The calorimeters can operate as either a stand alone unit or via a PC. The cooler reduces the temperature of a fired vessel by having its hot junction of the peltier elements cooled down by a continous trickle of mains water supply. The filling station fills the vessel with oxygen to 3000Kpa (3Mpa) at a controlled pace, so as not to disturb the sample inside the crucible. The vessel is the heart of the calorimeter systems. It has an isothermal design with a microprocessor in its base. The vessel also has a number of temperature sensors within its cylindrical walls, ensuring absolute accuracy.

The CAL2k bomb calorimeters with their easy maintenance and compact size are a must for any calorimetry application.

What is Bomb Calorimetery? Bomb calorimetry - a procedure which determines the heat of combustion or calorific value of solid and liquid materials which are burned as fuels. It is a primary test of great importance to the following industries: coal production, coal analysis, fuel analsyis power stations, animal feed research (measuring calorific content of feed), food industry (measuring calofric content of food) educational institutes, waste product incineration, safety applications, heat ignitable explosives, propellants, scientific research, commercial analytical laboratories, by-product analysis, building materials etc.  

Theory of "dry isothermal" cv determinations. The Conventional Way:The CV (Calorific Value) of a substance is measured by burning it in a controlled environment. The resulting heat released by this combustion i.e. the net temperature rise, is proportional to the calorific value.

A problem, however, occurs in that during the determination period (Approx. 10min) some energy may be gained from or lost to the environment.

In the adiabatic system the environment is controlled so that no energy is lost or gained. To achieve this state, the Calorimeter Vessel (bomb) and bucket are surrounded by a water jacket which is strictly temperature controlled by a system of circulators, heaters and coolers, so that it has the same temperature as the inner bucket.

The Isothermal bomb calorimeter measures the effect that the environment has on the bucket before and after the determination and corrects the result accordingly. This implies that the environment is stable during the determination. To achieve stability a large body of water surrounds the vessel and bucket assembly, which is thermally stable.

The Modified Conventional Way: Prior to development of the CP500, over a 5-year period, it was demonstrated by "dds" that a polystyrene jacket, which has very little thermal mass and negligible heat conductivity, could replace the water jacket. This system was used in the AMPC.

The Dry Method:In the conventional way a vessel is placed in a water container and the water temperature is measured. Since the water quantity and container are part of the effective heat capacity, great care must be taken not to change the capacity. Equally important is that the water acts as a heat sink and a temperature transfer medium to the sensor.

In the dry vessel, the water and container are replaced by a highly temperature conductive aluminium jacket which is shrunk over the stainless steel body at a very high pressure and forms an integral part of the vessel. The temperature sensors are equally spaced around the vessel body in between the aluminium jacket and the stainless steel body. This method eliminates all the problems with water and results in very fast temperature equilibrium, with a fixed heat capacity.

Since the vessel was that much faster, the environment could affect the measurement 5 times less than conventionally.

Also, a warm vessel is not placed in cold water to achieve equilibrium. The CAL2k-2 solid-state cooler reduces the temperature from warm to ambient, after which the vessel would be ready for firing again.

The vessel design was the result of a computer aided process and extensive computer simulations to predict its temperature behaviour. The vessel is tested and certified to international material and test requirements.

From the operator's point of view, the vessel is lighter, easier to handle and plated on the exterior, for easy cleaning.

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Updated: 16 February 2011