Removable Dropletizer Holder for Reactor Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing apparatuses for introducing droplets into reactors, such as those used in poly(meth)acrylate production, face challenges with complex installation and maintenance due to the need for rotating and aligning dropletizer units, which can lead to wedging issues and increased downtime.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus features a holder for the dropletizer unit that can be pushed or pulled through a reactor opening, guided by a rail system, allowing for easy installation and deinstallation, and includes a frame with spaces for multiple dropletizer units, enabling direct access and rapid exchange without disrupting reactor operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of repair
If dropletizer units are mounted at the base of a pipe with rotatable bearing, then the dropletizer plates can be accessed for maintenance, but the installation complexity increases and wedging issues occur
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of rotating the inner tube to access dropletizer plates (conventional approach), the invention inverts the approach by making the entire holder assembly removable from the reactor. The holder with dropletizer units is pulled out through the reactor opening, allowing direct access to dropletizer plates without rotation or complex bearing mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention divides the system into separable components: the holder assembly containing multiple dropletizer units can be independently removed from the reactor. This segmentation allows maintenance of dropletizer plates without affecting the reactor operation or requiring complex in-situ manipulation mechanisms.
2Productivity
If dropletizer units are mounted at the base of a pipe, then dropletization can occur, but maintenance requires rotating and aligning which increases downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The holder assembly is designed to be dynamically removable and reinsertible into the reactor. This dynamic design allows rapid exchange of dropletizer units without time-consuming rotation and alignment procedures, significantly reducing maintenance downtime while maintaining continuous reactor operation.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple dropletizer units are pre-mounted on the holder assembly during manufacturing or setup. When maintenance is needed, the entire pre-assembled holder can be quickly replaced with a fresh one, eliminating the need for time-consuming in-situ assembly or alignment operations.
3Ease of repair
If an inner tube is moved within an outer tube for dropletizer probe design, then dropletizer plates can be removed, but the inner tube may become wedged
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the dropletizer units from the constrained inner tube environment and mounts them on an open holder assembly that can be freely removed from the reactor. This eliminates the nested tube structure that causes wedging, allowing direct extraction of the holder with dropletizer units through the reactor opening without interference from outer tube constraints.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The invention relates to an apparatus for introduction of droplets into a reactor (1), comprising a holder (31) for at least one dropletizer unit (61), where the dropletizer unit (61) has a feed (65) for a liquid to be dropletized and a dropletizer plate (67) and the dropletizer plate (67) has holes (69) through which a liquid to be dropletized is introduced into the reactor (1), where the holder (31) for the at least one dropletizer unit (61) can be pushed into the reactor (1) or pulled out of the reactor (1) through an opening (37) in the shell of the reactor (1). At least one rail (45) is accommodated within the reactor (1) and is used to guide the holder (31) for the at least one dropletizer unit (61) along it.