A twin chamber, reactor charging isolator from Hosokawa Micron has been installed at one of Europe’s largest chemical plants to meet the company’s demands for shirt sleeve operation with full personnel protection. The specially designed isolator is used to charge a catalyst powder into a reactor vessel and incorporates an integral pneumatic drum tipper.
With personnel protection of paramount importance, the design of the isolator incorporates a number of features to ensure the safest possible operation. Although the isolator target Operator Exposure Level (OEL) was <10 µg/m3, the isolator is designed to the same specification as a system required to operate at OELs of <1 µg/m3, with the actual OEL of the system achieving OEL results of <0.01 µg/m3 when third party tested using micronized lactose.
In operation the drum is loaded onto the tipper, de-lidded and the safety gate closed. The pneumatic circuit is interlocked and will not allow the tipper to operate unless the gate is closed. The drum is raised, tipped and docked with the isolator; the drum rim and outer liner are sealed to the isolator. The bagged powder is then removed from the drum into the transfer chamber and then moved into the charging chamber via the transfer door. The bag is opened using safety knife and charged into the reactor below. The system is certified for use in an Atex II 3G (Zone 2) area.
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