ALC - Abanaki

Anyone that works with coolant knows about the potential foul stench that looms around the corner. When a machine is shut down for the weekend, oil has a chance to come to the surface of the coolant tank. Bacteria that are living in the coolant tank use up the dissolved oxygen in the coolant mix, a process that is sped up by having a layer of oil on the surface. This allows odor causing anaerobic bacteria to thrive, giving off that familiar “rotten egg” smell.

Machine tool coolant fluid contaminated with tramp oil can cause problems. For instance, contamination reduces fluid life and deteriorates the quality of machined parts. As the problem worsens, the tramp oil accelerates bacterial growth, and the cutting fluid eventually produces a rotten-egg odor. Besides the odor, bacteria-contaminated coolant can more serious issues such as dermatitis.

The use of an oil skimmer in the machine shop setting holds many benefits. Removing the oil from a machine coolant tank will initiate some esthetic benefits such as cutting down on the amount of smoke generated from the cutting tool coming into contact with oil laden coolant.

There are several types of industrial oil skimmers. Choosing a unit best suited for an application will maximize oil removal while lowering maintenance and operating cost. You may define the application in terms of the following characteristics:

Disk oil skimmer provides an inexpensive way to remove unwanted tramp oils from CNC coolants and parts washers.

An oil skimmer is a simple, dependable, and effective machine for removing oil, grease, and other hydrocarbons from water. The floating oil adheres to skimming media, such as a belt, tube, rope, mop, or disk. The media then travels back into the machine and is wiped clean. Weir style skimmers use a pump to collect floating oils.

Have you ever had your clean parts rejected from your customer? Parts that have been cleaned in your parts washers, yet they still have residual oils on them? This happened to one of my customers recently, and it’s not uncommon. Fortunately, there is a simple solution that will save you time, money, and embarrassment of having parts rejected.