AutoBlend System - Ether Sulphate Dilution Package

Your Task

Present-day demands on a tenside are, as well as good wetting, dispersing and washing properties, absolute kindness to skin and bio-degradability.

Alkyl ether sulphates meet these demands completeley and are therefore especially suitable for the production of hair shampoos, bubble baths and liquid cleaners. In addition to this diluted 28% solution, the product is availabe in the form of 70% paste.

However, the use of these more econmical pastes was often avoided in the past because of problems which arose during the dilution with water. These problems came from an intense formation of gelatinous phases during the processing of the product.

Our Approach

Complete plants for the continuous dilution of WAS pastes have been successfully installed by Bran+Luebbe for many years throughout the world.

Our diluting plants are so designed that gelatinuous phases are prevented from forming during dilution. An important feature of this design is a special injection point developed by Bran+Luebbe together with our mulit-frequency fluid mixer Type KMF.

The common drive motor and the in-phase working of all pumpheads ensure that the quality of the diluted WAS solution is proportionally the same and independent of slip.

Your Raw Material

70% alkyl ether pastes have a viscosity of 10,000-15,000 mPas at room temperature (+20°C) but can be easily pumped because of their shear thinning behaviour.

The commercially available concentration of alkyl ether sulphates contains 28% washing active substance (WAS). The product is liquid and has a viscosity of approx. 100 - 200 mPas at +20 °C.

Your Process

The use of these highly concentrated WAS pastes was often avoided in the past, since problems arose during the dilution with water because of a considerable increase in viscoisity.

Long dissolution times, warming of the entire volume to +70 - +80°C or substantial air locks (foaming) when using high-speed agitators made processing uneconomical, although major savings could be achieved when purchasing the paste because of lower transport costs.

The use of Bran+Luebbe WAS dilution plants make the above mentioned measures completely unnecessary.

All highly concentrated WAS pastes can be easily processed with the continuous Bran+Luebbe dilution plants. The diluted product is absolutely homogeneous and is equivalent to the commerically available diluted WAS solution.

Neither the water nor the WAS paste needs to be warmed up for this process. Dilution can also be performed perfectly in winter at temperatures of +8°C. The WAS paste can be stored in tanks of stainless steel or fiberglass- reinforced plastic. The processing temperature should not drop below +20°C.

Since the diluted WAS solution is virtually produced only when needed, the risk of bacteriological contamination is reduced to a minimum, provided that sterilized water is used.

Advantages of Continuous Dilution

• Considerable savings when purchasing 70% WAS paste.
• Increase in storage capacity without investing in tanks for storing raw materials.
• Automatic dilution, control via level contacts (on/off operation) possible.
• Trouble-free setting of various WAS concentrations.
• Can be used for batch operation and as first stage in the continuous production of cosmetics.
• Considerable time and energy savings compared with conventional dilution systems.
• Reduced use of preservations.