Anderson-Negele's ITM series of sanitary inline turbidity sensors deliver real-time, high-precision turbidity measurement directly in your pipeline — no manual sampling, no sight glass, no guesswork. Whether you're differentiating milk fat content, controlling CIP phase transitions, or maintaining craft beer turbidity within a target range, the ITM series provides automated, accurate monitoring from 0 to 300,000 NTU. Designed to HYGIENIC BY DESIGN™ standards and built to 3-A, EHEDG, and FDA guidelines.
Manual turbidity monitoring — through sampling or sight glass inspection — introduces personnel costs, inconsistency between samples, and reaction delays. Time-based CIP phase transition control adds a safety buffer of several seconds per cycle to compensate for uncertainty, which means product or cleaning agent regularly ends up in wastewater.
Anderson-Negele ITM series sensors automate both processes with sub-second response times, eliminating the safety buffer and reducing resource loss at every phase transition. In documented customer installations, turbidity-controlled phase transitions have reduced transition time by 65 seconds compared to time-based methods — a saving that compounds across every production cycle.
Turbidity sensors distinguish between liquids in real time, enabling automated product changeovers without manual intervention. Common examples include:
All ITM series sensors are engineered to international hygienic standards, including 3-A, EHEDG, and FDA guidelines. Design features that ensure cleanability and longevity:
Common NTU reference values:
Backscatter turbidity measurement detects the light reflected back toward the sensor by suspended particles in a liquid. The ITM-51 emits infrared light from an LED through a sapphire optical system at the sensor tip. Particles in the medium reflect a portion of that light back to a receiver diode, and the sensor's electronics calculate a relative turbidity value from the reflected signal intensity.
Best suited for: Medium to high turbidity liquids (200–300,000 NTU), including whole milk, cream, wort, juices, and CIP media.
Key advantage: Simple inline installation; compact design; easily retrofitted into existing pipelines from DN25.
Four-beam turbidity measurement combines transmitted light and 90° scattered light in a single measurement cycle to calculate an absolute turbidity value. The ITM-4 uses two infrared transmitters and two infrared receivers arranged in a circular configuration, each offset by 90°. The transmitters alternate: when Transmitter 1 is active, Receiver 1 measures transmitted light and Receiver 2 captures 90° scattered light. The process reverses for Transmitter 2. All four readings from one cycle are used to calculate a precise NTU value.
Built-in compensation: Each scattered light measurement is referenced against a simultaneous transmitted light reading, automatically correcting for optic contamination, component aging, air bubbles, and sporadic interference from solids.
Best suited for: Low to medium turbidity applications requiring high sensitivity, including wort clarity, beer filtration, dairy, juice, and drinking water.
Key advantage: Detects changes as small as 0–5 NTU (0–1 EBC); self-compensating design reduces maintenance and calibration frequency.
NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit) is the standard unit of measurement for turbidity — the optical clarity of a liquid based on how much light is scattered by suspended particles. A value of 0 NTU represents perfectly clear water. Higher NTU values indicate more suspended material. In food and beverage processing, turbidity is used as a proxy for fat content, particle concentration, and product purity.
EBC is a turbidity unit used specifically in the brewing industry. It measures light scattered at a 90° angle using a 630 nm wavelength light source. The conversion between EBC and NTU is approximately: 1 EBC ≈ 4–5 NTU (varies by method). Anderson-Negele ITM-4 sensors report turbidity in both NTU and EBC.
Anderson-Negele turbidity sensors are available with a range of process connections to support new installations and retrofits:
ITM-51:
ITM-4 and ITM-4DW:
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