Conductivity sensor applications

Use in water treatment

For more than 30 years, EnviroFALK GmbH has been designing and manufacturing water treatment systems for a wide range of industries worldwide. Various ifm sensors are used to monitor the complex treatment process and ensure a permanently high quality of the ultrapure water.
The LDL101 conductivity sensor is also part of the game. It is the right choice whenever the purity of water is crucial for product quality or process reliability. In the process itself, the conductivity sensor monitors the concentration of ions in the water and signals in time when ion exchanger cartridges need to be replaced.

H2Powercell application report

H2 Powercell sees hydrogen as part of a holistic climate solution and has set itself the goal of making hydrogen available to the masses. The start-up develops systems for tomorrows energy supply in order to move towards a climate-neutral future together.
One such system is the H2PowerCube. Inside the cube, hydrogen is produced using water electrolysis and stored in a tank. If power is required, this H2 storage medium is used to generate electricity and heat via a low-temperature PEM fuel cell. The only thing needed for an environmentally-friendly energy supply with the Cube is green electricity, which can be obtained from a photovoltaic system, for example.Everything else is taken care of by the system itself, relying on ifms sensor technology. For example, the LDL101 conductivity sensor monitors the quality of the ultrapure water required for H2 production. In this way, pure hydrogen can be produced from the purest water in an entirely environmentally-friendly way.

Residue-free cleaning with ultrapure water

Our customer Maschinenbau Silberhorn GmbH is part of the internationally active Silberhorn Group and specialises, among other things, in the development and construction of systems for industrial parts cleaning.
In some systems, ultrapure water is used in the final rinsing process for best results and residue-free cleaning. For a conscious and careful use of water as a resource, the ultrapure water is stored in a tank from where it is introduced in the process over and over again. To ensure a constant quality of the ultrapure water, an ion exchanger is used that continuously filters the water. The LDL101 conductivity sensor keeps an eye on the filter performance and thus the quality of the ultrapure water. If the sensor signals an increase in conductance, this is indicative of a reduced filter performance and can therefore facilitate the timely replacement of the ion exchanger cartridge.

Sustainable cleaning and resource conservation

MAFAC specialises in aqueous parts cleaning in industry and offers standardised single-chamber machines which can be adapted to the respective cleaning requirements by means of numerous options.
Our LDL220 conductivity sensor can be found in the MAFAC Palma model where it performs an important task. Aiming at resource efficiency, the cleaning agent selected for the cleaning process is reused several times and stored temporarily in a tank. In order for it to be reused, the contamination in the cleaning agent must not exceed a certain level. And it is this level of contamination that the LDL220 monitors. When a previously defined conductance is reached, the cleaning agent is replaced in order to ensure continued thorough cleaning.

Use in cooling water applications and critical supply systems

In the past, our customer used a glycol/water mixture to cool temperature control units. However, salt and limescale deposits resulted in reduced diameters at critical points in the temperature control channel. This, combined with lower flow rates, reduced the cooling capacity at these points, resulting in quality problems with the part being cooled.
Today, the customer uses ultrapure water. With ultrapure water, deposits cannot form and residues are reliably flushed out of the pipe. However, over time, the ultrapure water accumulates residues. This is where the LDL101 conductivity sensor comes in, constantly monitoring the quality of the ultrapure water via the conductance. If the conductance rises, the customer can take early action and feed new ultrapure water into the process.

Monitoring the salinity of cooling water

A customer in the meat processing industry used to take regular manual salometer readings in their centrally located cooling water tanks. Based on these measurements, the salt concentration was adjusted according to the requirements for cooling capacity and food flavour. However, inaccurate measurements were increasingly leading to costly misadjustments.

Today, the customer uses the LDL2xx conductivity sensor to automatically measure the salt concentration. Via the conductance, they can continuously monitor the concentration and plan for adjustments to the concentration at an early stage.

Condition-based cleaning in the CIP process

Our customer in the cheese dairy relies on modern technologies for processing fresh milk. The ifm LDL220 conductivity sensor is one of the instruments used.
Two process values are the focus here: temperature and conductivity. Temperature is a critical process value, as cleaning cycle times are associated with reaching a predefined temperature. Conductance, on the other hand, provides information about the progress of the last cleaning cycle: rinsing the product lines with water. The sensor detects when the detergent has been completely rinsed out, preventing contamination of the product, e.g. milk.

The result: By implementing condition-based cleaning, the process has been sustainably optimised, reducing water and energy consumption while maintaining a consistent quality.

Increased efficiency with a clear phase separation

A machine supplier, which is mainly active in the food industry, has significantly increased the machine efficiency of its CIP systems with the LDL100 conductivity sensor. As the sensor detects changes in conductance, the process phases can now be clearly identified. As a result, the consumption of chemicals and water in the cleaning process could be optimised.