Reduced water consumption in the removal of paint from skids
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Reduced water consumption in the removal of paint
from skids
Compact filter MAXFLOW in the automotive production
Optimum surface coating of passenger cars: Before being provided with
their customer-chosen interior furnishings, paint coats or engines on this
site, all vehicles being built by a major German car manufacturer are
identical. All body components receive three paint coats including a prime
coat, a finish coat, and a body-cavity sealing treatment before they are
assembled. Various measures such as the regular removal of paint from
the skids which carry the body components are taken to meet the high
demands in terms of service life, surface quality and components quality
during the production process.
High-pressure removal of paint causes problems
A large number of skids take up the body components from a rail system
integrated into the shop floor and transfer them smoothly along the
individual production stations. The skid systems become soiled with paint
as they pass along the process steps, which prevents them, for instance,
from properly holding or taking up the body components because of sticky
retention points. The skids therefore need to be cleaned carefully at
defined intervals and have paint residues removed. The car manufacturer
relies on paint removal facilities using high-pressure water robots. Every
ten minutes, an empty skid is led automatically to a booth where a robot
cleans the beams with an 800 to 1,000 bar water spray, preparing them for
the next use. The robot`s rotor nozzles are equipped with an electric motor
and fed with well water. The water being gradually contaminated with paint
particles as a result of the high-pressure cleaning process is transferred to
1
a waste water tank. Until recently, the water was cleaned there using a bag
filter and a paper belt filter. This was an expensive process. The filter
discharge consisted of wet sludge containing paint particles, which had to
be filled into trolleys. Disposal was costly and complicated because of the
high paint load. As a result, five to eight cubic meters of water per day were
lost during the filtration process; this had to be replaced by a regular supply
of fresh water. Moreover, the filtered wash water was not sufficiently
cleaned, frequently causing the robot nozzles to block. The high-pressure
nozzles therefore experienced much wear and had to be cleaned every few
days.
MAXFLOW optimizes the filtration result
Open compact filter unit MAXFLOW.
© GKD
Two years ago, a subsupplier to the car manufacturer became aware of the
problem of high water consumption, expensive disposal, and short robot
service life resulting from the paint removal process in the German works
and recommended the MAXFLOW compact filter system by GKD – Gebr.
Kufferath AG. MAXFLOW combines the filtration and discharge of solid
2
matter in the form of dry briquets in a single unit and allows particle
separation down to the micro-filtration range. The filter head consists of a
stainless-steel casing in which static filter discs made of a multi-layered
stainless-steel mesh are arranged vertically, with the filtrate streaming
around the filter discs according to the cross-flow principle.
Inside view of MAXFLOW with deposited filter MAXFLOW filter pack consisting of several
sludge. © GKD filter discs. © GKD
After four weeks of testing, the automotive group was convinced of the
benefits provided by MAXFLOW and installed a MAXFLOW D-503-PAE-2
filter head. It is connected directly to the waste water flume of the skid paint
removal unit replacing the expensive system combining a bag filter and a
paper belt filter. Without using filter aids, the compact unit operates with a
continuously excellent filtration performance. MAXFLOW filters 15 cubic
meters of polluted spray water per hour, which is then supplied directly to
the robot again. Thanks to the use of MAXFLOW, the fresh-water
consumption was reduced by one third, resulting in a positive
environmental balance of the unit. Energy costs were also reduced
significantly. MAXFLOW, thanks to its compact design, has a footprint of
two square meters, which is considerably less than the footprint of six
square meters of the predecessor filter unit.
3
MAXFLOW used at a car
manufacturer to filter spray water in
the skid paint removal unit. © GKD
The robot nozzles have stopped clogging up, suffer less wear and require
less cleaning, because of the efficient filtration. The result is reduced
processing time in the paint removal unit. This is very important because
there is only minimal intermediate storage capacity available for soiled
skids. A major advantage is the fact that waste handling is significantly
simplified. Automatic backwashing detaches the sludge interspersed with
paint from the filter discs as a filter cake which is ejected as a dry briquet.
On a daily basis, 60 to 80 dry briquets are produced rather than a large
quantity of wet sludge mixed with paint particles. These briquets can be
disposed of easily and in an environmentally friendly manner.
Combination of filtration, briquetting, and Dry briquets being transported on a trolley to
simple handling of waste. © GKD the collecting box. © GKD
4
Order with potential for development
Zbigniew Josef Combrowski, Head of Construction and Development in the
business unit GKD-CompactFiltration, considers the successful application
in the car industry a pioneering step: “For more than two years, MAXFLOW
has set new standards in the filtration of wash water that is polluted during
the removal of paint from skids. The customer’s satisfaction with the results
is reflected in the company’s current plan to also use MAXFLOW in other
applications in its works such as the treatment of paint or other wash water
filtering applications.”
Advantages of paint removal from skids using MAXFLOW at a glance:
- Longer use of spray water, less fresh-water consumption
- Reduced time for paint removal from skids
- Reduced wear and tear of high-pressure cleaning nozzles
- Reduced footprint of filter unit
- Dry briquets allowing a simplified disposal
- No additional filter aids required
- Reduced energy consumption
Versatility – not only in the cleaning of components
Apart from the filtration of spray water used by high-pressure cleaning
systems to remove paint from skids, MAXFLOW provides efficient filtration
solutions for other types of wash water or for chemical baths to clean
components in the automotive and the metal working and processing
industries. The innovative filter concept has also proven its efficiency in the
filtration of process fluids and process effluents in demanding applications
5in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries and in the
environmental sector.
6,233 characters incl. spaces
GKD – Gebr. Kufferath AG
With two divisions - WORLD WIDE WEAVE for technical meshes and CAPITAL
EQUIPMENT for capital equipment and engineering - the owner-managed technical
weaver GKD – Gebr. Kufferath AG is the world market leader for metal and plastic
woven solutions. The division WORLD WIDE WEAVE comprises the business units
SolidWEAVE for filtration and separation media, WEAVEinMotion for process belt
technology and CreativeWEAVE for metallic fabrics for the architecture and design
sector. The division CAPITAL EQUIPMENT, with its unit GKD-CompactFiltration,
sets international standards in capital engineering for clearly defined markets in the
solid/liquid filtration sector. With six production facilities – the headquarters in
Germany, the others in the USA, Great Britain, Spain, South Africa and China - as
well as branches in Dubai and Qatar and agents around the world, GKD is always
close to the market and its customers.
For further information, please contact: Copyright free. Please send a reprint to:
GKD – Gebr. Kufferath AG impetus.PR
Metallweberstraße 46 Ursula Herrling-Tusch
D-52353 Düren Charlottenburger Allee 27-29
phone: +49 (0) 2421 / 803-0 D-52068 Aachen
fax: +49 (0) 2421 / 803-141 phone: +49 (0) 241/189 25-10
e-mail: compactfiltration@gkd.de fax: +49 (0) 241/189 25-29
www.gkd.de e-mail: herrling-tusch@impetus-pr.de
We will be happy to send you the desired images in
printable resolution by e-mail.
6You can also read
