Skimmtelligent oil separator on central coolant system
A company manufactures wheels for trains. After forging, they have to be machined. This is done in large machining centers. Three of these machining centers have a common coolant supply, which is located in the basement under the machine tools. Due to the high demand for coolant from the machines, the coolant system was dimensioned with 16000 liters.
Problem
The company’s oil supplier complained to the maintenance manager about the increased levels of tramp oil in the system’s coolant. This was due to regular leaks from hydraulic units, meaning that there was sometimes over 1000 liters of tramp oil in the coolant. The maintenance department was therefore urgently looking for a solution to remove the tramp oil from the coolant.
Solution: Skimmtelligent oil separator
Although the tanks were large enough to accommodate an oil skimmer, no oil phase formed due to the very high turbulence in the coolant system. A bypass separator therefore had to be used.
As the system consisted of two physically separate tanks, each with a capacity of 8000 l, the customer was offered two Skimmtelligent 20 oil separators.
The previous filtration system only consisted of a single magnetic roll. Both oil separators were therefore equipped with a magnetic filter to further improve the quality of the coolant.
The oil separators draw the coolant from the tanks in the basement, where magnetizable particles are first removed by the magnetic filter. The fluid is then pumped into the bypass separator, where the liquid can settle. This allows a separate oil phase to form, which can be removed.
Coalescing elements for the finest oil droplets
Coalescing elements are used in the oil separator to accelerate the rise of tramp oil. These collect the oil droplets in the liquid on their surface and merge many individual droplets into one large droplet. This increases the buoyancy of the oil droplet and an oil phase can form more quickly. Furthermore, this enables the smaller oil droplets to rise in the first place, which ensures more thorough oil removal from the liquid.
Result by using the FRIESS oil separator Skimmtelligent
After a lengthy rental phase, both the maintenance manager and the oil supplier were convinced of the benefits of the oil separator. When the coolant was tested, it was found that the amount of tramp oil in the coolant had been significantly reduced. The particle load also decreased, as the magnetic filters now provided far more efficient filtration.