Jelly Puts Customer in a Sticky Situation

Agar is a gelatinous medium that is most commonly used by laboratories in Petri dishes as a controlled environment for bacteria growth. The extraction of agar, which comes from a type of red seaweed, is done by first washing the seaweed to remove all foreign matter. Once cleaned, the seaweed is heated with water for several hours, causing the agar to dissolve in the water before it is filtered to remove any seaweed residue.

Warm agar is poured into the bottom half of the petri dish; enough to form a layer over the bottom. Petri dishes, small flat-bottomed containers consisting of two halves, protect the contents from any unwanted containments, while allowing any gases produced to escape. It is important that these dishes be completely sterilized before used, otherwise, results can be affected.

A customer approached AAF looking for a solution to eliminate the dust generated in the production of Agar. Of utmost concern were the strict cleanliness requirements in the production area. This was a key consideration for the entire dust collection solution, as the finished product was ultimately being used extensively by the pharmaceutical and testing industries.

Challenge

Production restrictions mandated that the dust collector be located indoors and close to the production area. The dust collector’s construction materials were critical because the Agar end product was being used in a testing environment in the pharmaceutical and medical fields. As with all organic materials, the possibility of an explosive dust being present also needed to be considered.

Solution

AAF supplied a RotoClone® N wet collector with a hopper drain package. Using this unit minimized the explosion risk of the organic dust being collected. The stainless steel fabrication of the RotoClone® N solved the contamination and process cleaning requirements provided by the customer. In order to provide a constant level of efficiency and keep up with the customer’s changing air flow requirements, an automatic water level control system and fan system were included

Benefits

The AAF solution of the RotoClone® N exceeded the customers’ expectations and provided a quiet, efficient, and safe dust collection solution to their difficult application. The unit eliminated the dust generated in the production of Agar, allowing the customer to meet their strict cleanliness requirements.