A Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometer is saving both time and money for Turkish chemicals manufacturer Ak-kim Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret, by allowing on-line control of resin viscosity.

A Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometer is saving both time and money for Turkish chemicals manufacturer Ak-kim Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret. Amongst the company's products is a polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin resin used to impart wet strength to tissue paper. Synthetic water-soluble polymers such as the resin made by Ak-kim Kimya provide wet strength to the paper by (1) reinforcing the cross-links between the cellulose fibres, which are weakened by water molecules, and (2) reacting with the cellulose to create an additional cross-linked network.

By controlling the viscosity of the resin solution, production staff can directly affect the quality of the finished product.

But until Ak-kim Kimya came to Hydramotion, viscosity could only be measured off-line in the laboratory, so viscosity control was slow, inefficient and unreliable.

Now, with the XL7 on-line viscometer up and running, the company is benefiting from the boost in productivity made possible by continuous real-time viscosity measurement.

'We can easily control and see the viscosity on a display', commented Process Engineer Serhat Zeytinci: 'This saves us a lot of time and labour cost'.

Ak-kim Kimya was immediately attracted to the XL7 because of its flexibility.

'We decided on Hydramotion because it gave us a choice of locations.

The viscometer could be installed in a reactor as well as on-line,' said Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer Nuri Basarici: 'The installation was very easy, and the instrument is very easy to use'.

The company was also impressed by the after-sales service.

'There was an initial problem with our power supply,' recalls Mr Basarici, 'but the Hydramotion service engineers were very helpful and it was quickly fixed.'