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$ystems make sense, save dollars. Please note: some pictures or diagrams are only available through the printed media. By Troy M Hawks When Clyde Sluhan, founder of Master Chemical Corp, Perrysburg, OH, first developed coolant recycling in 1972, he had more than a good idea, he had a vision. Today recycling cutting fluids can add significantly to company profits, an idea that company executives take very seriously. But what Mr Sluhan knew then, was that a successful recycling system does not happen with a machine alone.
"Basically he would boil his 50 years of experience in the field of cutting fluids into a two-day seminar for metalworking managers. It was one of his principal dedications," says Elliott. What Clyde knew then was that with the machine, there had to be an understanding of the principles of coolant recycling by the people who use them, and this too is a concept that company executives are now taking more seriously. "Ninety-percent of cutting fluid problems relate to poor control by the user," says Bill Sluhan, a sentiment that is being echoed throughout the industry. In fact, most observers agree that the major concern within cutting fluid maintenance systems isn't a lack of products, but a lack of knowledge about the selection and application of fluids by those who use them. Recently strives have been made to answer this need in the form of a software testbed that allows users to evaluate cutting fluids over the internet.
See http://www.toolingandproduction.com) T&P This Week for 1/9/98). The closed-loop coolant system Mr Sluhan first developed years ago has since been refined into the Xybex series coolant recycling systems, which have the potential to allow users to run coolants "indefinitely". Yet as cutting fluid recycling technologies such as the Xybex series continue to advance, companies like Master Chemical are in a way biting the very hand that feeds them. Quite simply as manufacturers run their coolants longer, Master Chemical and other coolant companies sell less coolant. Coolant companies now find themselves adjusting to what Bill Sluhan describes as a "shrinking" cutting fluid market by marketing their "expertise" in cutting fluid recycling. "Cutting fluids are a necessary nuisance. Everybody would love to get rid of them, but their benefits are too great," says Bill Sluhan. He adds that in order to reduce their "nuisance" people simply need to gain a better understanding on how to use and manage cutting fluids. Master Chemical, for example, offers fluid management to Tier 2 auto suppliers in which on-site personnel are responsible for maintaining all factors of the plants fluid recycling systems. In November, Clyde Sluhan died of heart failure at the age of 85. Please see Presstime Notes pg 10.
On-site fluid management There appears to be an industry-wide trend toward outsourcing the coolant recycling process. "What our customers want from us is to eliminate their involvement in it. They want to focus on their core business and so they contract with a fluid management company,"says John Coyle, business development manager, Fluid Recycling Services Inc (FRS), Livonia, MI. FRS offers mobile on-site recycling service that begins with the customer placing dirty fluid from sump changes, chip drainage, skimming, and other sources into a dirty tank normally 1000 to 3000 gal. When sufficient fluid is collected a trained FRS fluid recycler arrives in one of the company's 20 mobile recycling units and processes the contaminated fluids. When the recycle is completed, the customer has clean recycled fluid within specification and a full service report including fluid analysis. Within its on-site fluid management programs, FRS provides full-time on-site personnel, equipment, implementation resources and recycling services. The program can include machine coolant control and maintenance, including sump changing, top-off, machine cleaning, on-site fluid recycling, data acquisition, and reporting, and other service options. Part of Castrol Industrial North America (CINA), Castrol's Customer Care Services offers options including recycling equipment rental, contract service, complete fluid management service, or sump cleaning service. Although it is currently being offered on a limited basis, Castrol's full service option, the Complete Fluid Management Service, is designed to meet the specific requirements of each customer. With it, customers receive Castrol industrial metalworking fluids, customized maintenance with additives, reprocessing and waste minimization systems, and a skilled Castrol industrial fluid technician for the contract period. Cus-tomers, who are serviced through a network of distributors, can reduce up to 95% of water-based fluid disposal volume by evaporating waste with no downtime. Castrol was able to utilize the patented technology for reprocessing used industrial oils through its 1996 acquisition of Kentucky-based Opcon. The technology is incorporated into customized mobile trailer units to provide on-site service and applies a series of processes including advanced coalescing techniques, a vacuum dehydration, centrifugal distillation, filtration, and customized reformulation. Spent fluids are pumped directly from the customer's plant into the reprocessing unit, processed, analyzed, brought to specification, and returned into the plant for further use. Permanent, fixed on-site reprocessing units can also be established in manufacturing locations where fluid usage warrants it. Chemtool Inc, Crystal Lake, IL, also offers cutting fluid management services and recycling programs. Chemtool's Fluidynamics program is site specific, or custom designed for each plant. The program provides an on-site Chemtool staff to manage the program including ordering inventory and monitoring usage by department or equipment and performing an on-going cost analysis. Chemtool says its Fluidynamics program is designed to reduce usage of fluids and chemicals, increase recycling, improve machine or process efficiency, and reduce plant personnel involvement. Design and construction of a metalworking fluid recycling system is available through Chemtool. As a Tier 1 supplier, most of Chemtool's fluid management efforts are being realized within the automotive industry, but Kurt Heinz, vice president of marketing and sales, says the company "anticipates that such programs will continue to spread throughout the manufacturing industry including the paper and aerospace industries." He added that Chemtool is broadening the reach of its fluid management programs to accommodate the needs of smaller scale factory operations. While he agrees that there is growth in on-site recycling services, Steve Friedman, president of Waterlink's Sanborn Technologies, Medway, MA, says that for many smaller companies the service is too expensive. Mr Friedman says that he sees on-site recycling services, "for places where labor rates are very high and they (companies) don't want to have to pay the wages for people to perform this type of maintenance oriented business."
The Patriot system utilizes high-speed centrifugation, pasteurization, and hydrocyclonics to remove solids, tramp oils, and biological contaminants in a single pass. Incorporating Sanborn's Integrated Fluid Recovery (IFR), the Patriot uses microprocessor controls and a heat-assisted automatic solids-ejecting (SJ) high-speed disc centrifuge. Along with the SJ centrifuge, the Patriot IFR has a tank system that permits mixing of tramp oils and solids which allows the IFR system to remove waste contaminants from the coolant and to discharge waste tramp oil containing less than 5% coolant.
Other available systems The Guardian from Hyde Products Inc, Cleveland, OH, is designed for plants with individual coolant or wastewater reservoirs. The Guardian uses a topped-off batch type process to recondition metalworking coolants commonly used in individual machine tools. Incorporating Hyde's tramp-oil separator, the Guardian provides a central fluid collection point for tramp oil and suspended solids removal, bacteria control, and fluid concentration adjustment. A divided tank is used to process the used coolant. The inlet (dirty coolant) compartment allows settling and removal of suspended solids and the second (clean coolant) compartment holds the clarified coolant. A bag filter assembly is used to remove suspended solids and the integral tramp oil separator, using Hyde's gravity coalescence principle, removes free floating, dispersed, and loosely emulsified tramp oils from the coolant to 0.1% by volume.
Figure 1 shows how a sumpcleaner works on the vacuum/pressure relay principle. The pump/power module at point A generates a deep vacuum in the tank. The tank is opened to atmosphere through the suction hose at point D drawing the liquids and solids from the sump directly into the tank and never physically contacting the pump. Once in the tank, the bag style filter at point C separates out up to 95% of the solids from the liquid. The filtered liquid fills up the tank until an automatic float control at point B shuts off the pump. Figure 1 also shows how a sumpcleaner can generate a pressure in the tank using the same pump/power configuration. Although the pressures are less than 10 psi, it is sufficient for quick and easy emptying of the tank through the discharge port at point E. Please note: some pictures or diagrams are only available through the printed media. | |||||||||
