Vindum Engineering Inc. products

The single sample desaturation cell desaturates a core sample by virtue of the porous plate method. The sample desaturation cell is manufactured from stainless steel and resting on its base is a semi-permeable ceramic plate. It consists of a pressure vessel with an easy opening lid, clamping bolts, O-rings, seals, tubing and a pressure control panel. Three different operating pressure ceramic plates are provided with the system; namely, 1 bar, 5 bar and 15 bar. The control panel includes a digital pressure display, two low and high range pressure regulators and a set of control valves. Moreover, an in-line gas humidifier is integrated into the circuit to prevent in-situ evaporation during the desaturation process.

The automated saturator sequentially performs vacuum and saturation cycles on both plug and whole core size samples. Initially, the samples are placed in a wire mesh basket, lowered into the saturation cell and the latter is sealed with a threaded plug. Optionally, a large capacity cell can be provided to accommodate full size core samples. The system is then evacuated by applying high vacuum for a few hours. The vacuum pump is connected to the system via a liquid trap tank and a feed tank. This configuration enables both air evacuation and liquid dearation. The trap tank protects the vacuum pump by collecting potential vapor droplets. Once vacuum has been established, the pump is turned off and the system, vented to atmospheric pressure.