Patent ID: 8362200

Claim:
A process for salt-free coagulation of polymer dispersions in a rotor/stator assembly, the rotor/stator assembly including a casing, a rotor shaft rotatably mounted within the casing, a rotor affixed to the rotor shaft, the rotor having a conical surface, a stator affixed to the casing and concentrically associated with the rotor, the conical surface and a surface of the stator facing toward each other and forming a shear gap surrounded by an annular space within the casing, wherein the assembly is capable of axial shifts in order to adjust the shear gap width, the process comprising: feeding a polymer dispersion by way of an axial feed neck into the rotor/stator assembly, the axial feed neck being upstream of the shear gap; conveying the polymer dispersion through the shear gap; precipitating the polymer dispersion at a predetermined shear rate and a predetermined shear deformation while conveying the polymer dispersion through the shear gap; discharging the precipitated polymer dispersion by way of an outlet neck from the rotor/stator assembly, the radial outlet neck being downstream of the shear gap; and flushing the axial feed neck and/or the annular space in the rotor/stator assembly with water during operation of the rotor/stator assembly using one or more ports formed in at least one of a pipeline coupled to the axial feed neck, the stator, and the casing.