Ceramic Super Intalox Saddle

A ceramic Intalox saddle, also called the rectangular saddle and in its refined form the super intalox, is a dumped ceramic packing whose form lands between a ring and a saddle. Picture a curved, scalloped piece, open on both faces: it is more open than a plain saddle and more spread-out than a tube, and it takes the useful traits of each. The curved surfaces coax the liquid to run and spread across them, so it wets out evenly; the open form leaves wide channels for the gas, so there is little to resist the vapour. Between them a bed of these saddles pushes a lot of gas and liquid through and does its separating job well, while the compact saddle stays mechanically sound, so the ceramic pieces hold up under handling and load. Put simply, it is the shape that gets the most out of a dumped ceramic bed, which is the reason it is the ceramic packing most plants default to now.

The Intalox saddle is the Berl saddle, improved. The Berl saddle came first and proved that a curved saddle beats a plain ring; the Intalox saddle reworked that curve into a more open, more symmetrical form that interlocks even less and settles into a still more even bed. In practice that buys a little more capacity, slightly better distribution, and a piece that is easier to press consistently. Because of those gains it has largely taken the Berl saddle's place in new towers, and it is what people usually mean when they just say ceramic saddle today. If you run Berl saddles and want the modern equal, this is it. Both are ceramic curved saddles; the Intalox is the later, better-tuned one.

Both are made, and the pick turns on conditions and cost, not on the shape, which is one idea in either material. Choose the ceramic version for corrosive duty: clay ceramic laughs off acids and most chemistry and takes real heat, and it is cheaper than metal, though it weighs more, is brittle, and leaves a lower open fraction, near 74 to 78 percent. The metal one, pressed from thin stainless, is far tougher and much more open, its void reaching into the nineties, and it copes with shock, deep beds and a broader temperature range, but it costs more and can corrode in the wrong stream. The rule of thumb: ceramic for hot, acidic, budget-minded columns; metal where strength, top capacity or extreme temperature decide it. Give us the conditions and we will steer you to the right one.

In the chemical, metallurgical and coking trades the ceramic Intalox saddle packs a range of columns: cooling towers, scrubbers, recycling towers, absorption columns and drying towers, plus heat exchangers. It has a second, quieter role too. Tipped into a wastewater tank it serves as a biofilm carrier, offering a broad surface for the micro-organisms to colonise, which raises the biological volume of the system and sharpens the sewage treatment. The pull is the same throughout, an open and evenly wetted bed with little resistance, in a ceramic body that stands heat and acids. Give us the column or the tank and what it must do, and we will settle the saddle size.