Henry Balfour & Company Limited

Thomas N Pye

James Mitchell

A thin wiped-film evaporator comprises an upright cylindrical vessel with a vertical rotor shaft extending concentrically within the vessel. An inlet pipe supplies liquid to be evaporated to a distributor which spreads the liquid around the inner wall of the vessel, and a series of wiper assemblies carried by the rotor shaft below the distributor serve for the creation of a thin liquid film on the vessel's inner wall, heating means being provided to evaporate the liquid film. The evaporator includes a vapor inlet and a liquid discharge. To enable the evaporator to handle corrosive liquids or products, the internal surface of the vessel is corrosion resistant as are the other parts within the evaporator. In particular, the vessel's inner wall and the rotor shaft are glass (or enamel) lined and additionally at least part of each wiper assembly can be glassed: the other internal parts can be of fluorocarbon. This arrangement enables the evaporator to satisfactorily handle high temperature materials, and is also conducive to greater purity and longer evaporator life. Each wiper assembly includes an axial series of radial finger elements pivotally carried by a spindle: such an assembly satisfactorily caters for out-of-roundness and straightness irregularities in the vessel.

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Leven, United Kingdom

Thomas N Pye