Bubbler in a Sealed Vessel

[Joshua Brian Rivet]

Good Morning everyone,

I am working at an industrial urethane plant, and I am having some issues with mixing a release agent. The "RA" is distributed by a robot , and fed by a standard pressure pot. This chemical needs to be in constant suspension and our attempts at a propellor driven system have been hit or miss.

A great solution would be to install a bubbler line into the chemical, however I have my doubts that it will do much of anything to mix the material properly.

The tanks (20 liters) are pressurized to around 32 PSI , and are kept at 1/2 full. Our idea is to run a air line to the bottom of the tank and place a check valve, with assumed pressure around 20 PSI.

Would there by sufficient turbulence in the mixture? or would the tank just maintain 32 PSI and not produce a lot of bubbles?

What are your thoughts?

Great forum and new resource for us the industrial applications!

-J

 

[Nidum]

Circulating pump , mixture out from bottom of tank , back into tank at top via a shower head . Could be continuous action but probably better to recirculate cup fulls of fluid at timed intervals .

Reciprocating plunger sieve . A plate with big holes plunging into liquid and then back out again . Again could be continuous action but probably better to have single strokes at timed intervals .

Bubbling air might work but it is generally a non preferred option . Usual result is a tank full of froth and there is always the possibility that entrained air will alter the properties of the mixture .

 

[Nidum]

Another thing that could work quite well would be a rotary version of the plunger above . A plate (on one side only of the drive axle) which almost touches the sides of the tank and with big holes in it . Drive maybe two turns clockwise followed by two turns anticlockwise (with a random starting position) at timed intervals .

One type of industrial paint mixer works this way .

nb : All systems mentioned would be arranged to be quite slow acting so as to provide gentle mixing rather than harsh agitation .