The Customer

The Company is a worldwide manufacturer of silicone, quartz and ceramic products for the adhesive labeling and semiconductor markets.

The Process

During the manufacture of the Company’s products different solvents are used. The solvents are evaporated off in a heating process, collected and then directed to an incinerator for destruction.

The Problem

The Company wanted to monitor the flammability of the process exhaust stream going into its incinerator. The stream is of varying energy content and has solvent loads that can change rapidly in a matter of minutes. Danger is present when the inlet stream to the incinerator suddenly gets rich enough to ignite or explode.They wanted to prevent this from happening. They needed an analyzer that could measure their wide range of chemicals, as well as highly corrosive compounds like methyl chloride. They were searching for a Hastelloy constructed analyzer to handle the harsh environment.

The Solution

The Company chose Control Instruments’ PrevEx Model SNR674 analyzers after a three year investigation of all the technologies available. The PrevEx is constructed of hard-coat aluminum and well suited for their application. It is fully heated to keep the sample stream in vapor form eliminating potential corrosion and the need for Hastelloy construction. It has the unique ability to accurately measure the total flammability of all the constituents in the process exhaust stream. Based on a proprietary flame temperature measurement technique, this analyzer requires no recalibration, adjustment or the use of response factors for most common process VOC's. The analyzer has a very fast response time and can react quickly to prevent an explosion.

They have recently placed an order for additional analyzers due to an explosion on an unprotected RTO.