Novatec Announces Deal with Moisture-Analysis Specialist

As part of its emphasis on moisture-focused resin drying,  Novatec has announced an exclusive distributor partnership with aboni GmbH of Germany. Under terms of the deal, Novatec will be aboni’s exclusive distributor in North and Latin America for aboni’s offline moisture analyzer, called the HT3 HydroTracer.

“The HydroTracer is a highly regarded, well-proven, moisture-specific offline moisture analyzer for resin that Novatec has used in our lab for over 15 years,” says  Conrad Bessemer, Novatec’ s CEO and co-owner. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with aboni with the true benefits being realized by our customers,” Bessemer adds.

The HT3 HydroTracer detects any residual water in solids. The product, which aboni has been selling for more than 20 years, is a “light, mobile, but robust design,” states Henry Steinberg, aboni product panager.  “The HT3 has high accuracy measuring one part per million (ppm) or 0.0001% of water and features simple-to-operate software guided by on-screen text and pictorial instructions,” he adds.

The HT3 measures trace moisture using calcium hydride. A material sample is placed in a sample pan and heated. When water steams out of the sampled resin, the humid gas flows into the upper, cooled area of the measuring chamber. Then, the measuring powder in a capsule exchanges the water for hydrogen, where a gas sensor measures the hydrogen concentration, which equals the sample's water content.

“Compared to other methods such as loss-in-weight units where volatiles can affect moisture measurement, the HT3 measures actual water content making it unnecessary to calibrate the device to the respective material,”  Steinberg says.

Adds Tim Noggle, Novatec’s v.p. of sales, “We are excited to offer the HydroTracer to the plastic processing market through our extensive distribution network. This product complements our exciting new DryerGenie product. It will give our customers a bullet-proof approach to active inline moisture-based drying as well as offline process verification when needed for their resin drying requirements.”

Novatec will be a stocking distributor of the HT3 HydroTracer technology and a U.S.-based service and parts center for the product.

On the matter of the DryerGenie, the latest generation includes two sensors on the lance, which is typically used by molders to pull resin from gaylords to the dryer to prepare the material for processing. One is mounted near the bottom, and relies on capacitance or near-infrared technology to measure moisture in the resin on a parts/million (ppm) basis long before it’s drawn into the dryer. The second sensor is fastened to the handle of the lance and utilizes the same technology to measure ambient conditions.