ReAgent’s engineering team has been working on commissioning our new 22,000L stainless steel mixing vessel.
We have built on the lessons learned from previous installations of large vessels. Using programmable logic controls, this new vessel will enable our blending team to produce batches large enough to fill a 40ft shipping container.
Our engineering lead has been working on the design and layout drawings for a number of months, and under his guidance, the rest of the team has set about turning those designs into reality.
Watch our video to learn more about this new mixing vessel:
What makes our new chemical mixing vessel special?
This new vessel has the benefit of being fitted on load cells that are used to accurately control the automated movement of material into and out of the vessel at the push of a button. Additionally, by being directly connected to our high quality deionised water ring main, we are able to dose large quantities of high purity water into our blends.
It’s also now possible for us to incorporate powders into our blends using specialised equipment that can be connected directly to this vessel when needed.
During blending, in-process monitoring is in place to monitor pH and conductivity and help our operators ensure ‘right first time’ batches. The mixing speed of the impeller is variable, meaning that it can be adjusted to suit the materials in production.
When product blending is complete and released by our laboratory, dosing of materials into pack sizes varying from 50ml to 1000L IBC is controlled by automated packing equipment that uses highly accurate scales alongside the PLCs on the vessel.
Additional functions, such as product filtration, are also provisioned for, with the ability to filter finished goods to levels as low as 0.2µm within our process.
How do you clean a 22,000L vessel?
Once batches are complete, a multiple zone cleaning system is in place to ensure a full clean down of the vessel is possible. This also reduces the risk of cross contamination between batches.
Spray balls at strategic positions within the vessel ensure 100% coverage of the contact surfaces inside the tank itself and on the mixing impellers. We use chemicals to sanitise the equipment and ensure bacterial growth is controlled.
When will our new vessel be ready for customer use?
After a testing and validation period, the vessel has now been released for customer use. It enables us to produce greater volumes of chemical blends to meet the growing demand for our manufacturing services.
