Industry sector: Mechanical engineering
Company activity: Tier 1 automotive equipment supplier
Company type: Large global industrial group (150 000 employees worldwide)
Founded: 1950
Contact: Production Manager
Company context
The industrial washing machines installed at this production site clean the manufactured mechanical parts by immersion, using thermal agitation and centrifugation.
The washing fluid circulates in a closed-loop system, and must therefore be continuously purified using a suitable filtration system.
Filtration challenge
The company wanted to manufacture new parts with higher cleanliness requirements while keeping the existing washing equipment.
To improve the quality of the washing fluid, the existing filtration system needed to be upgraded by:
- Lowering the filtration threshold,
- Increasing filtration efficiency,
- Without increasing pressure drop within the circuit.
This improvement was essential to meet the new cleanliness standards without compromising system performance or requiring additional hydraulic power.
Pemflow filtration solution
To achieve this objective using the existing washing machines, we proposed replacing the current filters (10 µm, beta ratio 1000) with 5 µm filters featuring a beta ratio of 5000, making them five times more efficient.
We supplied the client with filter cartridges of the same length and with identical connection fittings as the ones previously installed.
No modification to the installation — and in particular to the filter housing originally fitted by the washing machine manufacturer — was required.
We recommended the use of pleated depth filters, made from fibres whose cross-section continuously decreases in the direction of fluid flow, while maintaining a constant porosity throughout the depth.
This specific geometry significantly increases the exchange surface area for a given filter size. At equivalent flow rate and filtration efficiency, the pressure drop is considerably lower than with conventional filters.
Pemflow’s recommendations enabled the client to achieve the required filtration quality for the production of their new mechanical parts while retaining all other components of the filtration system (filter housing, recirculation pump, tanks, etc.).
The benefits were economic, qualitative (improved overall cleanliness of the washing bath) and environmental (reduced pressure drop prevents unnecessary energy consumption by the pump).
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