Escape Hatch

This article describes features of an automated, closed sampling system that cuts waste and improves safety at a plastics factory. In order to monitor product composition and quality, tests must be performed on material entering and leaving the fluid-bed vessels. This means that samples must be drawn at eight locations, two in each processing stream. Morris, Illinois, complex of Equistar Chemicals LP, considered alternatives that could operate without an employee on the spot. Although sampling normally would be initiated by the computers that run the production process, a pushbutton override was installed at each location to allow on-demand sampling, which is helpful in problem-solving or gauging the progress of product changeover. Samples are collected and delivered by hand to the laboratory. At one time, hydrocarbons, or volatile organic compounds, which are by-products of the manufacturing process, would be present when samples were collected. That potential problem is avoided because the Bristol sampler body provides a built-in purging port intended for introducing an inert gas or fluid to flush clinging materials out of the spool. Automating has given the company more confidence that its samples and their data are representative. Because the samplers are completely enclosed, the finer particles remain as part of the sample.