Reducing hot melt adhesive products’ time-to-cool period prior to forming has always been a desired productivity goal for adhesives manufacturers. It can take as much as six to 18 hours to form and package a standard batch of adhesives, depending on the clients finished product form. Every minute of cooling time reduction results in increased productivity as well as process cost reduction. For one hot melt adhesives manufacturer, using a Kenics heat exchanger from Chemineer Inc., Dayton, Ohio, proved effective in reducing time-to-cool when handling viscous, hot melt adhesives, improving ROI and the bottom line.
The hot melt adhesives manufacturer was experiencing excessive forming/packaging time. To reduce the cooling time, the company incorporated scraped surface devices and vertical tanks in an attempt to speed cooling of the hot melt adhesive products. Unfortunately, this approach still did not cool the hot melt adhesive quickly enough, and production cost was unacceptable.
Chemineer, in conjunction with the DEN Group, recommended the Kenics heat exchanger for handling the hot melt adhesive product. At the heart of the Kenics heat exchanger is static mixer technology that offers high heat transfer coefficients for fast, uniform heat transfer. Chemineer engineered and installed a custom, jacketed Kenics heat exchanger system that was able to cool the product in less time than previous heat transfer devices.
The Kenics heat exchanger consists of a continuous string of static mixer elements within each heat exchanger tube. Fluid flow is directed radially toward the pipe walls and back to the element, regardless of velocity. Additionally, momentum reversal and flow division also contributes to the mixing efficiency. All processed material is continuously intermixed to eliminate radial gradients in temperature, velocity and material composition. As a result, according to Chemineer, Kenics heat exchangers provide predictable, controlled mixing and efficient thermal transfer.
By using static mixer elements in each heat exchanger tube, the film buildup commonly associated with empty tubes is reduced. Process fluid is continuously pushed from the center of each tube, to the wall and back to the center, eliminating thermal gradients.
As a result of the heat exchanger retrofit, the hot melt adhesives maker reduced the time to form and package a batch of hot melt adhesive from 18 hours to less than two hours - more than an 88 percent improvement. The Kenics heat exchanger system was designed to remove 100°F (55°C) from molten materials at 4,000 lb/hr.
Report Abusive Comment