| Abstract: | Recent Development of Synthetic Resin Plants with Special Consideration of Processing Automation In the development of synthetic resin plants, an extensive automation is desired for the maintenance of uniformity of high quality products. Moreover, the construction of the plant should enable a reduction of the time of production and the cost of energy. Automation of the plant is possible, especially for feeding the raw materials and for process control. Feeding of the raw materials, preferentially on weight basis, with preadjustment of the amounts and selection of the raw material is made from the control panel, either manually or by the use of punched cards. Various possibilities exist for automation in the process control. Most important is the automatic regulation of the product temperature, which is accomplished via a program regulator. This equipment regulates the cascade temperature of the reactor, which ensures proper processing. Further automatic controls of the process are the instruments built within the reactor, such as those for the measurement of conductivity, foaming and viscosity. A special feature of construction of the synthetic resin plant according to “RHE Händel Engineering” is the use of a packed column on top of the reactor, which affords a significant improvement of the azeotropic process. This system provides 10 to 15% savings of energy, reduction in the time of processing per charge by 1 to 2 hours or even longer, and elimination of contamination at the surface of heat exchangers. RHE can erect fully automatic synthetic resin plants, in which the feeding of raw materials and the processing as a function of the temperature in the reactor, can be regulated by the time and the viscosity of the product. The high cost of investment of such plants is economically justified, when a few types of products are produced only. In many cases, a semiautomatic synthetic resin plant is of greater economic advantage. |
