Turbidity Sensors | Anderson-Negele

Turbidity Sensors

Optimize your processes with advanced turbidity sensors and meters, designed for real-time, inline monitoring. Perfect for product differentiation, phase transitions, and quality control, our turbidity solutions ensure high precision across a range of industries, including food and beverage.

How Can an Inline Turbidity Sensor or Turbidity Meter Optimize Processes and Reduce Cost?

Turbidity control is a preferred method for differentiating media in inline processes within the food and beverage industries. The ITM series of sanitary insertion turbidity meters from Anderson-Negele provides precise, real-time monitoring and control of these critical processes.﻿

Our in line turbidity sensors offer two advanced measurement methods, ensuring optimal control and resolution for any level of turbidity. Whether you need to monitor high-purity media with a low range of 0 to 5 NTU (0 to 1 EBC) or manage products with medium to high turbidity levels up to 300,000 NTU, we have the right solution.﻿﻿Dairy products like milk or cream, where fat particles behave similarly to other turbidity particles, can also be analyzed with exceptional accuracy. Below, you’ll find examples of turbidity values for various media and how they change with different concentrations:

Typical Applications for Hygienic Inline Turbidity Sensors

Inline turbidity analysis enables automated, high-precision control in various production processes and applications. Key uses include product differentiation, phase separation, process control, and quality monitoring.

Product differentiation:

Turbidity sensors help distinguish between different liquids, ensuring correct processing, storage, or filling. Examples include:

Differentiating milk with 3.5% or with 1.5% fat content, cream with 10% or with 30% fat content, or whey.
Distinguishing between beer, wort and water.
Sorting various fruit juices.
Identifying product, water or cleaning agents.

Phase transition: Combined with conductivity measurement, inline turbidity sensors enable precise CIP (Cleaning in Place) control. Real-time monitoring of phase transitions (e.g., water to caustic, acid to product) ensures safe, efficient, and resource-saving phase separation, optimizing cleaning quality. For instance:

Automatically stopping pre-rinse water when turbidity reaches a certain value, ensuring the cleaning process starts at the optimal time.

Process control: Turbidity levels can trigger process corrections through signals to the PLC. Typical applications include:

Filter Monitoring: Continuous turbidity measurement after a filter.
Separator Control: Automatic ejection of filter residue when turbidity exceeds a specified value.
CIP Process: Making decisions on reuse or disposal in the CIP return flow based on pollution levels.

Quality monitoring: Turbidity sensors ensure consistent product quality by monitoring concentration levels:

Optimizing cream concentration to the desired level.
Maintaining turbidity levels in craft beer and other unfiltered beers within a specific target range.
Ensuring uniform turbidity in juices and mixed drinks for consistent product experience.
Analyzing water quality in fresh and drinking water before mixing with the product.

ROI Calculator for the ITM-51 / ITM-4 Turbidity Sensors

Wondering if installing a turbidity sensor is financially worthwhile? Find out in just a few clicks with our ROI calculator.

Inline turbidity analysis offers significant time and resource savings compared to time-based control or visual monitoring, particularly during phase transitions. For example, one of our customers reduced phase transition time by 65 seconds compared to time control methods (open case study).

Use our ROI calculator for a quick estimate of how fast a turbidity sensor installation can pay for itself through product cost savings. Start your calculation now by clicking the links below:

﻿Calculate YOUR possible ROI with US$ and liters.﻿

﻿Calculate YOUR possible ROI with US$ and gallons.﻿

﻿Calculate YOUR possible ROI with CAN$ and litres.﻿

Advantages of Turbidity Measurement Across Industries

Turbidity sensors provide real-time, automated monitoring of liquids in various production processes and CIP systems across dairies, breweries, the beverage industry, wine production, juice production, and other food companies. Here’s how they can benefit your operations:﻿

Instant Product Differentiation and Monitoring: Turbidity sensors enable immediate and reliable differentiation of products and liquids during processing, allowing for automated real-time product changeovers. Result: Improved product yield and optimal resource utilization.
Continuous Process Monitoring: By controlling filters and separators, turbidity sensors help prevent production downtimes and equipment damage. Result: Reduced risk of operational disruptions.
Enhanced Product Quality: Achieve precise product quality by optimizing turbidity levels in craft beer or the concentration of cream to meet specified standards. Result: Consistently high product quality and minimized quality deviations.
Efficient CIP Media Management: Analyze contamination levels in CIP return flows to maximize the reuse of cleaning agents and flush water. Result: Significant savings on CIP cleaners, reduced water consumption, and lower wastewater output.
Accurate Filling Process: Ensure the correct liquid or product concentration is accurately filled into packaging. Result: Elimination of incorrectly filled products.
Cooling Circuit Integrity Monitoring: Continuously monitor cooling media like glycol for foreign matter, detecting potential issues before they cause failures. Result: Early warning signals to prevent severe cooling circuit damage.

Which Turbidity Sensor is Best Suited for Your Application?

Which Traditional Methods Can Be Replaced by Turbidity Measurement?

In practice, the degree of turbidity is often not easy to detect, but it can be decisive for the quality of the end product and the efficiency of the process. Still frequently used methods of control are manual sampling or turbidity monitoring via a sight glass. However, experience shows that both of these methods involve high personnel costs and uncertainties in the quality between samples.

Another widely used method, particularly for CIP cleaning, is time-controlled phase transition. To avoid contamination, a safety buffer of several seconds is typically added, which leads to additional costs. This is because valuable product or cleaning agents are often wasted, ending up in the wastewater.

Anderson-Negele’s ITM series turbidity meters can automate this process with exceptional accuracy and resolution. By reducing the risk of resource loss during phase transitions and minimizing labor costs associated with manual monitoring, these turbidity sensors can significantly lower operational expenses. In many cases, the investment in Anderson-Negele turbidity sensors has paid off in a very short time.

Which Measuring Principles Are Used in Turbidity Sensors?

Anderson-Negele turbidity meters utilize two primary measuring principles: the backscattered light method for relative turbidity measurement and the four-beam method, which records both transmitted and scattered light. Both methods are designed for inline measurement, allowing for real-time analysis of liquids during the production process. With response times of less than one second, these sensors enable precise monitoring and control, ensuring optimal process efficiency.

What is Relative Turbidity Measurement?

Relative turbidity measurement, using the backscattered light method, offers key advantages such as seamless inline sensor installation and cost-effectiveness. The ITM-51 turbidity sensor is highly adaptable and can be easily retrofitted into existing pipelines as small as DN25.

The sensor operates by emitting infrared light from an LED at its tip through a durable sapphire optical system. Suspended particles in the medium reflect this light back to a receiving diode at the sensor tip, a process known as the backscattered light method. The sensor’s electronics then calculate the relative turbidity based on the reflected signal. This method is particularly well-suited for measuring media with medium to high turbidity levels (200 to 300,000 NTU).

What is Four-beam Turbidity Measurement?

The ITM-4, turbidity sensor utilizes the four-beam alternating light method, a highly sensitive technique that combines transmitted and scattered light measurement. This method is powered by an LED light source and is designed to detect even the slightest changes in turbidity, with measuring ranges starting as low as 0 to 5 NTU (0 to 1 EBC).

The sensor is equipped with two infrared transmitters and two infrared receivers, arranged in a circular configuration, each offset by 90°. The transmitters operate alternately: when transmitter 1 is active, receiver 1 detects the transmitted light while receiver 2 captures the 90° scattered light. The process reverses when transmitter 2 is active. An exact turbidity value is calculated from the four measurements obtained in a single cycle.

One of the key advantages of this method is its ability to automatically compensate for disturbances, such as optic contamination or component aging, by providing a transmitted light reference for each scattered light measurement. Additionally, sporadic interference from solids or air bubbles is minimized through the evaluation of multiple measurement cycles and the application of an adjustable filter.

The ITM-4 is designed for easy integration, fitting into pipelines ranging from DN25 to DN100 (or 1″ to 4″) using a sanitary screw fitting or clamp connection.

This method is also employed in the ITM-4DW variant, which is specifically adapted and approved for drinking water applications. The ITM-4DW offers a cost-effective solution while maintaining the high accuracy and reliability of the ITM-4.

What Does HYGIENIC BY DESIGNTM Mean for Turbidity Sensors?

The ITM series turbidity sensors are engineered to meet international standards for food processing equipment, including 3-A, EHEDG, and FDA guidelines. These standards ensure that the sensors are free from dead-legs and are easy to clean, making them ideal for hygienic applications.

The sensors are constructed with the highest quality materials, from the wetted parts to the housing:

Medium-contact components: Stainless steel 1.4404 (316L)
Optics: Sapphire
Optical block: PEEK (ITM-4) or PPSU (ITM-4DW)

Designed for extreme durability, the sensors feature a long-life design and use an LED light source, allowing them to withstand harsh mechanical stresses such as vibrations and pressure surges common in real-world applications. This robust construction ensures top-tier accuracy, longevity, and cleanability.

Which Process Adaptations or Installations are Available for Turbidity Sensors?

Anderson-Negele turbidity sensors offer a wide range of process adaptations, providing flexibility for both new installations and retrofitting existing systems.

ITM-51: This compact, front-flush sensor is designed for easy integration into processes using sanitary screw or clamp fittings. Adapters are available to accommodate existing process connections, ensuring seamless installation.
Remote Version: A remote version of the ITM-51 is also available, allowing for optimal adaptation to specific on-site and technical requirements.
ITM-4 and ITM-4DW: These models feature a ring-shaped measuring sensor integrated into a housing. They can be easily installed in pipes of various nominal diameters using sanitary screw or clamp connections, offering versatile installation options.