Jul. 21, 2025
Ken Backus, Field Engineer, N. America
Xingyu Product Page
In an industrial plant or refinery, potential safety risks lurk around every corner. As a plant manager, one of your primary responsibilities is to reduce those risks to not only ensure safety, but also maintain uptime and preserve a steady revenue stream at your facility.
One critical area of focus is your plant’s industrial fluid systems. Such systems often transport high-pressure and high-temperature fluids and gases that can increase health, safety, and environmental concerns if something goes awry. Fluid system failure is not an option. Fortunately, your engineers and technicians can implement a variety of strategies to preserve the safety of your fluid systems, particularly during design.
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All industrial components are not created equal. Interchanging and intermixing components made by different manufacturers can result in unpredictable performance, environmental releases, safety problems, and increased costs. For example, half-inch fittings from different manufacturers may not have the same tolerances. Combine the two, and you may introduce an increased potential for leaks or even a dangerous blowout.
Obtaining a leak-tight seal that will withstand high pressure, vibration, vacuum, and temperature changes depends on exacting tolerances, meticulous quality control, and time-tested design principles. Your best bet is to choose a consistent, reliable component supplier with quality products manufactured to rigorous standards. Using the same manufacturer for every component within your fluid system will ensure compatibility throughout your system operations.
Mistakes can occur even within the most well-trained teams. However, there is plenty you can do to minimize the potential for human error by following safety-minded fluid system design principles. Start off by devoting time to consistent component labeling. You can mount detailed tags on your equipment and hoses to indicate what takes place within that system, allowing operators to make careful adjustments. You can also color code handles, tubes, and pipes throughout your plant, so workers can immediately identify what types of fluids or gases are flowing through them—reducing room for error.
Another useful strategy is to install additional components to minimize the risk of accidental contact from moving objects or people. Even better, add a lockout on a critical process valve to prevent accidental actuation while eliminating safety concerns.
When plant safety is your highest priority, it is rarely worth the risk to make a price-based decision when purchasing fluid system components. You will not be able to justify minor component savings if that part leads to a costly safety event.
Instead, rely on brands with a proven reputation and track record in your application. Selecting ideal components requires a complete understanding of process conditions. For example, if your fluid system generates a static charge, you want to use a hose with a conductive metal core, or a PTFE core with carbon black, to dissipate static rather than discharge it through the hose’s core. This material selection will help prevent future leakage. Also, be sure to only purchase components through trusted partners and authorized channels, as counterfeit and substandard inventory can harm your system operations and overall plant safety.
Reducing fluid system complexity wherever possible will help you minimize potential complications. Simplifying systems also enables maintenance efficiencies, as technicians can troubleshoot problems more easily with fewer components to analyze. For example, consider changing piping runs to bendable tubing instead to reduce potential leak points.
The pipe assembly above has seven fittings and 17 potential leak points.
In comparison, the tubing below has just two fittings and four potential leak points.
Additionally, your team could remove complexities from your system operations altogether by having a supplier build custom fluid system assemblies for you. Whether an assembly consists of a few components or a complete panel or enclosure, there is room for error when piecing these parts together. A supplier that can repeatedly build high-quality assemblies, backed by a warranty, will take any guesswork out of your team’s hands—and provide peace of mind that the assembly is leak-tight.
Failure to follow documented fluid system assembly and disassembly procedures might seem like a minor mistake, but it can lead to major consequences. The best practice is to follow the manufacturer’s installation steps to avoid common errors, such as:
When assembling a de-energized industrial fluid system, it can be easy to forget about the effects of machine vibration. Your team will need to account for this factor in their system designs to avoid damage to tubing or fittings—potentially causing components to leak. Add proper supports to ensure tubes and fittings will not become fatigued during high-pressure usage. Additionally, your team should allow for a proper range of motion for moving components, as motion can place added strain on components and connection points.
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In some cases of intense vibration, you may consider switching to a hose, which may absorb the vibration better than tubing. When using a hose in a motion application, distribute movement over a sufficient length to prevent any bends that are smaller than the hose’s minimum bend radius. Too small of a bend can lead to premature hose failure. Hoses need to be replaced over time, so ensure that component life is taken into design considerations as well.
To guarantee a leak-tight fitting connection, it’s important that fluid system tubing materials be compatible with each other and have the appropriate hardness to stay connected. Metal tubing should be softer than the fitting components—effectively gripping the tube. For example, avoid using brass fittings with stainless steel tubing, as the fitting material is too soft to provide a sufficient hold on the tube.
While the above steps may appear to be simple, they’re often overlooked in most facilities. Ensuring your team keeps best system design and installation practices top of mind will help your plant operations stay on track. It is also a good practice to offer your team training opportunities and refresher courses. Taking appropriate precautions and following sound fluid system design principles can help to prevent costly errors and enhance plant safety in the long-term.
Syringe pumps are the most commonly used flow control systems in microfluidics even if in the last 5 years researchers have begun to use more alternative flow control systems (see our study on researchers’ opinions about microfluidics flow control).
Let’s say that syringe pumps can be divided in two categories. Classic syringe pumps, which are quite inexpensive but generate flow oscillations when dealing with microfluidics, and pulseless microfluidic syringe pumps, which are quite expensive but clearly offer better performances in terms of flow stability. In this tutorial, we will focus only on pulseless microfluidic syringe pumps. If you decide to use common syringe pumps, the information we provide in this tutorial will apply, but keep in mind the fact that your flow will not be stable at low flow rates.
The main advantage of syringes is that they are quite easy to use. The main weak point of pulseless syringe pumps is their low responsiveness, since it depends on the microfluidic setup. Flow changes inside chips can take seconds to hours (see our tutorial on syringe pump responsiveness in microfluidics). This lack of reactivity is one of the main limitations of syringe pumps for numerous applications. However, in and , new solutions can help to overcome these problems (see our tutorial on how to upgrade your syringe pump to fit it to microfluidic needs).
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Pressure controllers are flow control systems which pressurize the tank containing your sample. When pressurized, the sample is smoothly injected in your microfluidic chip. In microfluidics, researchers mainly use pressure controllers when they need responsiveness and stability, since pressure controllers can establish pulseless flows with short response times (80 ms) in microfluidic chips. Using pressure driven flows, pressure changes propagate within the fluidic setup without delay, leading to fast flow switch. Moreover, since there are no moving mechanical parts involved, pressure-driven flows remain smooth whatever your flow rates. Modern microfluidic pressure controllers also allow you to control both pressure and flow rate by integrating a flow meter with a feedback loop. Microfluidic researchers mainly use pressure controllers when they require high flow responsiveness and high flow stability and precision, as well as when they work with dead end channels or require large sample volumes.
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For some microfluidic applications, researchers use pressure controllers coupled with flow switch matrices. Researchers mainly use flow switch matrices when they need fast flow switches with no back flows (to avoid sample contamination or to instantaneously stop flows for observation). When a high-precision flow rate control is needed, researchers can also use quake valves or integrated PDMS peristaltic pumps because of their capacity to completely and instantaneously stop flow inside a microfluidic channel, and/or control flow in a high number of channels simultaneously while maintaining a reasonable setup cost.
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A flow switch is an active element which enables the opening, closing or redirection of flow in a fluidic channel. Flow switches must be preferably used with pressure controllers because closing a channel connected to a working syringe pump may lead to an infinite pressure increase and the destruction of the fluidic system.
Pressure controllers enable fast sample switches (80 ms) in microchips but require a perfect equilibrium between all inlets to avoid back flow and sample contamination. The only way to achieve a clean and fast flow tuning/switching is to couple a pressure regulator with flow switches. Valves need to be placed between the liquid reservoir and the microchip. Since liquids are incompressible, pressure will instantaneously push the liquid into the chip and the flow change will have the reactivity of the valve opening (25 ms or less). Moreover, since the tubing between the microchip and the flow switch is full of liquid (which is incompressible), it avoids backflow and contamination between input capillaries.
When using a pressure controller, the variation of the hydrostatic pressure in the liquid tank makes it very hard to achieve a pressure equilibrium. The use of synchronized flow switches, such as microfluidic multiplexer, enables you to plug all channels simultaneously. Since liquids are incompressible, valves enable you to get a real time flow stop without any residual flows.
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