turbidity solutions for process analytical measurement systems
in chemical, food & beverage, biotech- nology and pharmaceutical industries. Its core competence is high quality in-line measurement of these para- meters in demanding chemical process and hygienic and sterile applications.
Thornton is the leader in pure and ultrapure water monitoring instrumentation used in semiconductor, microelectronics, power generation, pharmaceutical, and biotech applications. Its core competence is the in-line measurement of conductivity, resistivity, TOC, bioburden, dissolved oxygen and ozone in determining and controlling water purity. The division recently expanded into Gas Analytics with a series of TDL analyzers offering unique in situ solutions.
The 6000TOCi is a new, continuous measurement, TOC (total organic
carbon) sensor manufactured by METTLER TOLDEDO Thornton. The sensor provides
continuous, real-time measurements in pure and ultrapure waters. It uses
advanced UV oxidation technology that provides a very rapid response time.
Total Organic Carbon monitoring is vital for the measurement and control of organics contamination in pure and ultrapure waters used in industries such as pharmaceuticals, microelectronics and power generation.
To ensure changes in TOC levels are not missed, constant results are required. The 6000TOCi sensor uses conductivity measurements before and after oxidation of organic material via ultraviolet light to provide continuous, real-time determination of TOC.
Flexibility of the 6000TOCi allows installation anywhere on a water system, with the option to display results at the point of measurement or at a more convenient location for operators.
The METTLER TOLDEDO Thornton 6000TOCi Total Organic Carbon sensor has a response time of less than one minute and provides continuous monitoring, which is a huge advantage over batch measurement systems that take six minutes or longer to deliver just a snapshot of water quality.
This pencil appears to bend when it enters the water because of the change in the light ray speed as the medium changes.
Refraction is the directional change of wave propagation caused by a change in the light beams transmission medium.
Light rays travel through space in a straight line at approximately 300,000 km/s. As light passes through a transparent medium, such as water or glass, its speed is decreased.
For glass, its reduced to 200,000 kilometers per second, and for water the speed is 225,000 kilometers per second.
If the light enters into a medium perpendicular to the surface, it passes straight through but at a slower speed. However if the light beam arrives at the medium surface at an angle, not only will it speed be reduced, but it will bend due to a process called refraction.
As a beam of light reaches the surface of a medium the lower portion enters first and is slow down. However, the upper portion is still traveling at the speed of light until it arrives at the surface and enters. This speed difference at the top and bottom aspects of the light path causes it to pivot, bending toward what is referred to as the normal. This is an imaginary line drawn perpendicularly to the surface of the material.
Transparent materials have what is called a refractive index. This is the speed at which light travels in a medium compared to like traveling in a vacuum.
For example, typical glass has a refractive index of 1.33. This is calculated by dividing the speed of light in a vacuum (300,000 km/s) by the speed of light in glass (225,000 km/s).
The refractive index of air is 1.0003. Anytime a light beam travels from a medium with a low index of refraction, like air, to a medium with a higher index of refraction, like glass, the beam of light will bend toward the normal.
Likewise when the beam of light exits a highly refractive medium into a medium with the low index of refraction, the process is reversed.
The bottom portion of the beam of light exits first, and resumes at the speed of light, with the top portion still at the speed determined by the medium. This causes the beam to pivot away from the normal line.
Instruments used to measure the refractive index are called refractometers. Refractometers used in industrial automated systems are referred to as inline refractometers.
Jogler is a manufacturer of process control instrumentation specializing in level control devices: site flow indicators, sight glass level indicators, magnetic level gauges, magnetostrictive transmitters, laser level transmitters and specific gravity analyzers. Jogler, LLC is a certified ASME boiler code facility and carries the U, UM and S stamps that are required via ASME boiler code section B31.1 and B31.3.
While the public considers municipal water to be “pure”, the pharmaceutical market considers municipal water (feedwater) just the starting point in producing pure water. Water is the most widely used excipient in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and pharmaceutical water is a multi-functional resource, crossing all disciplines in the pharmaceutical industry. Water is used as a raw material, solvent, ingredient, reagent, and clean-ing agent, and is produced in a variety of “pure” forms.
Purified Water (PW), Highly Purified Water (HPW), and Water for Injection (WFI) used in pharmaceutical processes are produced on site from the local potable water, which has been produced by the treatment of the feedwater.
Electric surface heating for
analytical and scientific
applications. (BriskHeat)
In many research & development and laboratory applications, surface heat is required to successfully conduct experiments and tests. The heat may be required for a number of reasons:
Temperature Compensation - Varying results due to temperature fluctuation are eliminated when the temperature is constant over several repetitions or tests.
Vacuum Bake-out - Heat helps release moisture and impurities/particulates in a closed system to allow the test results to be more accurate and consistent.
Temperature Elevation - A higher temperature may be required to generate the desired results.
As the video below will show you, Mettler Toledo Thornton's UniCond sensors provide three significant advantages over other conductivity sensors:
1) Unmatched Accuracy - a self-contained measuring circuit which produces a robust output digital signal that is reliable over very long cable and certified factory calibration and temperature compensation with ASTM traceability stored in the sensor's internal memory to ensure highest installed accuracy out of the box.
2) Widest Rangeability - A single 2-electrode UniCond sensor can measure from ultrapure water all the way up to sea water with high accuracy. This significantly simplifies the specification, installation and spare parts inventory for water treatment systems. 4-electrode UniCond sensors cover the higher conductivity ranges of acid and base ion exchange regeneration chemicals.
3) Maintenance-free Performance - Mettler Toledo Thornton conductivity sensors for pure water provide high accuracy measurements with widely spaced electrodes that do not trap ion exchange resin particles, corrosion particles or bubbles, and yield more reliable, maintenance-free operation than with other sensors.
