CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF SUPER-WATER® INJECTION SYSTEMS:

SUPER-WATER®, as sold, is in the form of a water-in-oil emulsion.  The internal water phase contains the polyacrylamide.  In order to use the product, the emulsion has to be broken or - more exactly - inverted to an oil-in-water emulsion.  This absolutely necessitates use of specific types of injection systems which, placed after the filter, accurately meter the requisite amount of SUPER-WATER®, into the water stream.

(Filters also cause elongational shearing of macromolecules, leading to a reduction in molecular weight and a parallel reduction in effectiveness)

A brief description of the meaning of "elongational shearing" might be useful.  In solution the macromolecular molecules of SUPER-WATER® and their associated aggregates of water are coiled although they might adopt some measure of linearity under conditions of flow.  During centrifugal pumping or in passage through filters the hydrogen-bonded aggregates of water would be "stripped away" exposing the carbon-carbon backbone.  The backbone whilst being elongated would be readily accessible and shearing by carbon-carbon bond scission will occur.

The diluted SUPER-WATER® then flows through a static mixer - in which complete and uniform emulsion inversion is ensured - to the main stream of the waterjetting fluid.  Prior to use, SUPER-WATER® requires 5 to 6 minutes to become fully hydrated.  The active ingredients in SUPER-WATER® are, as mentioned previously, macromolecular with a molecular weight ranging from 16 to 18 million, so the bonding of water molecules (or hydration) takes a finite time.  This is because each monomeric unit of polyacrylic acids and of polyacrylamides bonds 13 to 14 molecules of water. Obviously this aggregation of polymer and water can not take place instantaneously because it must proceed by formation of sequential layers of the 13 to 14 water molecules.

The hydration can be achieved in either a holding tank or a length of low pressure tubing.  Suitable lengths of tubing, calculated on the basis of Lombari's work, are available from Berkeley Chemical Research, Inc.

The preferred injection systems are non-electrical proportional liquid dispensers available from DOSATRON INTERNATIONAL Inc., Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A. or Weber Lubrifiants, Sa., Rixheim, Cedex, France.  These DOSATRON units are now used with SUPER-WATER® in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.
 

The DOSATRON International Inc. DI 16 non-electric proportional liquid dispenser costs $320.00 FOB, Clearwater, Florida and the TAH model 050-62 3/4-inch FNPT 14-stage static mixer from Court and Thomas Wingert Company costs $85.00 FOB Hayward, California. With these one needs, for the hydration for 6 minutes at 70ºF, a suitable length of garden hose - as used by Dr. Mohamed Hashish at Flow International and Mr. Renato Lombari at Soheil Mosun Ltd., Toronto, Canada - or a bank of polyvinyl chloride tubing as used by Mr. Vince Imlay of Waterjet Inc., Columbus, Indiana.

Mr. Imlay has already installed two such systems at other locations and consulted with the Biltrite Corporation, Ripley, Mississippi on installing a unit with which it has had very great success.

Mr. Jim Price, Industrial Manufacturing Manager of Biltrite Corporation, writes (17):

"Dear Dr. Howells,

We very much appreciate your assistance in resolving our problems with our water jet cutters.  Your recommendation that we use SUPER-WATER® proved to be exactly what we needed".

"By using SUPER-WATER® we were able to cut two layered sheets (three in some instances) instead of only single sheet: and without appreciable loss in cutting speed.  This had the impact of at least doubling our output per machine hour".

"The quality of the cut product was also enhanced.  For certain products, water spots from the untreated* city water represented a quality problem in that it adversely affected the adhesives used in subsequent processes at the customer level.  SUPER-WATER® eliminated this problem".

 *Untreated" in this context means without SUPER-WATER®.

Mr. Imlay is now consulting for Procter and Gamble and Ingersoll Rand on the use of SUPER-WATER® as well as on robotic control for various companies in the Mid West.

Both Messrs. Lombari and Imlay are using SUPER-WATER® with abrasives and have expressed a willingness to talk with you.  Mr. Lombari who directs abrasivejet cutting, which is carried out on a 24-hour a day basis, has reported the following materials are cut with 0.2% SUPER-WATER® and Barton garnet:

• 304 stainless steel - 0.078-inch, 0.125-inch, 0.1875-inch and 0.5-inch thick.
• Duplex stainless steel - 0.75-inch thick.
• Aluminum 6061-T6 - 0.25-inch, 0.375-inch, and 0.875-inch thick.
• Titanium - 0.032-inch, 0.0625-inch and 0.25-inch thick..
• Yellow brass - 0.25-inch, 0.375-inch and 1-inch thick.
• Clear float glass - 4-mm thick.
• Laminated glass – 2.5- inch thick.
• Slate - 0.375-inch thick.
• Blue tempered steel - 0.0625-inch thick.
• Hot and cold rolled steel - thickness not indicated.
• Marble - 0.375-inch and 1.25-inch thick.
• Acrylic - 2-inch thick.
• Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene - thickness not indicated.

This may be calculated for specific flow rates from knowledge that at 0.1% SUPER-WATER® it costs 3.3 cents/gallon (after dilution by 1,000 times from the concentrated form in which it is sold) and at 0.3% SUPER-WATER® it costs 10 cents/gallon (after dilution by 333 times from the concentrated form in which it is sold).

Thus if one were using 0.5 gpm at 0.3% it would cost: 10 cents x 0.5 x 60 = $3.00/ hour.

The reduction in maintenance and operating costs for an intensifier are shown below:

Lombari found that relative to plain water, SUPER-WATER®:

(a) Improves the quality of cut: i.e. no subsequent sanding is required saving $15,000 annually in labor costs (24,25).

(b) Increases cutting speed by 30%-200% giving an estimated annual production increase of $420,000 in receivables (24,25).

(c) Reduces intensifier operating and maintenance costs by 38%. (From $11.12/hr in 1993 to $6.86/hr in 1996 is a reduction of $4.26/hr). The annual operating savings are $1,025 (24, 25) -

Lombari (25) reports that for an annual expenditure of $200.00 for SUPER-WATER®, Decoustics, Toronto, Canada achieves a return on investment (ROI) of 2,000 to 1. This application, which is for cutting fiberglass acoustic panels ranging from 1/8-inch (3.2-millimeters) to 4-inches (101.6-millimeters) thick, gives an unambiguous demonstration of the economic advantages of using SUPER-WATER® in ultra-high pressure waterjet cutting.

Yes Carl, you are correct in that SUPER-WATER® does act as a lubricant or friction reducer.  Friction reduction, also known as drag reduction, is a very widely studied phenomenon.  Dr. Jack W. Hoyt, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at San Diego spent his entire professional life studying and publishing on drag reduction.  He determined, using a turbulent flow rheometer, that even at a concentration of 9 ppm ( = 0.0009%) SUPER-WATER® had a drag reduction of 20%.  This was the most effective drag reducer Dr. Hoyt had ever examined.

Furthermore Zublin and Cobb reported that SUPER-WATER® at 50 ppm ( = 0.005%) brought about a 54% drag reduction at a flow rate of 20 gpm through 7,175-feet of 0.085-inch coiled tubing.

It is this drag reduction which is responsible for extending the lifetime of diamond nozzles by 2.8 to 6.0 times.  These data were reported by the U.S. Shoe Company where Mr. Imlay was the first person to use SUPER-WATER® in ultra-high pressure precision cutting.

I have no specific data on the extension in lifetime of mixing nozzles but am confident someone will report on this advantage in the future.

The following is taken from:

16. W. G. Howells, Vincent L. Imlay, Renato Lombari and Daniel Weber, "Ultra-high pressure precision jet cutting using SUPER-WATER®", Proceedings of the International Composites EXPO 99, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10, 1999. and presented by Mr. Lombari,

H. SUPER-WATER® / VENTURI-INDUCTED ABRASIVES (AWJ)

In the interim, while awaiting ASJ commercial development, other methods of combining SUPER-WATER® and abrasives are being used.

Venturi-inducted abrasive waterjetting (AWJ) is the current standard in the industry.  Three separate phases exist in the AWJ process - one solid, one liquid and one gaseous.  As pointed out previously [14] this "standard" method suffers from having to bring about effective momentum exchange between a liquid and an abrasive in the presence of a gas phase.

However distinct improvements result [14] when SUPER-WATER® is used instead of plain water in the standard AWJ method.

(a) For example SUPER-WATER®, used with 100 grit copper slag as an abrasive, cuts laminated glass (13/16 inch thick), aluminum (1/4 inch thick) and stainless steel (up to 1-inch in thickness) 20% faster than with copper slag/plain water.  This higher production costs 90 cents/ hour for the SUPER-WATER® [14].

Weber [21] has determined that SUPER-WATER® used in the "standard" Venturi abrasive technique provides a better quality of cut and a narrower kerf.  It also substantially reduces abrasive consumption when cutting either 304 L stainless steel or aluminum.

(b) 304 L stainless steel (10 millimeters thickness) can be cut at 143 mm/per minute with 80 mesh (Australian) Barton abrasive. (Pressure: 43,000 psi, fluid flow rate: 1.85 L/minute, nozzle diameter: 0.25 mm, stand-off: 4 mm). 16 Kg/hour of abrasive was used with 0.3% SUPER-WATER® but plain water required 30 Kg/hour of abrasive.  This 47% decrease in abrasive consumption was accompanied by a smaller kerf and better cut quality [21].

(c) At WATERJET AB, Ronneby, SWEDEN, aluminum (thickness 25 mm) is cut at 67.5mm/minute with 80 mesh Quality GANEX. (Pressure: 50,400 psi, fluid flow rate: 1.80 L/minute, sapphire nozzle: 0.25 mm, focusing tube diameter: 1.05 mm, stand-off distance: 3 mm). 200/250 grams/minute of abrasive was used with 0.3% SUPER-WATER® but plain water required 400/500 grams per minute.

This 50% decrease in abrasive consumption was accompanied by a better cut quality [21].

(d) More recently Weber has reported that Carlosa SA, Wavre (near Neuchatel), Switzerland, more precisely drill Baccarat crystal with 120 mesh abrasive and SUPER-WATER® than with abrasive and plain water at 43,000 psi and at a stand-off distance of 5 mm using a nozzle of 0.8 mm diameter.

These questions are answered by the above quote from:

16. W. G. Howells, Vincent L. Imlay, Renato Lombari and Daniel Weber, "Ultra-high pressure precision jet cutting using SUPER-WATER®", Proceedings of the International Composites EXPO 99, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10, 1999.

In addition however and this relates directly to a statement by you on your web site:

"For example, SUPER-WATER® reduces the wetting of substrates (1), as would be expected from a jet in air characterized, as shown in Figure 1, by distinct coherence and an essential absence of spray.

This same figure is included on our web site as Figure 3.

(The diameters and lengths of the jets and nozzle housing shown in Figure 1 are 34% less than actual size.  Thus the orifice container is 1.125-inches in diameter, the inset diamond nozzle has an internal diameter of 0.01-inch and the photographed length of both jets is actually 6.9-inches).

I am sure you will be interested to know that this photograph (by the late) Richard H. Hollinger - inventor in my mind of the first real*** abrasive suspension jet (ASJ) - shows a suspension of abrasive in SUPER-WATER®.  You will appreciate that a jet which can be focused out to 6.9-inches (and more actually) provides a far superior cut quality.

*** I refer to it in this way to differentiate it from the BHR Group's abrasive slurry.  Slurry from use in chemistry implies a level of instability in contrast to a suspension which has considerably more stability.

Carl, no I don't have a kit that I can supply.  Certainly Vince Imlay could do so as he has already for others.  The amount of space would depend on whether you wished to have it as a stand alone unit or installed on an adjacent wall.  Vince could give you the full details on these points.

 

Above: Diagram of typical super-water installation.

When I visited Mr. Lombari at Decoustics in Toronto, Canada where he conducted his work on acoustic fiber glass I posed that same question.  Pointing to the DOSATRON unit he commented essentially none.  The unit was covered in cobwebs, which even if it didn't present a totally wholesome sight certainly attested to its independence of operation.

This is a (very long) quote from my Houston paper (W. G. Howells, "SUPER-WATER® jetting applications from 1974 to 1999", Proceedings of the 10th American Waterjet Conference, August 14-17, 1999 (Houston, TX), pp. 363-380. References are given in bold face in parentheses) which was used as the basis for the applications listed on my web site. ( http://www.berkeleychemical.com ).

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS

The usual safety precautions employed during hydroblasting (often called waterblasting and in countries, other than the U.S.A., hydrablasting) (36) are appropriate for ultra-high pressure precision cutting with SUPER-WATER®.

Because of its incisive cutting ability, SUPER-WATER® must be handled with very great care both from the standpoint of the equipment being used and operator exposure.

The OSHA Material Safety Data Sheet for SUPER-WATER® describes general precautions but it should be noted that upon appropriate dilution (i.e. 0.1-0.3%) the properties, apart from flow characteristics, closely approach those of water.

Neither polyacrylamide nor polyacrylic acid, or combinations, are listed in the EPA Consent Decree (37), and neither are they in the list of chemicals described as being carcinogenic (38).

(a) SUPER-WATER® is biodegradable and does not foul oxidation ponds (3).

(b) The chemical oxygen demand of SUPER-WATER® is 706 g/L (at a use concentration of 0.1% it is 0.7 g/L) and the biological oxygen demand is 87 g/L (at 0.1% it is 0.09 g/L).

(c) The LC 50/96 hr is 53 ppm (Rainbow Trout) and 84 ppm (Blue Gill Sunfish).  The acute oral toxicity (rat) is 10 ml/Kg and the dermal toxicity LC 50 (rabbit) is also 10 ml/Kg.

 (d) Code of Federal the Register Conformations.  SUPER-WATER® conforms to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as amended in 1958 and 1960, specifically Chapter 21 CFR, Section 176.110 as a component of paper and paperboard in contact with food and Section 175.105 as a component of adhesives in contact with food. Other SUPER-WATER® components conform to CFR 21, Sections 178.3400 and 178.3650 (39).

(e) Because SUPER-WATER® is a "non-regulated material, liquid, cleaning compound, NMFC 48580 class 55", it is shipped by truck, ship, and air - including UPS.

You can indeed.

Mr. Lombari discharges it into the Toronto sewage system after removing abrasive with a series of baffles.

Mr. Wilhelmi has approval for its use in a World Heritage Area in Queensland.

Additionally you will be interested to know that in 1990 the East (San Francisco) Bay Municipal Utilities District used 9 million pounds of polyacrylamide ( = SUPER-WATER® ) in its sewage treatment facilities.

Polyacrylamides are environmentally benign as can be appreciated from the following (excerpted from an as yet unpublished paper by me):

(f) General safety

Finally, with reference to the benign environmental impact of polyacrylamides, it is important to point out they are now being used extensively in agriculture.

This author (W.G.H.) coordinated a research program between universities and industrial companies (28) on soil conditioners.

Consequently it is personally interesting to note that linear anionically charged polyacrylamides of high molecular weight (a category which includes SUPER-WATER®) have now received widespread approval as soil conditioners in much of the western U.S.A.

Since 1995 over 200 articles have appeared on this application and it has been described "as possibly the most successful soil conservation practice ever developed for furrow irrigation".  In 1997 over 600,000 acres were treated in the U.S.A.

28. W. G. Howells, L. Kravetz, D. Loring, C. D. Piper, B. W. Poovaiah, E. C. Seim, V. P. Rasmussen, N. Terry and L. J. Waldron, "The Use of Nonionic Surfactants for Promoting the Penetration of Water into Agricultural Soils". Proceedings of the World Surfactants Congress, Munich, West Germany, May 1984.

I've essentially answered this question above. On the product label it is stated:

SPILLS OF SUPER-WATER® AND
MIXTURES WITH WATER ARE VERY
SLIPPERY AND SHOULD BE
CLEANED UP TO AVOID
UNSAFE FOOTING

Advantages.

Because it reduces required horsepower by 31%.

Because of the drag reduction equipment will run cooler.

Because of the "macromolecular bombardment" effect, which I haven't discussed here, but is the third critical step in the series of drag reduction, jet collimation and substantially increased power density on any substrate, one achieves much better results in every application than with plain water.

Because of the absence of spray there is a diminished tendency for a SUPER-WATER® jet to wet substrates.  In the case of multi-levels of substrate, this lack of wetting precludes fluid entering the space between adjacent layers.  Consequently there is no fluid between the layers that, on evaporation, would give rise to water spotting.

The following example can be used to appreciate this decrease in wetting by a SUPER-WATER® jet:

With its incisive cutting ability, SUPER-WATER® successfully removed 20,000 sq.ft. of adhesive-attached cork from a concrete ceiling.  By contrast plain waterjet fluid, with its inevitable associated spray, was completely absorbed by the 8-inch thick layer of cork which was virtually unaffected and remained in place (1,12).

Parenthetically Prof. David Summers has removed bark from a tree 40-feet away.

Disadvantages.  The (very minimal) initial cost of setting up the injection and hydration system but as determined by Mr. Lombari the ultimate ROI makes this cost insignificant.