This blog focuses on industrial, inline process refractometers and their use in industrial applications. Refractometry is used to measure the refractive index of a substance in order to determine its composition or purity. Posts include information on theory, construction, installation, new products and new markets.
Electron Machine Corporation | Umatilla, FL | PHONE: 352-669-3101 | ElectronMachine.com
In-line Process Refractometer Applications
Inline Process Refractometers for Industry
Electron Machine Corporation Celebrates 75th Anniversary and 15,000th Shop Order
Electron Machine Corporation is proud to announce its 75th Anniversary and 15,000th shop order. Founded in 1946, Carl Vossberg Jr. began the Company to transition technologies first used to support the War Department and defense systems to those technologies used in industry. These methods further increased the quality of items built. Many of these technologies provided real-time processes control feedback from which changes could be made automatically to the output of the process. In today's terms, this was the advent of Advanced Process Control (APC). As a result of his efforts, Carl Vossberg, Jr. was the recipient of many patents.
In 1951 the Company was relocated from Long Island, NY to Umatilla, FL, although several other local cities were interested in hosting Electron Machine Corporation. In 1953, the Company received its charter in Florida, where the Company has been ever since. Over time, the product line manufactured by Electron Machine narrowed as manufacturing methods and equipment improved and early APC instruments became integrated into the actual production methods themselves.
In 1957 Electron Machine applied its first generation of In-line Process Refractometer to determine the sugar concentration (BRIX) of frozen concentrated orange juice. A unit of this vintage is on display in the Umatilla Historical Museum. This same instrument is capable of reading concentrations of many process fluids and acids and dissolved solids in a solution. This product line continues to this day at Electron Machine.
Carl Vossberg III led the Company for several decades, improving the remaining product family of In-line Process Refractometers and helped to establish Electron Machine Corporation's global reach. Now servicing Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa, Electron Machine Corporation is known worldwide.
Carl Vossberg IV now leads the organization as foreign markets continue to grow, and the In-Line Process Refractometer continues to advance in its capabilities and technologies. Wireless options, data logging, communications, and explosion-proof rated instruments serve to broaden the application base for the family of In-Line Process Refractometers.
The 75th Anniversary coincides with our 15,000th Shop Order, meaning 15,000 instruments and pipeline adapters have been manufactured here in Umatilla, FL, servicing the world.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
Industrial Applications for Inline Refractometers
The applications for inline industrial refractometers are many. Outlined below are several of the more common applications and processes.
Spray Dryers: Spray drying is a way to produce a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by drying quickly with a warm gas, a preferred drying technique for many thermally sensitive products like foods and pharmaceuticals. Consistent distribution of particle size is the goal for spray drying. Process refractometer monitors the feed line's concentration to the spray dryer, ensuring correct particle size after drying and improving product shelf life.
Evaporation: An evaporator is a tool used to transform the liquid form of a chemical substance such as water into its gaseous / vapor form. During that phase, the liquid is evaporated or vaporized into a gas. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.
Crystallizers: In industry, crystallizers create liquid-solid separation. They are an essential component of chemical processing equipment as they can generate high-purity products from a relatively low energy input. The refractometer controls the liquor concentration to determine the right seeding point (evaporative crystallizer) or to detect when crystals start to form (cooling crystallizer).
Dissolving Tanks: Dissolving tanks dissolve solids into a liquid, thereby changing the concentration of the solution. Refractometers provide continuous measurement of the concentration components in solution as the solute dissolves into water or solvent, with real-time information for dissolving rate.
Solid / Liquid Extraction - Solid / Liquid extraction method is a prevalent method in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries to acquire natural ingredients such as natural raw material flavors and fragrances. Inline refractometers measure the amount of extracted substance (dissolved solids) in the liquid after the extraction process. The measurement is not affected by undissolved solids, only by the dissolved matter, making it ideal to follow extraction efficiency.
Reverse Osmosis: Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification method that removes ions, unwanted molecules, and bigger particles from drinking water using a partially permeable membrane. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.
Reactors: Process reactors are typical in commercial production applications in adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical and medical production, plastics, and thermoplastics processing. The real-time progress can be followed using inline refractometers, either through the leveling out of process key process variables or reaching a single component's targeted refractive index value.
Cooking Processes: The art, technology, science, and craftsmanship of preparing food for consumption are cooking. The large-scale production of juices, jams, jellies, dairy, and fruits in modern production facilities requires automation and control instrumentation for quality and efficiency. Sugar is a critical component in many foods. The inline refractometer measures the refractive index to determine the cooking process's end and boost the cooking effectiveness.
Other areas where you'll find the use of industrial process refractometers are; adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical, plastics, and thermoplastics processing.
For more information about applying the refractive index to industrial process applications, contact Electron Machine by calling 352-669-3101 or by visiting https://electronmachine.com.
Check out our latest Ad in PI Process Instrumentation Magazine!
Electron Machine is pleased to be advertising in PI Process Instrumentation Magazine. P.I. Process Instrumentation (formerly named Flow Control).
MPR E-Scan Intrinsically Safe (I.S.) Model Receives China Compulsory Product Certification (CCC)
For more information contact:
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
Complimentary Black Liquor Testing Offer from Electron Machine Corp.
Inline Process Refractometers from Electron Machine
As the pioneer in developing the industrial use of refractive index, Electron Machine’s instruments provide safe, reliable, and accurate process measurement for the pulp and paper industry, the food and beverage industry, and the chemical industry. With thousands of refractometers installed around the world, Electron Machine sells and supports it products through its Umatilla, Florida headquarters and a global network of technical distributors.
Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101
sales@electronmachine.com
Where is Your Pulp Mill’s Black Liquor Bottleneck?
How confident are you in your black liquor solids? Do you know the solids at every critical phase of the process? Would you like to decrease the time that solids analyses take?
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COMPLIMENTARY ON-SITE BLACK LIQOR SOLIDS SERVICE
Electronmachine.com/BlackLiquorTesting
With the recent demand for continue uptime and reduced labor forces, Electron machine is offering a complimentary black liquor study service for all pulp mill customers to analyze the potential for efficiency improvement and to assist in the implementation of refractometers in this costly part of the pulping process. We can assist process control engineers with their black liquor sampling and with the use of our equipment can decrease the time required to complete sampling. The service includes a 1 day on-site evaluation of the mill’s current black liquor solids, as well as any equipment and control practices used, and the identification of potential areas for improvement.
You can learn more at the Electron Machine website here. Take this opportunity now to schedule a complementary service to identify your Black Liquor bottleneck.
New! 24 Volt, DC-DC Option for the DCR E-Scan and MPR E-Scan In-line Process Refractometers

“This is the successful culmination of many hours work and several revisions,” says Jack Wilburn, Operations Manager for Electron Machine, “and provides us the ability to satisfy the needs of many clients who seek a mobile solution for in-line process measurement of Refractive Index.”
Reading Milk Fat content, de-icing solutions, and the measurement of sugars on harvesting equipment are just a few of the applications this new power supply address. Static operations that benefit from this advancement are solar operated locations as well as areas that lack high voltage AC service. This new option provides a solution for these low power areas.
Read the full article here.
Please contact Electron Machine Corporation (+1 352-669-3101) for more information, or check out our accounts on most all social media platforms.
Inline Process Refractometers for Measurement and Control of Sulfuric Acid Concentration in Industrial Applications
For more information contact Electron Machine by calling +1 352-669-3101 or visit their web site at https://electronmachine.com.
Thank You Veterans.
Our Veterans are our neighbors, friends, family, and co-workers. They took an oath to defend the United States and our Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic. We must never forget their bravery, service, and sacrifice. By celebrating our Veterans, we continue to tell the story of how this country became the most powerful on Earth - through bravery, honor, truth, and determination.
Electron Machine thanks our Veterans for serving our country and protecting our freedom.
A Look Back in Electron Machine History - "A Brixometer for Fresh Juice Testing"
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Left to right: J.L. Moody, engineer; Ray E. Blackaby, business manager; Edwin R. Moller, vice-president; Francis Reed, president; Donald Stephens, technician; Charlie Dixon, technician. |
Below we have posted a paper from 1961 presented to the ASME titled "A Brixometer for Fresh Juice Testing" authored by Electron Machine's former VP, Francis Reed.
On the right there is also a picture of the technical staff of Electron Machine Corp. at the time (1958) posing around the new "Brixometer". The author of the following paper is pictured fourth from the left.
We thought it would be interesting to show this deep history to our customers and associates. Enjoy.
Industry everywhere is undergoing a complete revolution which is not apparent to the average citizen. The artistic and craftsmanship abilities of the early industrial worker to create a perfect piece of goods has been supplanted by the emphasis on mass production, lower costs and machine precision of the more recent years. As a result of this development a tremendous pressure is being exerted upon industry to produce even more for even less costs which has created a situation where the machines are now capable of exceeding the abilities of the men who operate them.
From this dilemma has come a now concept of using the speed and precision of electronic devices to replace the human judgement end control ever these processes. This situation arose in the citrus industry several years ago when the increasing capacities of each plant made it increasingly difficult to perform the blending of the concentrate manually with the same equipment and manpower as in earlier methods.
The result has been the development of a method for continuously measuring the Brix of the juice and automatically blending the product uniformly on a continuous basis.
The creation of such a measuring device which has inherently more accuracy then the usual testing devices used in processing has lead naturally to the thinking of applying this principle to the laboratory tests. Such a method would speed up the operation and produce readings of a higher degree of accuracy than tho present methods.
Also, there is the elimination of possible human errors in reading transposing, and compiling the data onto the inspection sheets. It has boon pretty well proven that even with tho best of laboratory equipment available and adequate time to make up the proper tests that no two human beings will interpolate the Brix readings identically.
Couple this human frailty with tho inherent error in tho equipment, possible variables in the test procedure and you can have variations in readings which moans hundreds of thousands of dollars to tho citrus industry.
Let us assume that an average citrus plant is using a calibrated device to measure Brix which according to present standards has an allowable tolerance of C.I degree Brix from the standard. Let us further assume that this Instrument Is checked against a standardized instrument which is allowed a tolerance of .05 degrees from the absolute Brix, we could then expect a possible error of .15 degrees Brix in tho laboratory test. Therefore, if the readings were off by this amount an average plant could lose $35,000 to $50,000 a season depending upon the price being paid for the pounds of solids at the time. If you were to assess those figures accurately for each plant you would find in some instances a considerable larger figure involved in this possible source of error. This loss can further aggravated by tho addition of other possible sources of error introduced by improper deaeration of tho juice before testing, the manner in which tho operator handles the test equipment, environmental conditions in the test area, and tho difficulty of interpolating tho readings and transposing thorn onto the records without any errors. When you add all those to the possible losses you can envision a tremendous loss.
At This point the question arises "whose loss?". If the errors add up to the processors favor, the grower loses. The reverse situation can also happen with such a wide latitude in the test operation.
Hence, all concerned in tho testing of Brix are virtually interested in a reliable instrument which would make this Brix determination accurately and present the information in digital form on the inspection sheet without having to be interpolated.
Such an instrument has been developed and is being designed to fulfill the operating conditions of the test stations and laboratories. This instrument will employ the principles of the present electronic Brixometer used in the processing operation and will allow for tho rapid and precise determination of the Brix without the attendant errors possible in the manual system. This device will accept a sample of the juice from the inspection sample and without requiring deaeration immediately present the Brix indication to the operator. The operator will zero the instrument, insert tho data sheet into a printer slot and receive the printed out Brix indication similar to the weight information printed by the scales.
The next logical step from the automatic printing of weight and Brix is to be the incorporation of an automatic determination of the acid content of the juice and from this information it wiI I be a simple matter to devise an electronic computer system which will arrive at the ratio, pounds of solids and yield figures.
The combination of these instruments into a complete inspection tool would provide an accurate, indisputable record of all testing done without the costly introduction of the multiple errors possible in the manual testing methods.
The method of electronically collecting all of tho data will lead to another field of interest to the processors in that of data compilation. This intelligence can be fed fo the modern computers to analyze many of tho conditions surrounding the procurement and utilization of tho fruit. Such systems are now in use in many of the large industries in the country and more smaller industries are finding out the advantages of data compilations and statistical analysis of their product end its utilization. In fact, we predict that within a very few years there will be thru the utilization of the tremendous advantages in electronic instrumentation, completely automatic processing available to all types of industry.
You can download a copy of the original paper from this ASME archive.
The Important Role of the Inline Refractometer in Juice and Beverage Production
The consumer gets this feeling because of the consistency of product. The consistency is a function of production processes on the part of the manufacturer. Many drinks and beverages have a certain amount of sugar added for optimal taste. If the process used to mix the sweetener into the drink deviates, even in the slightest, then product consistency will suffer and so will consumer satisfaction.
Enter the process refractometer. With its precisely calibrated refractive index set to the exact parameters specified by the manufacturer, the quality and consistency of each and every product batch will fall within the acceptable quality control range. Any deviation from the "sweetness" settings (degrees Brix) are immediately detected by the inline refractometer, and can be quickly corrected by automated signals sent to a final control element and eliminate the deviation. This ensures a quality product for consumers time in and time out, as well as keeping costly losses due to defective batches at a minimum.

Process refractometers proved an extremely important role in the production of juices and beverages in both the product consistency, and also the safety and cleanliness of the production process.
For more information, contact Electron Machine Corporation by calling 352-669-3101 or visit their web site at https://electronmachine.com.
MDS Black Liquor Solids Monitoring System Training by Electron Machine Corporation
Electron Machine Corporation offers free MDS training at our facility in Umatilla, Florida. The MDS Monitor Divert System is a BLRBAC compliant Black Liquor solids monitoring system designed specifically for Black Liquor recovery boilers. Classes cover theory, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting and correct usage of the isolation valve. Training is comprehensive, friendly, personalized and provides the hands-on know-how necessary to operate the MDS.
Black Liquor Solids Measurement Demo with Electron Machine DSA E-Scan Bench-top Refractometer
The Preferred Inline Process Refractometer When Safety and Quality Are on the Line
Electron Machine inline process refractometers provide safe, reliable, and accurate process measurement for thousands of customers in the pulp and paper industry, food and beverage industry, and chemical industries. Known for their ruggedly designed instruments, Electron Machine refractometers provide accurate and repeatable measurement of Refractive Index, Dissolved Solids, and Degrees Brix. They also distinguish themselves from competitors by providing fast response to customers needs after the sale. For applications where accuracy and reliability are critical to safety and quality, there really is only once choice - Electron Machine.
Inline Process Refractometer Application Engineering Data: Heavy Black Liquor
As quoted from the Black Liquor Recovery Boiler Advisory Committee, “Refractometers have proven to be effective for black liquor recovery boiler service.” Refractometers are a critical component of the black liquor safe firing system.
Monitoring the recovery boiler firing liquor concentration requires two refractometers in a redundant and specially supervised system. A “Monitor Divert System” employs supervisory circuitry to oversee the correct operation of the refractometer and perform certain logic functions if it detects a failure. The most important of these is the automatic
diversion of the liquor from the furnace into a recirculation loop until the problems can be resolved.
Refractometers used elsewhere in this area include measuring the concentration of the heavy black liquor from storage as it enters the recovery area. They are also used extensively around the cascade or cyclone evaporators to monitor the performance of the direct contact evaporation system. When refractometers are used in the recovery area, the process can be tuned to operate efficiently and most importantly, more safely.
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Inline process refractometer on black liquor service. |
What Is An Inline Process Refractometer?
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Inline sensing head |
Inline process refractometers are made up of three main components:
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Control console |
- The inline sensing head, which is inserted to a pipe and is exposed the the product for direct measurement. The sensor is connected by a cable to the second main component, the control console.
- The control console, which houses the display, electronics, power supply and output connections. Both the sensor and the control module are designed for high accuracy and precise control. Their housing and cabling are often specialized for use in varying extreme conditions and very demanding environments.
- The process adapter, which connects the sensor mechanically to the process piping. Adapters are configured for the pipe size and application they are used on and are available in many configurations. Some of the more common adapter options are:
- Lined - For extremely corrosive applications.
Mounting adapters - Inline - For most applications with pipeline sizes less than 2”.
- Isolation - For critical process lines that cannot normally be shut down.
- Sanitary - For applications on a sanitary pipeline.
- Spool - For most applications with pipeline sizes greater than 2”.
- Vessel - For applications where the sensing head is to be mounted directly onto a vessel or vacuum pan.
- Weld-in - For economical mounting.
The Basics of Process Refractometers

Angle of refraction refers to the magnitude the light bends as it exits one media and enters the interface of another. With the angle of refraction defined by their densities, different liquids display different amounts of refraction - for example, a higher density juice such as orange juice will have significantly different refraction than cranberry juice, because of its higher density.
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Light bends when traveling through different media. That's why this pencil appears to be "broken" when it enters the water. |
Standard tables are available that correlate refractive index to a variety of materials. These same tables also correlate refractive index to varying concentrations of particular liquid media at a particular temperature. Take corn syrup for example. Different refractive indexes are observed for different corn syrup samples of different concentrations. Therefore, by using a process refractometer to observe the refractive index of a particular corn syrup sample, a determination of the concentration of that particular sample can be made. By referring to the table or scale that correlates the refractive index to concentration at a particular fixed temperature, liquid concentration can be determined.
The refraction index of the liquid medium readings will vary at different temperatures, and therefore, the sample's temperature must be measured and compensated for in order for refractive index readings to be accurate and repeatable.
Refractive index measurements have been used for process control in the food, juice and beverage industries for decades, with the most common applications being the measurement of sugars (Brix) and total dissolved solids (TDS). Large scale production and processing of fruit juices, jams, tomato products, wine, beer, coffee, and many other products rely on industrial refractometers for quality and consistency.
For more information contact Electron Machine Corporation by visiting https://electronmachine.com or by calling 352-669-3101.