Packaging
From humble limit switch to inline-density system
Wednesday 30. April 2008 - The Liquiphant M liquid limit detection switch from Endress+Hauser can now be used in combination with the newly developed FML621 density cal-culator for density measurements in food, beverage, pharmaceutical and chemical processes.
Liquiphant – the name standing for 25 years of reliable and safe limit detection in liquids of all types. Now in combination with the newly developed FML621density calculator, the Liquiphant M can be used to monitor the quality of liquids in many manufacturing processes. The unit not only determines the rela-tive and standard density, but also measures the concentration of liquids and thus identifies the product itself.
Careful control of these process parameters serves to ensure excellent and repro-ducible product quality directly online and in the process. The FML621density calculator computes a reliable and accurate density value of the material from the Liquiphant sensor signals and from an optional temperature compensation unit. The measured values can be converted to units such as °Brix, °Baumé or °Plato, as specified by the user. The liquids density is computed by the FML621density calculator through the input value of the Liquiphant frequency, the temperature and pressure. These last two values can be supplied and integrated using separate instruments. A data logger function in the FML621 also supports operation and servicing.
With the well known and proven Liquiphant vibration sensor applications in pipelines or tanks, the unit can be used in all sectors of process industry. Density monitoring and pump protection take place simultaneously using a single Liquiphant and only one process connection is now necessary on the tank . Sim-ply by using the FML621s in-line quality measurement , extensive product analysis in the laboratory is now no longer necessary.
What can the Liquiphant M do in combination with the density calculator?
Determining concentration
Determining the concentration of materials is today an important factor for quality in the chemical and the food industry. In liquids, it is often found by peripheral off-line and laboratory measurements. The newly developed Liquiphant density system offers in-line concentration measurement without the use of expensive and time-intensive analytical procedures and it can also easily be adapted to current applications.
Identifying material
A soft drink producer wants to differentiate between cleaning solutions, water and beverage in the pipeline. In order to ascertain that the raw product for filling is located in the pipeline, the density sensor is installed in the pipeline prior to fill-ing. Up to now the media was identified optically. The advantages of in-line measurement are seen in continuous monitoring, increased measurement accuracy and reproducibility.
Identifying salt concentration
In this crude oil application, a specific salt concentration is required which de-pends on the depth of the drill hole so that the oil/water mixture is brought to the surface by the greater density of the salt mixture.
The Liquiphant density function ensures that the required salt concentration is continuously mixed in the tank automatically. When compared to previous tests, this method has much greater precision (0.002 g/cm³) with excellent reproducibil-ity (0.0007 g/cm³).