Mounting Styles

Fixed Head Reactors

Parr offers most of its laboratory reactors in a fixed head design. This includes all reactors with volumes from 25 mL to 20 liters. In these reactors the head of the vessel may remain fixed in the reactor support stand. All attachments to the head: gas and liquid feed and discharge lines, cooling water, vapor take-off and condenser, thermocouple and any electrical leads can remain permanently in place. The reactor is opened by simply removing the split-ring and lowering the cylinder away from the head, leaving all of the attachments undisturbed. If desired the complete vessel assembly can be removed from the head support plate.

The support frames for fixed head reactors vary based on the sizes and weights of the vessels.

• For vessels with volumes of 25 mL to 600 mL, the cylinder may be lowered and removed manually by the operator.
• Vessels with volumes of 1 to 2 liters include a manual lift mechanism to raise or lower the cylinder.
• Vessels with volumes greater than two liters or where weight dictates include a pneumatic cylinder lift mechanism.

Moveable Vessel Reactors

As an alternate to the fixed head designs described in the previous section, all Parr reactors can be furnished in designs which allow the entire vessel to be removed as a complete assembly from the support stand allowing for charging, product recovery, and cleaning. In the smaller and mid-sized models the entire vessel is simply lifted out of the heater by hand. In the larger models, the vessel can be opened and closed with the cylinder remaining in the heater, but the head must be lifted off manually. In the largest (10 L and 20 L) models  a chain hoist is provided for lifting the heavier head and cylinder.

These moveable reactors will be attractive to users that intend to operate fairly simple batch systems rather than continuous flow arrangements, and that want to be able to remove the vessel for product recovery, charging or cleaning. They will also appeal to those that need to prepare the vessel in a special atmosphere, or want to clean the cylinder and stirrer at a site away from the reactor stand and heater. There is also the added advantage of being less expensive than the fixed head models since they do not require the more elaborate head or the cylinder and heater lift mechanism.