Last week I received a telephone call from our representative in the Carolina's, Bobby Vaughn of The Vaughn Company (www.thevaughncompany.com). Amazingly, in spite of our language differences, we were able to communicate (Bobby says I only speak "Yankee").
Bobby had received a call from a customer that had purchased one of our RF capacitance probes about four years ago. Recently they were having some issues and they decided to take a closer look at the probe. Much to their surprise when they removed the unit they discovered that the once mighty stainless steel probe was gone! It turns out that the probe was installed in Chlorine water, and while it took four years the Chlorine water had eventually dissolved the probe.
This is obviously a very infrequent occurrence with our typical customers but I feel that chemical compatibility issues are something that we should be cognizant of. I am sure that most customers are aware of things at their facilities that may be chemically aggressive, so often they will bring it up first.
Also, there are many "chemical resistance charts" available on the web that will show chemicals and how they effect materials they may come in contact with. One chart I use rates things on an alphabetic scale with "A" having "No effect-Excellent" to "D" Severe Effect-Not Recommended. I reference this chart when I get a question concerning this issue, most of the time our products will work great with the majority of the materials we "target" with our level controls so it is not a problem.
If you have any questions concerning an application please give us a call, we will be happy to work with you to find a solution. Thanks, Scott Bonine
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