Testing Flash Points within Safety Standards, SETA PM-93
Announcement posted by John Morris Group 18 Apr 2016
Advancing 'Safeflash' technology...
A critical safety concern in the petroleum industry is the heating and ignition of potentially flammable liquids to test their flash points. Rigorous laboratory safety rules now demand safer flash point testing procedures and adherence presents a issue for instrument manufacturers.
Common use of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) makes it necessary for rigid operating procedures to be followed by technicians and the most frequent instrument concerns are those involving high temperatures and electricity. It is generally accepted that fail-safe devices like temperature ‘cut-outs’ might not protect or prevent a test sample from creating smoke and burning. This is a especially dangerous if your test apparatus is ever left unmonitored.
Technical committees and Manufacturers have acknowledged the issue and a revision is under consideration by ASTM to order that fire extinguishing systems be included within flash point testing apparatus. This safety revision will minimise risks where a sample ignites in an automatic instrument due to sample mislabelling, operator error or when testing an ‘unknown’ sample. In these instances a fire can cause consequential accidents, peripheral damage as well as damage to the instrument itself.
Stanhope-Seta have investigated ways to further reduce this hazard and following careful study of user requirements and several years of development have recently introduced SETA PM-93, a new advanced automatic Pensky-Martens flash point testing which fully complies with latest safety criteria .
The PM-93 instrument incorporates a unique ‘SAFEFLASH’ safety system which, separately from temperature sensors which are used to monitor the sample and control instrument performance, will automatically and immediately activate an integral extinguisher in the event of flame or fire being detected around the test cup.
The new instrument also includes the latest safety changes to ASTM D93 test method including an automated pre-ignitor dip to check for the presence of excess volatile components, and an ignitor dip every 10°C to provide further safeguards.
PM-93 allows rapid testing of samples in exact conformity to ASTM D93 (Pensky-Martens) and equivalent flash point test methods. It incorporates a large touch screen display with easy to use ‘3-step to test’ commands and LIMS compatible software.
The instrument has a very small footprint and is extremely rugged making it ideal both for fixed and portable testing requirements. Suitable for testing a very wide range of sample materials including refined fuels, crude oil, FAME, lubricants, liquid waste and many more. It provides very rapid sample testing using advanced heating control and forced air cooling systems
Sample handling is simple, your required volume is placed into the test cup within the upper test assembly, housing all the ignition, stirring and detector modules is lowered into position. No need to fit any test accessories, everything is self contained within the unit.
Should you activate the ‘SAFEFLASH’ safety system and your extinguisher discharges, it's simply and quickly re-activated by replacing your the charge canister.