Gel is dispensed into a 5 mL vial at 40C, a temperature which keeps the gel in a liquid state. The temperature at which this gel will thicken and set up is 38C.

A large agricultural company who manufactures weed control chemicals was dispensing this gel into the vials. They needed a solution to cool at least the top of the gel to form a seal in the vial and keep the gel from spilling out after the vials are tossed into a bulk hopper.

A Vortex Tube provided a quick blast of cold air at -1C to remove the heat necessary to set the gel and create the plug to hold the gel within the vial.

This application was a new one for me, typically we are setting hot melt glue, cooling ultrasonic weld horns, heat seals, or gas sample through analyzers. It is always good to speak with someone about an application I have not experienced before and be able to provide a solution.

This application was successful because we had a couple of seconds exposed to the vials while the fill machine indexed and we could blow directly in to the vial and on the gel to quickly set it up.

Kirk Edwards, Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com