Any chemists or chemical engineers here? Factory terminology question for you

Maybe do a search for Commercial Steam Kettle?

Is it like the mash tuns(?) you see at a microbrewery ?

Try "mixing" as in mixing tank or mixing kettle.

Depending on their exact purpose and configuration, I know them as blend tanks, storage tanks, and reactors.

Chris

LVHR

Pat:

Do a search on variations of “pharmaceutical (or chemical) stainless steel tank (or vessel or reactor)” to see various prototype items.  Hopefully something from this search will resemble your memories of your dad’s equipment.  Brewery, dairy, beveridge, & food equipment may also be similar to what you remember.

To model your tanks, check Walthers, Plastruct, & Evergreen to see what tanks & vessels are available in O, S, HO, N, etc, scales.

Suitable tank models may also be scratchbuilt from PVC pipe in various diameters & lengths.

Hope this helps.  Please share your model tanks after you have created them !!!

Try this link. Go to industries tab for more tank photos.

Tanks

We had their tanks in our fuel blending facility.

Try searching images for “chemical reactor” and “blending tank”. There are a lot of images that look like the mixing tanks and small-scale reactor vessels I’m used to seeing.

When I was a kid I loved the flavor of Dimetap- that’s awesome.

Hi Pat,

I worked at a small shop that built fermenter controllers for bio-reactors. Ours were bench top size, but we did install customized controllers onto larger pilot plant systems.

Try a google search for " large scale fermentation equipment" and you'll get company advertisements showing mid to large size systems. The 1st result, MDGbio has a timelapse video showing the construction of a large system. Hope this helps.

Roger

The above advice is good! I would visit local craft brewers in the 10-30 barrel size range, ie larger craft brewers. They have lots of the equipment you are interested in, and generally are pretty flexible regarding tours and photography.

Pharmaceutical producers have lots of similar gear, but are much less likely to give you access...

Jan

Commercial canned soup factories use large "kettle mixers" and "mixing vats".

There's a large one near where I work. When the wind is just right, it smells like whatever soup they're making that day. Nothing quite like the odor of a nice Minestrone soup while driving by.

@franktrain posted:

Try this link. Go to industries tab for more tank photos.

Tanks

We had their tanks in our fuel blending facility.

Pat,

The attached photo is pretty good for a "fine chemical" batch plant.  It shows 4 stainless steel mixing tanks (the green motor on the slant is the motor for the agitator) and a "manway" opening.  It was easy for the operators to add chemicals as required through the manway.  However, it also exposes the operator to the contents of the vessel and also allows possible contamination from the surrounding area.   You can also see the exhaust hood above the manway opening.  Its purpose was to remove fumes and sometimes dust during charging (chemical addition) operations.  It is somewhat dated. But, again, there are chemical processing facilities still in operation very similar and I have seen some that are not as nice.

Throughout my career I have designed and then managed/operated chemical plants.  Both large petrochemical and then batch chemical and pharmaceutical plants including pilot plant operations (4000 gallon batch reactor trains down to what they call kilo lab scale).

There are several ways of masking taste.  Flavoring could actually be a coating around the active ingredient, where the active ingredient would have an objectionable taste.  Sometimes this is referred to as Taste Masking.  The active drug would normally be a solid (powder) suspended in a slurry/liquid.  So you may want to google "blenders". https://www.bplittleford.com/batch-processing.html .  Depending on the chemistry, the material would/could be dried (liquid removed).

Check some used chemical equipment sites to get some ideas of what the equipment looks like.  As others have recommended, add search for reactors, batch reactors, etc. along with kilo-lab for smaller vessels.

Regarding Dimetappe (brompheniramine and phenylephrine); Here you are dealing with a drug and therefore open operation (open top tanks, open man-ways, etc.) is an issue.  The engineers will design in safety for both the drug and for the operator. Closed charging system, HEPA air curtain, etc. are used.  A pharmaceutical plant will have suites/room for each vessel to address cross contamination.  The floors will be solid.  Walls and ceiling will be cleanable.  Wall penetrations will be sealed. Sanitary fittings/piping will be used, proper air systems (HEPA) will be needed on possibly both facility air supply and exhaust systems.  Air locks may be needed, the list goes on.

So if you want to scale a FDA inspected facility, it it look much different than a "fine chemical" plant facility.  And yes, the facility fit and finish between the 60s and now has changed. But there was still a difference even back then.

Have fun with this project.  It sounds like a great way to teach others (children) what your dad was able to accomplish.

If you are looking for variations on Stainless steel type tanks, these are used quite extensively in the dairy products industry, just search for milk tanks, milk processing equipment, or cheese processing equipment, etc.  Some of the images also show incredible mazes of piping as well.  If you find anyone making models of these, I would be interested as well, so if not too much trouble, drop a link(s) here.  Thanks. 

HEPA = High Efficiency Particulate Arresting.

HEPA Air filtration removes visible & subvisible particulate matter and many microbes.

Thank you, everyone, for all your information and suggestions.  I was amazed to see how many people responded to my question.

I'll do some more research using your information and see what's available in the model world for building and "equipping" a factory.  (I'm sure my Dad is chuckling in Heaven as I post this note about creating a "flavor house".)

I'll post updates as things progress.

Download this...  O-Scale Catalog and, l(.)(.)k under Tanks and Vats.

The download that Dennis provided has a plant on page 43 that would be perfectly adequate for a perfume or flavor production facility, depending on the time frame.  The company I started working for 50 years ago would have looked almost exactly like that in cross section.

The major differences between perfume and flavor facilities would be that a flavor facility would generally have a spray dry tower and a reactor to create Maillard reaction flavors.  Perfume factories would not have those.

Depending on the size of the company, the mixing would include everything from 10 gallon pots up to 30,000 gallon vats, some with heated jackets.  A large enough company would also have exterior storage tanks and internal piping.  A very large company might have a rail line for incoming raw materials, but tanker trucks would be more common.

Don't forget the offices and labs for the Perfumers, Flavorists, and Analytical (usually gas chromatography) folks and the QC labs. 

LionelFlyer

Senior Perfumer/Flavorist

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Download this...  O-Scale Catalog and, l(.)(.)k under Tanks and Vats.

Dennis,

Thank you for the catalog!   Wow, the tanks and vats look so real I felt like I was looking in a window on my Dad's old flavor house!

@Pat Shediack posted:

Wow, the tanks and vats look so real I felt like I was looking in a window on my Dad's old flavor house!

The credit goes to Ray (sidehack)... he's a very skilled modeller ...and, full time good guy!

@lionelflyer posted:

The download that Dennis provided has a plant on page 43 that would be perfectly adequate for a perfume or flavor production facility, depending on the time frame.  The company I started working for 50 years ago would have looked almost exactly like that in cross section.

The major differences between perfume and flavor facilities would be that a flavor facility would generally have a spray dry tower and a reactor to create Maillard reaction flavors.  Perfume factories would not have those.

Depending on the size of the company, the mixing would include everything from 10 gallon pots up to 30,000 gallon vats, some with heated jackets.  A large enough company would also have exterior storage tanks and internal piping.  A very large company might have a rail line for incoming raw materials, but tanker trucks would be more common.

Don't forget the offices and labs for the Perfumers, Flavorists, and Analytical (usually gas chromatography) folks and the QC labs.

LionelFlyer

Senior Perfumer/Flavorist

My Dad's flavor plant was on the smaller size.  Here's link to the ad for the last time the building was on the market.  His office had the window behind the lower part of the fire escape.  His lab on the third floor could be reached by both stairs and a small freight elevator.  In the 1960s, the building was painted white with 12" black plastic letters over the doorway stating "BEVERAGE FLAVORS".  It had a gravel driveway back then, though.  I always thought this building would make a good candidate for kitbashing as it looks like it was added to over time.

That building wouldn't be to difficult to model... add a few more windows so you can see the tanks, vats, piping... and of course the Flavorist!

Hi Pat,

What was the company name?  I worked for a small company called Noville, which was mostly fragrances but later on did oral care flavors.  It was in North Bergen, NJ but moved to South Hackensack, NJ until it was bought out by Firmenich in 2005.  They shut down the South Hackensack facility so I commuted for 6 years from Morris County to Princeton, 60 miles each way.  Glad I'm not doing that now with the price of gas.  I was with them (Noville & Firmenich) for 37 years.  Last 11 years working for a Japanese company in Rockleigh, NJ.

I agree with Dennis.  A lot of big windows would let you see inside quite well.  Forget adding the Flavorist, they're too expensive and temperamental!

Dennis

Downloaded the catalog and there's some great projects in there. How does one find the files needed to print? or is there a way to order them printed?

Go to the OGR 3D Printing Repository Forum... Scroll down until you see the ... actually, let me bump it up.  Bumped... Check the Recent Posts.

@lionelflyer posted:

Hi Pat,

What was the company name?  I worked for a small company called Noville, which was mostly fragrances but later on did oral care flavors.  It was in North Bergen, NJ but moved to South Hackensack, NJ until it was bought out by Firmenich in 2005.  They shut down the South Hackensack facility so I commuted for 6 years from Morris County to Princeton, 60 miles each way.  Glad I'm not doing that now with the price of gas.  I was with them (Noville & Firmenich) for 37 years.  Last 11 years working for a Japanese company in Rockleigh, NJ.

I agree with Dennis.  A lot of big windows would let you see inside quite well.  Forget adding the Flavorist, they're too expensive and temperamental!

My Dad worked for many years at Beverage Flavors in Hawthorne NJ which was a subsidiary of Krueger Beverages of Newark.    Later in his career he worked for Foote & Jenks, a flavor house in Camden NJ.