Sauron
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Parr Stirred Pressure Reactors
There are times when glass just won't hack it. At such times an autoclave-type "bomb" reactor is the only way to go and the gold standard for such is
Parr Instruments of New Jersey.
I recently purchased a one liter Parr 4521 stirred reactor, illustrated in another thread. The bomb is 316 SS and rated for working pressure of 1900
psi at the max temperature of the built in mantle. The working capacity is 2/3 of the nominal so about 650 ml.
Unfortunately the instrument did not come with the required controller model 4842 or current 4843. This supplies power and speed control for the
stirrer motor, power and TC-controlled heat regulation and measurement for the mantle, digital pressure display (in addition to the analog guage atop
the bomb).
Well, I had to be on the lookout for a controller, and one just came on the market. It is part of a Parr 4563 system which is the 600 ml mini-reactor.
This setup includes two spare 316 SS bombs and a spare mantle. As the price for the new controller from Parr agent in Thailand is absurd, I guess I
will have to buy this system just to get the controller to use on my larger system. $2800. Not a steal but acceptable. (There's a similar but smaller
4566 system on the market for $10,000.)
Here's a photo.
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chemrox
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It is obvious that building a controller would be prohibitively time consuming and ultimately too costly as compared with purchasing it. I got in a
similar situation over Buchi parts and ended up with spare rotators. What amazes me is some SE Asian company hasn't stepped up and made the Parr
stuff for a tenth the cost. Maybe low demand is the hold-up? Have you tried listing a request at LabEx?
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Sauron
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There is a 4842 controller on LabX from a seller in UK called Rich-Monde but it is an older ad (not auction) and they have ignored three emails from
me so I assume it is long since sold.
Should this 4563 set get away from me, the other option is to play my hunch that the mantle is a Glas-Col OEM and that therefore, Glas-Col makes a
compatible controller and that the TC is a standard J or K type and will interface to the Glas Col mantle power supply.
That leaves only the motor power supply and speed control and that ought to be very easy..
Those are the essentials of the 4843/4843 job, the rest like digital tachometer and digital display from pressure transducer, are really frills. The
analog pressure gauge is adequate and if necessary the transducer could be interfaced to a data logger if you wanted to have a permanent record of the
pressure throughout a run.
I'll clue you in about something. In Asia universities and government departments do not want Asian made instruments and in general are not looking
for bargains. This is because purchases usually involve kickbacks and smaller prices mean smaller kickbacks. Absoluteoly true.
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gsd
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"What amazes me is some SE Asian company hasn't stepped up and made the Parr stuff for a tenth the cost. Maybe low demand is the hold-up?"
Not really  ......
http://www.sharadengg.com/
This is an excellent manufacturer. 2 years ago I have purchased a 2 lit SS316 autoclave rated for 70 bar, complete with drive, controller,
electrical heater, trolley mounting, etc and with all usual accesories like HP needle valves, rupture disc, gas-inducing impeller, set of belts and
pulleys for speed change etc etc, for Rs. 100,000 (about $2250) An optional magnetic drive would have costed $1000 extra.
It is a beautiful machine. I believe an equivalent Parr or Bucchi would cost at least 15 times as much here in India.
Another manufacturer, good one (but I have no direct personal experience):
http://www.amarequip.com/
If you contact any of these companies, I am sure you will get what you want After all they all have been " Inspired " by the great PARR
If you need any assistace please send me PM
hope this helps
gsd
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Sauron
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Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
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On the pre-2004 Parr stirred reactors the motors are unsurprisingly 90V DC power from a 110V controller and 180 VDC powered from a 220/240V
controller. In short, these are just OEM stock motors for which off the shelf controllers are available. So acquiring a controller for the stirrer
motor will present no difficulty.
I am 95% convinced that the mantles are Glas-Col OEMs. They look like Glas Col and have a Glas Col style female socket for power cord from controller.
Glas Col makes stock mantles for metal beakers and offers custom mantle manufacturing services. The dimensions and wattages of the Parr mantles are
published by Parr. The OD and height of the reactor vessel below the head are also shown. Therefore I can obtain a quote from Glas Col for 220V
mantles of appropriate domensions and wattages for the 4521, 4522 (if I want to go to a 2 L system) and the 4563 600 ml reactors should I buy those as
well.
Glas Col's prices are not unreasonable and their controllers are a real bargain compared with Parr's 4842 and 4843 models.
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