Automatic equipment

In practically all modem apparatus for laboratory distillation certain functions are now automatic. Heating is often controlled by contact thermometers, and the rate of evaporation of the charge with differential manometers. Reduced pressures are also frequently kept constant with automatic units. In fact, the present trend is towards fully automatic control of the conditions of distillation and simultaneous recording of the data measured, an object that has already been reached in many industrial installations. The ideal procedure is for the mixture to be merely introduced into the apparatus and the latter switched on it then automatically yields the required products of distillation and at the same time prepares a diagram of the top and bottom temperatures and other data that may be needed. 

The extent to which measuring and control devices are employed in batch and continuous distillation depends on the nature of the work and, to a considerable degree, on financial considerations [12]. In practice a distinction can be made between semi- (or partly) automatic and fuUy automatic apparatus. In the latter all operations except starting up are performed automatically in partly automatic apparatus only some of the functions are governed by regulating devices. 

StiU pot heating by contact thermometers and contact manometers via electronic proportional controllers (c/. sections 8.2.2 and 8.4.2)  

Column heating jackets by thermocouples, contact thermometers or air thermometers (sections 7.7, 8.2.1, 8.2.2)  

Feed heating in continuous distillation by contact thermometer (section 8.2.2)  

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The temperature in the hottest part of the kiln is closely controlled using automatic equipment and a radiation pyrometer and generally is kept at about 1100—1150°C (see Temperature measurement). Time of passage is about four hours, varying with the kiln mix being used. The rate of oxidation increases with temperature. However, the maximum temperature is limited by the tendency of the calcine to become sticky and form rings or balls in the kiln, by... 

Specifications include dimensions of length, width, and depth, in that order (Fig. 21-40 ). When boxes are set up and closed by automatic equipment, dimensional tolerances become critical. Cartons are shipped knocked down to the user from plants located in all industrial centers. Because order lead time is 4 to 6 weeks, inventories of empty boxes require considerable space. A useful booklet describing all aspects or corrugated box designs and materials is the Fiber Box Handbook available from The Fiber Box Association, 2850 Gulf Road, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008. 

In contrast, a case of overfilling, which was the subject of an official report [1], was due to the poor design of complex automatic equipment at a large teirninal for loading gasoline and other hydrocarbons. 

One day the automatic equipment broke down, and the foreman decided to change over to manual filling. He asked the drivers to check that the hand valves on the filling lines were shut, but he did not check himself. He then operated the switches that opened the automatic valves. Some of the hand valves were open. Gasoline and other products came out. overfilled the tanker (or splashed directly on the ground) and caught fire. Three men were killed. 11 injured, and the whole row of 18 filling points was destroyed. 

Colorimetric methods, such as those which depend upon the measurement of the color developed when excess mercury salts are added to a chloride solution, are not reproducible enough for practical purposes. They are widely used in automatic equipment, but for the purpose of maintenance and treatment of newborns, this data does not have the adequate accuracy and reproducibility. 

Compound (Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, IN), snap-frozen, and cut into sections for comparison with paraffin-embedded cell sections (3) FFPE Cell Blocks Six cell pellets were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin immediately after harvest, at room temperature for 6,12,24h, 3,7, and 30 days, respectively. For further comparison with the cell model system, recently collected sample of human breast cancer tissues were processed by OCT-embedding and snap-freezing the corresponding routine FFPE block that was obtained from the Norris Cancer Hospital and Research Institute at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine (USC). This tissue block was processed routinely (formalin-fixed 24h and processed by automatic equipment). 

Automatic equipment promptly detected the hazardous vapor and operated the automatic high-density water-spray system, which was designed to wash the ethylene from the atmosphere. The leak was too large for the spray system to handle. 

The analyst gains additional responsibilities for specifying the requirements for, and performance of, any new automatic equipment to be purchased or constructed, with particular reference to stages or parameters where close control is critical. 

For an automatic method to be preferable purely on economic grounds, its cost must be less than the manual cost by at least an amount equal to the cost of the automatic equipment amortized over a period of three to five years. For many of the more expensive instruments, particularly those in the clinical market, leasing agreements are common and in these cases the annual cost must be less for the automated regime. However, this simple algebraic treatment is very approximate and takes no account of the differences in reagent costs, power requirements, and supervisory cost between the two methods. 

The economic treatment discussed so far is hmited to analytical laboratories where samples are received from an outside source it will not apply to laboratories attached to processing plants performing quahty-control analyses. The cost of the automatic equipment, in these cases, wiU be small in relation to the plant cost, and it wiU be the improved precision of analysis and speed of response that wiU have the greatest economic significance. Automatic analysers in production hnes are ideal for quality control, and there is ample scope for additional automation. However, this is an area where the... 

Defining the specification of the analytical requirement and its solution are difficult and the analytical chemist s experience is vital. Only he or she can accurately predict the ruggedness or vagueness of analytical procedures. Customers know how they would like the automatic instrument to operate and will have a good understanding of the chemistry involved. How a specification should be drawn up is explained in Chapter 2, but unless it is carried out properly the equipment will be over- or under specified or if the problem is not correctly addressed, the automatic equipment will fall into disuse because it fails to achieve the overall objective. 

High Rate Detonator Production Study. As part of the overall program to modernize the US Govt owned, company operated, Army Ammunition Loading and Assembly Plants, it is planned to develop fully automatic equipment to manuf nonelectric detonators at the rate of 1200 per minute. The survey of literature sources and industry was undertaken to discover techniques and equipment that may be applicable, as described in Ref 1... 

Colorimetry. Copper (Duncombe 1963 Koops and Klomp 1977) or cobalt (Novak 1965) soaps of long-chain fatty acids (>C12) are soluble in chloroform and can be determined quantitatively by colorimetric determination of the extracted metal. Shipe et al. (1980B) have recently modified the original copper soap method to make it simpler, more rapid, and adaptable to automatic equipment. 

Automatic. This can take prefolded, sheet-fed, or roll-fed leaflets and present them to be pushed into the carton by the product. In comparison to manual and semiautomatic operation, automatic equipment is very sensitive to paper porosity, physical size, paper calliper, fold design and accuracy, flying leaves, and so on, and has difficulty with two different size leaflets. 

Bulk dipping is done either by driving a carrier with the lumber into the dip tank , or dipping on a platform. The latter method usually utilizing automatic equipment, which lowers the lumber placed on the platform into the solution, keeps it down for a short time, and brings it up. In some small sawmills, the package of lumber is held under the forks of a forklift, which push them under the solution in an above ground "dip tank . 

The assay is most conveniently carried out in a microtitre plate (Fig. 3.2) and the dispensing may be done by hand or using automatic equipment available from Titertek (Flow Labs. Ltd. Appendix 3). 

Highly dealuminated Y zeolite, commercially labeled as DAY (dealuminated Y), with an FAU framework type is an excellent adsorbent for the removal of organic compounds in wastewaters, as a consequence of the hydrophobic surface properties of this zeolite, owing to the low concentration of A1 (see Section 2.5.1). As an example of adsorption in a zeolite, in Figure 6.9, the N2 adsorption isotherm at 77 K of the DAY zeolite, DAY-20 F (Si/Al = 20), provided by Degussa AG, Dusseldorf, Germany, is shown. The N2 adsorption isotherms were measured with an Accelerated Surface Area and Porosimetry System (Autosorb-1) from Quantachrome, Boynton Beach, FL, USA [21] which is a volumetric automatic equipment similar to that reported in Figure 6.8. 

It is a technique suitable for automatic equipment since there is no contact between the heating device and the materials to be sealed, there are none of the problems of sticking that can arise with sealing dies or electrodes. On modern machines, even with relatively thick-walled sections, sealing times can be as little as a fraction of a second. The method is ideal for work in which thermoplastics and metal components have to be joined—as in the assembly of medical syringes and the sealing of tinplate cans. 

About 2500/minute for automatic equipment Molded tablets are generally softer and more readily soluble than compressed tablets. 9... 

Transport studies are performed at 24-well or 96-well formats. Cells grown in 175 cm2 flasks are moved to filter inserts and after 21 days of feeding and cultivation used in transport studies. The following method applies for use of 24-well filters of BD Falcon TM HTS 24-Multiwell Insert System. Alternatively, Costar 24-well filter systems could be used (non-coated, Transwell system). In many pharmaceutical companies cell permeability tests and feeding are performed with automatization equipment. 

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