Process engineers in the fertilizer industry are keenly aware of the toxic and combustible properties of ammonia (NH₃). While the tragic 2013 ammonium nitrate explosion at a fertilizer storage plant in West, Texas, that took 15 lives was ruled an arson incident, the force of the explosion was the equivalent of 7.5 to 10 tons of TNT according to multiple sources. The improper handling or monitoring of NH₃ can be a deadly serious mistake.

What is Flow Rate and Why is It Important in Process Applications?

In an industrial setting, controlling processes with accurate data is an essential part of keeping the process running smoothly. Control systems are equipped with instrumentation like thermal flow meters to feed flow data like gas temperature and gas flow rate into the system. So, what is flow rate and why is it important? The flow rate of the gas tells the system how much of a gas is flowing through a cross section of a pipe at a prescribed unit of time. Flow rate data can help with many things, including the following:

For industries such as steel, mining, cement, pulp and paper, maritime and others, our monitoring solutions for rotating machinery are in use in many applications around the world. They all require dedicated monitoring solutions and strategies:

Introducing the TechStar FLEX – the latest in HART Communicators! While not the first on the market, the FLEX is the more cost-effective and FLEXible option available, providing a one-tool solution for your programming, troubleshooting and HART maintenance needs. Benefits of the TechStar Flex include:

Optimizing boiler efficiency will increase your bottom line. Did you know that every 10% excess oxygen results in 1% in wasted fuel? With that in mind, Yokogawa Zirconia Oxygen analyzers have a 50-year proven success record for providing:

Common Results of Gas Uses in Industrial Processes

There are three key results of measuring the flow of air or gases with industrial gas flow meters in industrial applications:

1. efficiency improvement
2. leak reduction
3. increased product quality

Melt pumps used in polymer production are a special high temp positive displacement pump used at the discharge of an extruder to assure a smooth, high temperature and high pressure (often several thousand psi) supply of the polymer to the filter screen and die for better throughput and uniformity of product. Blockage of the filter screen or die can cause spikes in pressure high enough that the die can be damaged or blown off the feed tap. When that happens, the released polymer will cool and harden at ambient pressure and temperature, requiring hours of cleanup. Downtime costs can be significant.

If you’re a user of moisture analyzers, you’ve probably experienced challenges in performing a quick, accurate measurement using a portable instrument.  Portable moisture analyzers are typically used to verify the moisture reading of a fixed-installation instrument or to conduct spot-sampling measurements at remote sites which lack a permanently installed device.  In my experience performing portable measurements, I’ve seen several common obstacles a user may encounter:

Our instrumentation & analytical solutions are critical to the day-to-day operation and overall success of your process. Understanding that downtime is simply not an option, we have a new system in place to ensure your process is prepared for the unexpected. Introducing TechStar One Click, our new eCommerce purchasing option.