Screening, industrial

Walker, J.D., Knaebel, D., Mayo, K., Tunkel, J. and Gray, D.A. (2004) Use of QSARs to promote more cost-effective use of chemical monitoring resources. 1. Screening industrial chemicals and pesticides, direct food additives, indirect food additives and pharmaceuticals for biodegradation, bioconcentration and aquatic toxicity potential, Water Quality Research Journal of Canada 39, 35-39. 

Other types of RPC have been proposed but are not in industrial use as of this writing. These include a reciprocated wire-mesh packing (188), a reciprocating screen-plate (205), and the multistage vibrating disk column (MVE)C) developed in Japan (189,206,207). These types of RPC may be useful for gas—hquid contact as well as Hquid-Hquid contact. 

Immunosensors promise to become principal players ia chemical, diagnostic, and environmental analyses by the latter 1990s. Given the practical limits of immunosensors (low ppb or ng/mL to mid-pptr or pg/mL) and their portabiUty, the primary appHcation is expected to be as rapid screening devices ia noncentralized clinical laboratories, ia iatensive care faciUties, and as bedside monitors, ia physicians offices, and ia environmental and iadustrial settings (49—52). Industrial appHcations for immunosensors will also include use as the basis for automated on-line or flow-injection analysis systems to analyze and control pharmaceutical, food, and chemical processing lines (53). Immunosensors are not expected to replace laboratory-based immunoassays, but to open up new appHcations for immunoassay-based technology. 

Industrial screening is used essentially for separations over 0.2 mm and in conjunction with cmshers because the efficiency decreases rapidly as particle size decreases. The main objective is to remove undersize material that should not be circulated back to the cmshers, or to remove (scalp) oversize material or trash that should not report to the subsequent processing step. Other appHcations of screening include production of a specification size material (as in quarrys), dewatering, and trash removal from processed material. 

Synthesis. Exploratory research has produced a wide variety of odorants based on natural stmctures, chemicals analogous to naturals, and synthetic materials derived from available raw materials and economical processing. As in most areas of the chemical industry, the search for new and useful substances is made difficult by the many materials that have been patented and successfully commercialized (4). In the search for new aroma chemicals, many new materials are prepared for screening each year. Chemists who perform this work are involved in a creative exercise that takes its direction from the commercial sector in terms of desirable odor types and specific performance needs. Because of economic limitations, considerations of raw material costs and available processing methods may play a role eady in the exploratory work. 

In the early 1970s, the first companies to apply low cost, mass production techniques to photovoltaics, a technology that had previously been considered an exotic aerospace technology, emerged. These techniques included the use of electroplated and screen printed metal paste electrical conductors, reflow soldered ribbon interconnects, and by 1977, low cost, automobile windshield-style, laminated module constmction. Such processes benefitted from a substantial existing industrial infrastmcture, and have become virtually ubiquitous in the present PV industry. 

Potassium sulfate and langbeinite may be screened into three different size ranges to serve all segments of the fertilizer industry. Typical screen analyses of the size products are presented in Table 14. Chemical analyses for the products are shown in Table 15. 

In the microelectronics industry, powdered metals and insulating materials that consist of noimoble metals and oxides are deposited by screen printing in order to form coatings with high resistivities and low temperature coefficients of resistance. This technique may be useful in depositing oxide—metal refractory coatings. 

Silver Thick Films. About half of the silver consumed in the United States for its electrical properties is used by the electronics industry. Of this amount some 40% is used for the preparation of thick-film pastes in circuit paths and capacitors. These are silk-screened onto ceramic or plastic circuit boards for multilayer circuit sandwich components. 

Radioactivity in environmental waters can originate from both natural and artificial sources. The natural or background radioactivity usuaUy amounts to <100 mBq/L. The development of the nuclear power industry as weU as other industrial and medical uses of radioisotopes (qv) necessitates the deterrnination of gross alpha and beta activity of some water samples. These measurements are relatively inexpensive and are useful for screening samples. The gross alpha or beta activity of an acidified sample is deterrnined after an appropriate volume is evaporated to near dryness, transferred to a flat sample-mounting dish, and evaporated to dryness in an oven at 103—105°C. The amount of original sample taken depends on the amount of residue needed to provide measurable alpha or beta activity. 

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