Modifying a chinese centrifuge to ul standard

[quote]I think you may be our one potential customer.[/quote] lol :joy:

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Do you guys have a centrifuge with all PTFE gaskets that can withstand submerged floodable hexane?

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Hi! I’m glad to know that you are interested about our machine and know that you are in the market for hemp oil.
Could you kindly send your requirements by email?And i think we could discuss more about it.
Waiting for your email.
And you can add whatsapp for more convenient communcation.

Tel:+86 19951199985 (office number),
Email : [centrifuges@vip.sina.com]

Where did you end up finding this guy?

Do they have PTFE gaskets?

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You think this is safe? I’ve been hearing scary stories lately. Price is hard to walk away form though…

Tell me more!

I’ve only interacted with a couple of the OEM atex motors. If you run them too slow, even the Baldor motors can get really hot. Not quite etoh auto-ignition temps, but close enough to make one double check!!!

I’ve also a distinct image in my head of an OEM Chinese motor with the power cable poking straight up.

With a budget “operator install” I can see that going sideways fast.

If you need pieces of paper to convince the AHJ that y’all’s good to go, you need them.

If you dont and know what you’re doing, or pay someone who does to actually make sure it’s safe, they are a better option that any of the “clothes drying” or “salad spinner” options except for the 110year old BOCK/NSEP design.

With careful inspection and appropriate retrofits or repairs, these things do get the job done.

Caveat: I think this looks likes good idea…

image

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I heard third hand about 1 fire in OR and 1 in cali related to chinese fuges. Nothing confirmed. I was hoping maybe someone else had heard about it too so we could figure out if it was a.) actually the fuge and b.) what brand they were…

This one looks like a great price. Unfortunately I’m in a regulated lab and Panda’s are much easier to hide from the fire marshal :upside_down_face:

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I think you could retrofit the motors and electrical to something that makes everyone comfortable quite simply. What makes me nervous is the heat generated by the bearings and seals. My guess is these can run very hot. I am not sure that is so easily upgradeable.

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The bearing housings I’ve opened have contained high quality bearings. I’ve only seen the insides of two. Both from the same manufacturer. So milage may vary. Rating a fuge to swing that weight and not spec’ing decent bearings would be a dumb move…but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

The issue I’ve seen is the bearing isolator. I’ve seen several different ways of solving that engineering problem, and I don’t have longevity data on any of them. I could certainly make some guesses…

Once you flush the bearings of oil using ethanol, it doesn’t matter how fancy they are, they are not long for this world.

You can hear the bearings complain before they fail imo, but that may just be me :wink:

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When you say bearing isolator are you refering to the springs that support the bearing and absorb vibration? Whybwould you flush the bearing with ethanol or is that by accident when a seal is breached?

Ask the all knowing one for a bearing isolator. I suggest you talk to inpro seal.

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Got it. I had not heard of these seals called that.

how hot is problematic? unless you’re throwing matches at the problem, what really matters is not the flash point, but the auto-ignition temp. at least from a “will this thing set itself on fire” stand point.

if it leaks to the point where there is solvent all over the floor, there is insufficient ventilation, no LEL style flammable gas detector, and there are sources of ignition to be found, then yeah, flash point is the temp in play.

Which is why you leak test them before you run them, and stay on top of maintenance rather than running them into the ground :shushing_face:

it’s simple to get solvent all over the floor using ANY centrifuge by pulling the wrong lever. or more often by forgetting to pull the right lever (can you say FLOODED centrifuge?).

which is why secondary containment for your Fuge is a good idea. I’ve only seen a couple of labs implement this without first being told to by their AHJ (usually the local fire marshal).

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I hope this isnt ot, back in my sport bike race days, I remember ceramic wheel bearings. They are very $$$$. But couldnt replacement ceramic bearings for oem pass?

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What is the centrifuge used for? Mech seperation of thca?

A couple of comments after reading this entire thread…(thanks @cyclopath for the merge)

  1. The belt drive system is an ignition source. I would replace it with a direct drive motor or a toothed timing belt. Then seal it up so it is not exposed.
  2. Make sure you have a good pressure relief valve ventilated properly.
  3. Unless you redid the entire bearing assembly I would not think this could be upgraded to do cryo temperatures.
  4. I think if you did a comparison of a $300k unit and the unit in the photo you would see a world of differences in the design.
  5. I do not understand why the cabinet is so big. It just has to house a VFD and that little display to control RPM. Not sure why you need that big monitor unless there is a PLC in there monitoring all sorts of preventive maintenance sensors (heat, vibration, etc.)
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It separates your biomass from the bulk of your solvent after soaking the biomass. The outgoing solvent contains the botanical extracts you process into product downstream.

A lot of wasted space in there…

Note: this is a three phase motor and a three phase VFD. My electrician did some very trivial electrikery in there in order to accept single phase in, as that is all I have. Can be undone.

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Hey Mosaic, we have done peer reviews on centrifuges from overseas for many clients with our engineering department at Xtractor Depot. Let us know if you need any help!

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