Tubular Cell Technology
Problems inherent to Flat Plate Cell
Titanium is an extremely poor conductor of electricity. There is a voltage drop across the plate which causes the current (which is proportional to voltage – Ohm’s Law) to be lower in those areas where the voltage is lower. With the flat plate cells the current is higher around the edges than in the center of the plate which causes higher and uneven wear rates where there is more current. Especially if the electrolytic cell is of the bi-polar type.
There is uneven scale build up due to uneven current densities in flat plate cells. Scale build up is directly proportional to the current density resulting in greater scale deposits where there are higher current densities. This means that flat plate cells tend to require more frequent cleaning. If the cell is not acid cleaned effectively, the MMO coating on the anodes can fail prematurely.
Tubular Cell Technology
In the Electrichlor tubular cell, the DC voltage is connected from opposite ends which means that the voltage drop along each anode tube and each cathode tube is equal and opposite. The result is that current densities on the surface of all anodes and cathodes are identical. This also means the wear rate of the MMO coating is equal over all anode surfaces resulting in an extra long life with an even build up of scale. Electrichlor provides a 5 year guarantee for the MMO coating on the anodes; however the actual life will be in excess of 10 years in many cases.
In Electrichlor’s tubular design, the seawater flow inside the cell, from end to end, tends to be more laminar than in a flat plate design. This, together with the turbulence caused by the seawater change in direction from the inner tube to the next larger tube, restricts scale build up at the ends of the tubes and therefore prevents the scale bridging cathode to anode. Also as the flow is linear and tangential to the scale the cell tends to be “Self Cleaning”.
Our tubular cells is they are compact, which means that our units have a smaller footprint and have replaced units twice more than twice its size.
