Chemical Industry | Insulation Binder Oils
Improving Fiberglass Yarn Production
When molten glass is converted to filament and stretched out to be wound into fiberglass yarn, a binder emulsion is applied to improve structural integrity of the yarn. The binder is crucial to preventing yarn breakage when the material is used in later processing. Sonic Corp’s High Pressure Homogenizers are the ideal mixing equipment solution for creating these binder oil emulsions. The quality of this binder mix is very important as oil droplet size can dictate how effectively the binder fluid attaches itself to the fiberglass yarn. Proper emulsification of this oil with water reduces the oil droplet size significantly, creating enough surface area for the protective binder oil to do its job.
The Sonolator offers many benefits to improve product quality and reduce processing times at the factory level. If you’re making insulation and applying these binder fluids, you’re probably following labor intensive batch mixing methods and consuming valuable tank space with water. You’re also likely spending more money and time heating and cooling these batches.
Why use the Sonolator?
The device above is our Model JetPilot 6500 Sonolator that uses high pressure, fluid acceleration and hydrodynamic cavitation to emulsify and homogenize fluids. Sonic Corporation is the only company that designs and fabricates Multiple-Feed Homogenizing Systems that meter various fluids with accurate ratio control at the high pressures typically required to make proper emulsions. Using this approach allows you to meter water, the binder liquid and a surfactant simultaneously under pressure to create instant emulsions. In a typical batch approach, the water and binder fluid are transferred to a batch tank and heated. Agitation is applied over time to form the emulsion, which is then cooled before final transfer and application to the fiberglass insulation.
With a Sonolator System featuring 3 PD pumps and flow meters, the water is drawn directly from factory water supply without wasting valuable tank space. The binder fluid is drawn directly from storage and can be heated inline using electric heaters. Surfactant, if needed, is metered as a third liquid stream. All 3 feeds enter the Sonolator high-pressure mixing chamber at the same time at the correct ratio to form the emulsion instantly. Because the water is ambient the heat balance results in a low final product temperature.
The Benefits of Sonolator Binder Emulsification
- Eliminate large and costly batch mixing tanks
- Reduce weighing and transfer errors
- Reduce heating and cooling as the feeds can be pumped in at different temperatures
- No longer consume valuable tank space with water or other bulk materials
- Reduce overall emulsion-making time
- Heat as necessary with inline heat exchangers
- Reduction in labor involvement and costs
- Energy consumption reduced as batch tank mixing and heating goes away
Homogenizing System Designed for the Application
Our Sonolator binder emulsification systems are custom designed to meet the needs of the application. A complete skidded system contains all necessary pumps and piping required to meet the inline pressure demands. The onboard PLC and HMI allow operators to choose formulation recipes and set alarm parameters for flow deviation and high pressure. The alarms help protect operators and protect the emulsion quality and ratio control.
Sonic has its own panel building shop where we design & fabricate UL approved controls cabinets. The cabinets are installed in many cases directly to the skid and wired to instrumentation, etc. All systems are water tested at Sonic to guarantee operation and alarm operation. Data logging is built into the HMI panels. We work with Allen Bradley, Siemens and more.
We use AutoCAD Inventor 3D to provide extremely accurate mechanical layout drawings for customer approval. Sonic takes customer input very seriously and we are known for accommodating factory requirements across the skid.
See our 2 minute presentation on this application.
Download the Sonolator Homogenizer e-Booklet now!