Instrument Performance Problems?

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TV/SC-IR Instrument Enclosure Valve

Instrument Performance Problems?

It could be the temperature inside your enclosure.

Are your enclosed instruments under the weather? It might be time to check the temperature inside the enclosure. Enclosures protect instrumentation against adverse weather conditions or physical damage, and ensure that instruments operate in the proper temperature ranges. However, enclosures may not always provide sufficient protection against temperature extremes that can affect instrument performance. High temperatures can cause some fluids to vaporize, while low temperatures can cause some lines to freeze or some products to thicken – even damaging sensitive equipment. For many instruments, the correct temperature of the instrument and sample will affect measurement accuracy. The best way to solve this problem is to equip enclosures with systems designed to maintain interior temperature within the range specified for optimal instrument performance.

Keeping warm

The most common systems used to keep enclosures warm involve steam or electricity – essentially using an outside heat source to keep equipment in the enclosure at a predetermined temperature. Electrical heating can take several forms. Typically, a radiant heater or heating cable is installed inside the enclosure. A thermostat is used to control temperature or the cable may be self-limiting. However, electrical heating has limits. In large installations, the electricity required can be ex- pensive. If combustible substances are present, the possibility of electrical sparks poses risk. And, if the cable breaks, everything beyond the break could freeze.

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Is Your Safety Shower Ready for the Cold?

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Temperature Control for Safety ShowersKeeping your safety shower working at optimum performance is important, no matter what time of year. However, cold winter temperatures can make this especially difficult. Water can freeze in supply lines, clogging the system and shutting off flow. And because water expands as it freezes, internal pressure in the line can increase enough to break steel pipes and their associated valves and fittings. The result can be costly replacement parts, in- creased labor costs, and a shower that’s out of commission while it’s being repaired.

Cold weather can bring other problems, too. Water that’s too cold can discourage workers from using the showers for the full 15 minutes as recommended by ANSI and OSHA standards, thereby contributing to worker injury. Although federal regulations such as OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910 do not mandate every detail of safety shower systems, they do specifically require safe work- place conditions. Unless you provide comfortable water for safety showers, these regulations can be easily interpreted to result in safety violations.

There are a number of steps you can take to prevent cold weather from interfering with safety shower performance. Many are relatively simple to implement and can be readily put in place before cold weather begins.

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The Dynamics of Freezing

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Facts About Water Freezing

Water, when it freezes, changes from liquid to solid. As the temperature drops, the molecules become less energetic, moving more slowly, until they reach a point at which the molecular structure changes, followed by the transformation into ice, or solid water. Unlike most substances which shrink in volume as they freeze, water expands since ice’s molecular structure takes up more space than water. Conversely, when you heat water, the molecules become more excited until they reach the point where the water vaporizes and becomes steam.

There is a misconception that if water can be kept moving, it won’t freeze. Wrong! Water freezes at 32°F (0°C). Period.

Since the expansion of water as it freezes is a fact of life, what things should we know about this process in order to create effective means of dealing with it in industry? Water that has frozen in piping systems does more than simply clog the system and shut off the flow. Because ice takes up more room than liquid, when freezing occurs in a confined space like a steel pipe, the ice will build up extreme internal pressure which is often enough to break the pipe and its associated valves and fittings.

Damage from a burst pipe or valve can escalate beyond just replacing the broken parts, into labor costs for the repair and time/money lost from “down-time” in the affected area. Before effective measures can be taken to prevent such disasters, we need to learn about and understand what is happening.

The Physical Principles of Freezing

What are the underlying principles that determine whether the water in a given device (pipe, valve, etc.) will freeze? We already know that water freezes at 32°F. To arrive at this temperature, heat must be removed (transferred) from the water (Remember – heat always travels from high temperature areas to lower temperature areas). Heat transfer, or the removal of heat from one place to another (i.e. from the 45°F water inside a pipe to the 25°F air outside a pipe) is one of the basic laws of nature. Heat is a form of energy. Others include chemical, electrical, mechanical and nuclear, and each is convertible from one form to another. In the USA, heat is usually measured in BTUs, or British Thermal Units. One BTU is the amount of energy which, when added to one pound of water, will raise the temperature of that water by one Fahrenheit degree (as from 65°F to 66°F).

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Paralyzed Bucks Inventor Puts His Money Where His Heart Is

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Warminster, PA (January 22, 2012) It’s hard to imagine a crueler fate for Fred Pirkle, an inventor whose 65-year-old hands have been in creative motion since he was a boy growing up in Texas.

“The first time I stood next to a lathe,” the Bucks County manufacturing executive recalled, “I was shivering all over. I was excited as I could be.”

The first time he got to run a lathe? “I was almost paralyzed with excitement,” Pirkle said.

Today, the excitement is still there, though a fast-moving form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more familiarly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has shut down virtually all Pirkle’s voluntary muscle movement.

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