GLASS-LINED EQUIPMENT
50&GALLON,
GIULBS-LINEU STEEL %ACTION HET~LES POR HE.4TY-DUTY SERVICE IN A CUEXICAL MANUFACTUEXNQ PLANT
T
HE development of glass-lined steel chemical process equipment during the past twenty-five years has run parnllel to that of the chemical industry in the United States. As a result, equipment of this type is available in greatly improved quality and in a substantially broadened range of sizes, designs, and pressure specifications. The tremendous increase, since the first World War, in the variety and volume of manufactured synthetic organic products, has created a correspoudingly expauded demand for chemical equipment of a type which can be used without deterioration under severely corrosive acid conditions. At the same time it must impart no uudesirahle properties to the product, such as dissolved metal, impaired color, or side reactions from catalysis. Evident examples are many of the plastics, synthetic and chlorinated rubbers, dyestuffs, synthetic vitamins and pharmaceuticals, and a host of others Those manufacture is essential to a self-contained national economy and adequate preparedness. Glasrlined steel affords a material of equipment construction which mcots these specifications, alone in many eases. Continuous research has resulted in the development of glass enamels of greatly improved physical and chemical properties, which can he used with full confidence against any acid conditions (of course, with the exception of hydrofluoric) and a t operating temperatures a t least as high as 650" F. Probably the greatest single improvement has heen in
OF TUE LARGE ILADIANT-TUEE ENAMELING FURNACE^ IN THE PFAUULER PL.&NT WEICU GREATLY INCREASES CAPACITY &WOE
ONE
SEPTEMBER, 1940
INDUSTRIAL ,4ND ENGINEERING. CHEMISTRY
1159
depended even partially on foreign sources of supply. It is in this connection t;hat the chemical industry, and in turn the manufacturers of equipment essential to this industry, can best serve our country
WOOD CELLULOSE GEORGE A. RICHTER Brown Company, Berlin, 3.H
n E C E N T climactic events have demonstrated beyond the slightest doubt that modern warfare can be waged successfully only when the civilian population is The large number of openings in the head were once thought impossible on geared t o a n economic machine t h a t vessels of this type. operates most efficiently and when means lare provided for an expanded effectiveness of the sodier by equipping him with more than methods of application and firing, coordinated with the comthe usual instrumentalities that multiply his worth on position of the glass enamel itself, whereby relatively large the field of battle. Such a program demands a full recogunits can be coated to a degree of perfection such that no denition, as well as a complete utilization, of all the resources fects are disclosed by a 20,000-volt electric test. A test that are available to the state. Each succeeding a-ar has specification as drastic as this could not have been applied to emphasized new requirements and has added to the list even a small glass-lined vessel up to a few years ago. of raw materials that assume a major place in the proAnother pronounced forward step has been in the maximum curement schedules. individual size of glass-lined units which will pass such a test Although cellulose has long been recognized as an essenand can therefore be used against severe conditions. Up to tial strategic raw material inasmuch as it provides the base for fifteen years ago, the usual upper size limit for equipment for the manufacture of nitrocellulose, the last two decades have processing a hot mineral acid solution was 300 to 500 gallons, witnessed a succession of developments in the industry that whereas numerous 2000-gallon units, and in a few cases even now make possible a vastly greater use in a total war, whether larger ones, have been built and placed in successful service i t be waged offensively or defensively. The advance has comduring the past few years. For milder conditions one-piece prised not only a substantial expansion in productive capacity storage tanks are nom available up to 26,000 gallons capacity but has embraced a progressive extension of cellulose qualities as compared to a former maximum of approximately 9000 gallons. that have enabled the converter to enter fields of manufacImproved welding technique and other factors have perture not possible during the first World War. The enormous mitted the application of glass enamel t o steel of far heavier strides that have been made in the improvement of the wood thickness than formerly and with a correspondingly broadcelluloses have constituted a major chapter in this growth of cellulose utilization. ened service range at higher pressures. Large units up to one inch thick have been successfully produced. Wood cellulose is now firmly established as a necessary base material for the manufacture of textiles as well as for Agitators, condensers, pipe and fittings, and other accesthe papermaker. The spectacular growth of the rayon insories, all of a type which can be perfectly coated, have kept dustry has brought these synthetic cellulose products to propace in improved design. Factory facilities available for the manufacture of glassduction levels that exceed those of wool. The successful lined steel chemical equipment are approximately 33I/a per replacement of both n.001 and cotton by the reconstructed cent greater than during the first World K a r . This figure is cellulose fibers and their consequent importance in the ecoprobably somewhat misleading, because a t that time the denomic structure of the several totalitarian countries has been mand for chemical equipment was far smaller than at present, clearly demonstrated. It is likely that in the event of war by this country, huge tonnages of available cotton will be reand the majority of the output went to other industries, especially dairy products. I n national emergency the entire leased for purposes that cannot be fulfilled by wood cellulose or its derivatives through a wholesale adoption of the synfacilities of such plants could be devoted exclusively to chemical equipment, and it is probable that any required demands thetic yarns and staple fiber in proportions far in excess of could be met. those now prevalent. Utilization of the rayons will undoubtA thoroughly comprehensive national preparedness proedly extend into fabrics that are needed by the fighting forces gram will not be confined to munitions and other materials and into a multiplicity of civilian requirements that are now used directly by our defense forces, but will, in part, include mostly serviced by the long-fibered cotton, wool, and silk. all materials and products for which the United States has All of this expansion to war use must necessarily be predicated ~ O O O - G A L L O ~ V GLASS-LINED , STEEL,STEAM-JACKETED CHEMICAL PROCESS KETTLE FOR HIGH-PRESSURE WORK
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