Centrifuge is machinery designed to separate substances of different specific gravities by means of centrifugal force.
What means specific gravity difference?
Specific gravity refers to density difference between a material and that of standard material used as the reference. In case of liquid, standard material is water = 1.
Difference of specific gravity comes from difference of densities.
For example, standard salad dressing will be separated into oil- and water- components after a while. This is because oil component is lighter than water, or specific gravity difference.
What is the reason of applying centrifugal force?
It takes very long time until separation by settling material at 1G gravity. However, the liquid can be separated within very short period by applying powerful acceleration through high-speed rotation, even if specific gravity difference is slight.
How much G-force can centrifuge apply?
It depends on substances to be separated, but centrifuge generates centrifugal force of 2,000 to 4,000 G for general applications and it can generate 10,000 G or more in case of medical application. It means centrifuge generates centrifugal force of 2,000 to 4,000 times higher than gravity even in general applications.
For example, if you swing a bucket with water, it won't be spilled out. This is thanks to centrifugal force. Centrifuge generates centrifugal force of more than 2,000 times higher than gravity through high-speed rotation and separates substances of different specific gravities within shorter period of time.
What is the history of centrifuge?
The first centrifuge was invented in Europe in the latter half of 19th century. Separators were used to separate milk and cream at earlier stage, and they were manually operated. Although modern centrifuges are larger in size of motor-powered, the basic principle remains the same. Since new centrifuge applications are still being introduced even nowadays, you would be able to mention centrifuge as old and new machinery.
What applications are centrifuges used for?
Tomoe Engineering's centrifuges are called decanter type.
They are used for wide varieties of applications, such as food (surimi, juices, seasonings, extracts), chemistry (high-purity terephthalic acid, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene), environmental preservation (sewage, night soil), pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, medical fungus bodies), energy (fuel oil, dehydrated plaster), and recycling (industrial wastewater, waste plastics).
What is the market share of Tomoe Engineering's centrifuge?
It is very difficult to grasp the total domestic market because centrifuge applications are widely diversified. However, we have confidence that Tomoe has the largest market share in Japan.
Owing to historical background that the first centrifuge was invented in Europe, European manufacturers still dominate in the world market. Tomoe seems to be ranked between 5th and 10th position in global market.
What are features of Tomoe's centrifuges?
Tomoe Engineering is the pioneer of decanter centrifuge in Japan and we are proud of our advanced technologies based on the long-accumulated experience.
This advanced technologies allowed us to manufacture the largest centrifuge in the world. The high-efficiency, energy-saving centrifuge used for sewage treatment and the vertical decanter centrifuge for industrial use adopted in the field of chemistry are our original machines, that just Tomoe Engineering alone can produce. No other centrifuge manufacturers in the world come even close to Tomoe's technologies.
