January 2008 Editor’s Picks

Featured products from Pharmaceutical Technology's monthly newsletter, Equipment & Processing Report

Parker-TexLoc
Fluoropolymer tubing
Parker-TexLoc’s (Fort Worth, TX) fluoropolymer FEP and PFA tubing are leak-free, low-maintenance alternatives to metallic tubing. They can be formed and welded into heat-exchanger transport lines that offer bacteria-free transport of deionized water and other corrosive media. The tubing’s high lubricity “prevents contamination because nothing sticks to it,” according to Janine Kruit, a marketing professional at Parker-TexLoc. The high lubricity also reduces downtime for cleaning and routine maintenance.

FEP and PFA are melts, and “you don’t have to add lubrication to them to extrude them,” Kruit says. This property makes them cleaner materials compared with paste-based polymers. The materials also have high chemical resistance that stops residue from collecting in the tubing.

The products absorb less than 0.01% moisture absorption and operate in temperatures as high as 260 °C.

Automation Products Group
Level sensor
Automation Products Group (APG, Logan, UT) introduced its “LPU-2428” loop-powered ultrasonic level sensor. Jacob Bingham, APG’s application engineer for ultrasonics, level, and flow, notes that many comparable sensors simply provide a distance reading. The LPU-2428 sensor’s programming software offers distance and level readings and generates data reports. In addition, the “unit uses a distance reading to perform weir and flume calculations,” he explains. The device’s microprocessor control internally performs volume, flow, and totalization calculations.

Users can select flow-rate units of per second, per minute, per hour, or per day. Standard volume units include cubic feet, millions of cubic feet, gallons, cubic meters, and liters.

Bingham adds that the sensor’s autosense mode adjusts its sensitivity and pulses to get accurate data. The unit also features a manual sensing mode.