The Request
Got a phone call from Ken B. He says that they have a waste treatment with a process that works but they’d welcome a system audit to see if further improvements can be made.
Sounds interesting. I set the audit for next week.
The Audit
Met with Ken and toured the facility. The company does powder coating with at least two automated lines for large &and small parts.
They’ve got two hand powder coating booths and one spray booth for clear coats & Teflon coating.
There is a five stage auto washer and hand cleaning tank line using alkaline cleaners, rinses, de-ox and zirconium sealers. (The five stage washer uses same chemistry with the exception of different sealer).
Stripping is done by using a hot fluidized sand bed in an oven that’s maintained at 850ºF. Parts can be stripped in 15-20 minutes and multilayer racks in one hour.
Waste treatment is done with two chemicals: A flocculent cationic solution and poly aluminum chloride. They also use an oil in water emulsion breaker.
System flow for batch treatment: 1,600-2,200 gpd
Ken said he has had a couple of other companies in and that they tried to improve the process but could not provide good constant results.
He says the present chemistry works but he’d like improvement if possible. Time to run some tests.
Jar Testing & Goal Setting
Six Jar tests were completed using ACP, T-1000, Aquapure 107, and I-300, P-601, Aquapure-100 and B-cat.
Ken commented how impressed he was with the amount of equipment and chemistry I had. He said the other companies did not do anything like this.
The goal is to get a quick settling flocculant so he could complete 2-3 batch treatments per day. He’s not a fan of ferrous products because of the mess, but said he may reconsider if it proves better results.
Based on the jar tests, Ken approved a trial using a drum of Aquapure-100, P-601 and 5gal B-cat.
Monkey Wrench #2
Met with Ken before the trial to perform an Aquapure test at a lower dosage to see if settling is acceptable to him so we can move forward.
What happens next? Download the Process Journal to find out!
