WNIP May June 19.3 Digital

18
19.3
President Obama and Chancellor Merkel visit ifm
The American President, Barack
Obama, and the German
Chancellor, Angela Merkel,
visited the exhibition stand of
the ifm group of companies at
the Hannover Trade Fair that took
place in April.
Dr. Bernd Buxbaum explained
the new 3D camera systems for
fast detection of 3D scenes and
automatic object recognition to
the very interested Chancellor
Merkel and President Obama as
well as to the other delegation
members.
During their opening tour,
the President of this year’s partner
country, the USA, and the German
Chancellor enquired about
the medium-sized company’s
strategic orientation.
“We develop today modern
sensors, systems and software
that communicate with each
other according the principles
of Industry 4.0 and that trigger
and control processes”, explained
Michael Marhofer, Chairman of the
ifm Group.
info.za@ifm.com
The power of light in industrial process management:
spectroscopy
Process analysis technology
(PAT) is an essential
prerequisite for the management
and control of processes which
is optimal both technically and
economically.
Optical spectroscopy is a
well-established method for
quantifying compositions. It
also allows to maximise the
performance of a system, for
example, the so-called "spacetime
yield": in addition to
the use of "classical" process
measuring technology (flow, level,
temperature, etc.) PAT tools are
increasingly being used to achieve
this aim.
The requirements for PAT are
very different; batch processes
require a temporal extension
of the measurements across all
concentration ranges.
The composition of the
substance on the probe changes
constantly. In continuous
processes, however, the same
composition or the same
concentration often appears in
only one point in the production
chain and the measurements take
place according to the various
process steps.
The ideal state of always
knowing all relevant information
or data would mean a great
expense even in a small plant.
With well-placed PAT measuring
points, on the other hand, a higher
level of control technology can be
achieved and previously unused
potential realized.
The OPTIQUAD optical
spectroscopy systems have been
developed for applications with
milk, wastewater and edible oil and
fat. Typical applications include
the continuous measurement of
protein, fat, lactose and total solids
in milk products, chemical oxygen
demand (COD) in the wastewater
flow of dairies or cheese factories,
as well as free fatty acids (FFA), total
polar material (TPM), peroxide
value (POV), moisture, dirt and
other values in edible oil and fat
processing.
The OPTIQUAD uses optical
spectroscopy to measure the
contents of milk products
continuously and without contact.
In the process, light of varying
wavelengths is coupled into
the product through an optical
window.
The system simultaneously
determines the values of up to
four optical effects (transmission,
scattering, fluorescence and
refraction) which manifest in
different ways depending on the
substances in the product, and
then uses them to calculate for
example in dairy applications the
amounts of protein, fat, lactose
and total solids. The measurement
is tailored to the application with
up to 12 wavelengths from UV to
IR. The measuring cycle lasts only a
few seconds.
Typical applications for dairies
include strategically increasing the
protein content in cheesemaking
milk/vat milk, standardising the fat
content in drinking milk or setting
a constant ratio of fat to protein in
cheese production.
Unlike bypass devices which
are sometimes costly to clean, the
OPTIQUAD M measures without
contact directly in the pipeline: the
system is connected to the process
via a standard VARINLINE process
connection (nominal sizes DN 40
to DN 150).
The measuring section is
FDA-compliant and is cleaned
using CIP. There is no need for
daily recalibration thanks to the
long-term stability of the optical
measurement, which requires no
moving parts.
In addition, operating and
maintenance costs are lowered
as there is no need for chemicals,
reagents or cleaning products.
Operating the device requires no
special knowledge.
salesza@krohne.com