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Enjoy the Rest of the Summer..Safely. To have a Happy & Safe Summer, check out these tips from the National Safety Council:

• General Safety

• Workplace Safety

See you in September!

For the next few weeks we're going to look at some application examples from our Chemical E-Book, this week we'll focus on: headspace monitoring.

Collection tanks can contain a complex mixture of materials and hazardous chemicals, many of which are present in the headspace of the tanks.

For the next few weeks we're going to look at some application examples from our Chemical E-Book, this week we'll focus on a method of cleaning up plant wastewater streams: Steam Stripping.

Steam stripping is an economic method of cleaning up plant wastewater streams. It is a multistage continuous distillation process where steam is used as a stripping gas to remove hydrocarbons from dischargeable waste waters.

As fireworks soar sky high around the Fourth of July, so do injuries. As the holiday approaches, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) demonstrated the power fireworks, legal and illegal.

According to the CPSC, last year five people were killed and more than 9,000 were injured in fireworks-related incidents, the majority in a 30-day period around July 4.

Those injuries ranging from cuts, scrapes to permanent disfigurement, including severe burns, amputation of fingers and serious eye trauma.

Baking and drying ovens have been workhorses in the food, textile, and paper industries for many decades – and many oven users have clung to decades-old equipment because profit margins can be low in their industry. Although many of these older ovens still function with roughly the same level of consistency, certain newer technologies can result in reduced operating costs and lower risks to production and personnel due to fewer shutdowns.

When selecting a flammability analyzer, it’s always a good idea to enlist the advice of a specialist in the field. Do not assume that the analyzer which was correct for a previous job will also be the right choice for another application. Whether new or similar, the specific details of each application need to be examined closely to prevent disaster.

The flame temperature analyzer measures the amount of heat given off by a pilot flame as it burns in an explosion-proof measuring chamber. The small, well-regulated flame heats the tip of a temperature sensor suspended directly above it.

Combustible gases absorb infrared radiation at certain characteristic wavelengths. A typical non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) detector passes a source of infrared energy through the sample and measures the energy received by one of two detectors. The active detector responds to wavelengths in the same band as the sample gas, while the other detector measures a reference to compensate for changes within the instrument.

Catalytic-bead sensors are constructed of two small wire coils covered with a catalyst. One coil is “active” while the other is rendered inert and acts as a reference. A flow of electrical current through the internal coils heats the catalytic coating to a temperature at which the active coil will react with many flammable vapors and gases. This reaction occurs in the form of surface combustion which in turn causes an increase in the sensor’s temperature. The resulting temperature change is converted into an LFL reading.