Public Higher Education Bulletin

The Armfield UOP3CC-B is a pilot-scale distillation column designed specifically to replicate the industrial chemical process of distillation, scaled down for the purpose of student training and laboratory experimentation. Only Armfield offers a distillation column with unique safety features, the ability to connect to either external industrial controllers such as PLC (programmable logic computer) or PID controllers, dedicated sampling ports for making vapor and liquid measurements at critical locations, and a comprehensive set of educational software that is integrated with Labview, an industry standard software used for data acquisition and process control.

SAFETY: The UOP3CC is designed for students and includes safety features that protect both the equipment and personnel in the event of operator error. The Armfield UOP3CC is designed to use with flammable solvents. This means that every electrical or moving mechanical component in the potentially hazardous area is certified to the appropriate explosion proof specification. The control console is protected by flameproof ‘barriers’ on all electrical connections. It can be located up to 2 metres from the process unit, outside any hazardous area caused by using flammable solvents. The flameproof specification of the equipment is EEx d GroupIIB Temp Class T4.Flameproof Certification allows wider for a wider range of solvent options to include: Methylcyclohexane/Toluene, Toluene/Chlorobenzene, Cyclohexane/n-heptane, Methanol/Water, Chlorobenzene/Ethylbenzene, Methanol/Ethanol, Ethanol/Water. The UOP3CC-B is the ONLY known educational distillation column on the market with this certification and it is a critical safety feature for a student laboratory.

The UOP3CC-B is the only distillation column that contains a third feed vessel and with the reflux phase separator, allows azeotropic distillation to be carried out. This is a unique capability of this column. In addition, the operating software generates a series of ‘Watchdog’ pulses when in control mode. If these pulses are not received the UOP3CC shuts down safely, and hence is protected from a software or communications failure. This safety feature is only found in the UOP3CC-B unit.

The University has determined that this purchase is only economically available from this source because the The Armfield System is required for research and no other source is able to meet the researcher's documented need.