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User Solution

Chemical reactors operating in parallel, both day and night.

Author (s): Hakim BOULGHOBRA - Gattefossé SAS Bruno MALHA - Gattefossé SAS Jean-David Rodier - Gattefossé SAS Industry (s): Medical / Health, Research, Oil / Chemical / para - Product (s): Serial, LabVIEW, Fieldpoint Objective: Automate the operation of several synthetic organic chemistry laboratory. The solution: Using a PC with I / O modules Fieldpoint deported, while continuing to operate existing equipment, specific to the synthesis.

Gattefossé is a designer, manufacturer and supplier of functional ingredients for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics, as well as biological assets for cosmetics.

The projects developed by our team of chemists focus on the synthesis of new products and improved manufacturing processes. The detailed understanding of lipids and their physico-chemical is also a major challenge for the team.

Previously, we had a job with a specific material for the synthesis. Its use depended on the presence of a person on the job, to save steps, launch stages, write a report. We wanted to modernize the facility to reduce our development time and work-time masked, enrich the data obtained on the synthesis and ensure traceability of the experiments.

In search of a low-cost and scalable

Among the constraints were the cost, the use of existing materials and the possibility to change the whole basis.

There are solutions of turnkey automated reactor, but their costs were prohibitive. We then directed to a less costly and evolving based on National Instruments products, chosen for their variety, flexibility and technical support. We appealed to the company Saphir integrator partner National Instruments to perform an audit and then develop the software application on specifications, install the equipment, testing and training a person on the team.

The system consists of a PC that are connected to I / O modules Fieldpoint deported. The instruments are connected either Fieldpoint modules, or to the PC via a PCI card with eight ports RS232. Fieldpoint modules can have four analog input channels, eight channels of temperature measurement on RTD, ten relays, two analog outputs and four digital inputs. The software application was developed in the LabVIEW environment. It has been improved in the future, internally and with new features.

Conclusion

The main difficulty for us was having to spend time to formalize our needs through a specification. Ultimately, the objectives were achieved. We have a scalable system that works very well, responding perfectly to our needs, allowing us to continue to use existing equipment, and a lower price for turnkey solutions. We have gained in productivity, including a remote control and the ability to share data in electronic form.

February 2008

Author information:

Hakim BOULGHOBRA
Gattefossé SAS
36, chemin de Genas - BP603
69804 St Priest Cedex
France
Tel: +33 (0) 4 72 22 98 00
hboulgho@gattefosse.com