New Product: Walchem WebAlert
New Product Highlight: GE Osmonics Z.PlexT
Shop Talk
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Company Highlight: WIKA
Employee Profile
Maintenance Tips
PFC Quiz

Congratulations to Angela Avery from US Filter Recovery Services who was last edition's quiz winner!! Thank you to all of those who entered our contest.

Submit your answers to http://www.pfcequip.com/quiz.html or email sales@pfcequip.com or fax to 763-425-1132.

All correct submissions will be placed in a drawing for this issue's giveaway.

A new low-cost device that lets users monitor key process parameters from any computer, anywhere in the world, using a standard web browser is being introduced by Walchem Corporation of Holliston, Massachusetts.

WebAlertT is the first stand alone remote monitoring device that can web enable your installed equipment without having to replace or upgrade it. Your key system parameters (analog and digital) can now be monitored from any computer — anywhere in the world — with a standard web browser.

With proprietary on-demand connectivity, the WebAlert is only online when you need it...making it the world's first practical and secure industrial monitoring Internet solution. WebAlert pulls your older equipment into the Internet age with online monitoring, data-logging, auto-reporting and auto-alarming. This remote monitoring device provides automatic cyclical or calendar reporting, system status with a 24-hour snapshot, 32-day data logging and e-mail and Web page alerts. User defined alarms can be sent to multiple email accounts or pagers. Datalogs can be delivered by email as a spreadsheet attachment. You decide where and when you need the information. Since WebAlert supports simultaneous multi-user access and Ethernet, all of its remote monitoring features are also available on local area networks (LAN). For larger installations that require additional inputs, multiple WebAlerts can be networked together through an Ethernet.

The WebAlert features six analog (4-20mA) inputs, two digital inputs, and one dry alarm contact input. Typical analog inputs are for tank level measurement, temperature, flow-rate or pressure readings. WebAlert accepts digital inputs for point/tank level indicators, flow switches or dry contact alarms. If your application is not listed, don't worry. WebAlert can accept just about any analog or digital input signal. Eliminating the need to replace or upgrade installed equipment, WebAlert is capable of monitoring any device with an analog or digital signal.

To see if WebAlert is right for your application, contact one of the application engineers at PFC Equipment.

• Sound travels through water 3 times faster than through air.
• Dynamic Discharge Head includes Static Discharge Head + Friction Head + Velocity Head.
• The Specific Gravity of water is 8.33 lbs / gallon @ 62 degrees F.
• 10 British gallons equals 12 US gallons.
• In it 30-year existance, PFC Equipment has been under the same management.
• A Newtonian Fluid is a fluid whose viscosity is constant with change in shear rate.
• 10 feet of water equals 4.329 PSI.
• PFC Equipment has over 200 years combined experience in the fluid-handling industry.
• Air becomes liquid at about minus 190 degrees Celsius.
• The oldest horse lived to be 62 years old.

Please welcome Joe Defoe and Jay McLeran to our sales team at PFC Equipment.

Joe comes to us from Ramsey Technology where his job responsibilities included inside sales, technical support, and customer service for ultrasonic road machinery controls. Joe's hobbies include hunting and fishing and he plays guitar in an Irish band and is also engaged to be married in June. Currently, Joe is training to learn all aspects of the inside sales department at PFC Equipment with a primary focus on pump applications, Walchem controllers, and Goulds Aquavar pump controllers.

Jay, a veteran of chemicals sales at Ecolab for five years, brings his knowledge to the PFC Equipment outside sales team. Previously, Jay worked for 10 years selling specialty chemicals to the pulp and paper industry. Jay will be our lead salesman to chemical manufacturers and water treatment accounts. We would like to say Jay does things for fun, but his main hobby is Physics.

Please welcome Joe and Jay to our team and contact them with your application needs.

A new filter technology developed by GE Osmonics for manufacturing polypropylene melt blown, depth cartridge filters allows end users to reduce fluid processing costs and increase operating efficiency. The technology, called Z.PlexT, produces filters with up to 100 percent greater filter life and dirt holding capacity than conventional melt blown depth filters at equivalent competitive efficiencies. The cost savings come largely from the ability to use fewer filters to fulfill the same processing needs due to the significantly improved filter performance.

Proven in multiple field trials, filters produced with Z.Plex technology are substantially out-performing competitive filters at equal efficiencies (removing equal percentages of same size particles). In addition to longer filter life, filters produced with Z.Plex technology decrease pressure drop by up to 50 percent, which saves energy costs. The new technology enables end users to reduce costs of filter change-outs, equipment downtime and waste hauling and disposal.

"We will revolutionize the filtration industry with an advanced technology that produces cartridge filters with up to twice the filter life and dirt holding capacity of competitive filters," said Roger Miller, general manager, GE Osmonics Filtration & Separations Group. "This development was built on decades of filtration industry know-how and years of research. Our research and development prowess goes back to pioneering a technique to manufacture true graded density filters over 20 years ago."

In order to produce filters with substantially improved dirt holding capacity, Z.Plex technology was engineered to produce greater void volume than current melt blown filter technology. More void volume means more space to trap dirt particles, which leads to longer filter life and cost savings. Increased void volume is achieved with smaller diameter fibers and an innovative three-dimensional fiber matrix that maintains structural integrity while greatly increasing filter capacity. To allow increased layer spacing for more void volume, GE Osmonics engineered "Z-fibers" that transverse the layers and provide critical structural support.

In addition to improving filter performance, Z.Plex technology allows for flexibility in designing filters to specific applications and efficiency grades during the manufacturing process. At this time, GE Osmonics is offering two versions of filters produced with Z.Plex technology: the ROsave.ZsT filter for reverse osmosis pretreatment applications and the WellPro.ZsT filter for deep well protection applications. Additional filters tailored to specific applications will be introduced later in 2003.

Please contact PFC Equipment for more information about the new Z.Plex technology.

The name WIKA has become a symbol for sophisticated solutions in the field of pressure and measuring technology. With a 210,000 square foot facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia, WIKA Instrument Corporation has state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and highly automated proprietary production equipment. Producing over 30 million gauges, diaphragm seals, transmitters, and thermometers worldwide annually, WIKA has the most extensive product line in the industry.

WIKA provides customer-specific solutions through an extensive service program. WIKA maintains a vast network of resources, including 110 full capability distributors nationwide, as well as subsidiaries in Germany, Brazil, South Africa, China, India, Switzerland, and Canada. These sales outlets offer product application expertise and a large inventory of pressure and temperature measurement products. Through continual consultations, engineering, calibration, maintenance, and system testing, WIKA meets the demands of its customers. WIKA's engineering and procurement specialists can design and supply a complete package for specific applications. Through a logistical, just-in-time system WIKA has the ability to ensure that products are delivered on-time. Additionally WIKA's modern production plants provide quality and efficiency, along with flexibility.

WIKA has the largest standard range of pressure and temperature products for a variety of applications, such as process & production, pharmaceutical, sanitary, food & beverage, medical, and wastewater industries. Essential for successful processes and practices, WIKA's products are accurate, affordable, and reliable. With its some 300 million measuring instruments in use all over the globe, WIKA is everywhere, all the time, and part of your business.

Contact PFC Equipment to learn more about incorporated WIKA products into your system.

Is your pump and pumping system working correctly? Is it time to change out the filter media in you system? What is the actual pressure drop in a system? These are important questions which can be answered by the installation of pressure gauges at strategic locations in a pump or filter system.

In a pumping system the incorporation of pressure gauges can assure that the pump is operating properly. Gauges are typically installed on the discharge of a pump as well as at any key locations where remaining system pressure is important. By installing a pressure gauge at the pump discharge, the pump's performance can be verified. The gauge should be installed before any isolation valves. Closing the valve and taking the reading on the gauge will indicate the "dead-head" condition of the pump compared to the pump's Flow vs. Head curve to assure proper operation. The second reading would be at normal system flow. Again using the Flow vs. Head curve, the pressure reading can be converted to Total Dynamic Head (TDH) (PSI X 2.31 / TDH = Specific Gravity) and total system flow can be determined. By installing gauges at the use points the total head loss in a system can be determined by comparing the reading on the gauge at the discharge of the pump to the reading downstream in the system.

On a filtration system the use of pressure gauges can be very helpful in determining initial pressure drop, filter life and required change-out due to differential pressure across the filters. One gauge is located at the inlet to the filter housing. The second gauge is located at the outlet of the housing. On system start-up initial readings are taken on the two gauges. The difference is the initial pressure drop through the filter housing and media. Many filter manufacturers recommend an initial reading of less than 2 psid in order to maximize filter life. Periodic recordings of the readings on each pressure gauge should be taken to determine differential pressure build-up over time. Monitoring of the differential pressure across the media allows for determining maximum filter life and scheduled change-outs before catastrophic failure.

Pressure gauges are key components for any pump or filter system. Gauges are available in a variety of materials, configurations and pressure ranges. Contact PFC Equipment to learn about how to incorporate pressure gauges into your system.

PFC Equipment offers a fully equipped service and repair department, staffed with experts on all types and brands of pumps. Our trio of knowledgeable service personnel coupled with an extensive array of equipment allow PFC Equipment to service nearly every type of fluid-handling equipment.

Our 5,000 square foot service facility houses both horizontal and vertical band saws for frame cutting as well as wire feed and Heliarc welders allowing for easy assembly of customer products and systems. Not only are we able to repair your already purchased products, but also we can customize your current needs to create complete skid-mounted systems. The digital Bridgeport and Geared-head radial drills help to give our shop technicians precise capabilities when tapping housing heads. Tucked in the PFC Equipment service department is a full service painting station. We can match your unit or system to any color of the rainbow, yielding custom and compete fabrication.

Contact Dan Jenkins, the PFC Equipment shop manager, with your fabrication needs.