Eaton’s Filtration business launches new website!

Eaton’s Filtration business launches its new website today and reinforces its brand as an industry leader in filtration solutions. The new site, as the largest communications andmarketing engine, showcases Eaton’s broad product offering, strong filtration expertise, and high quality services.

 

The site also features a dynamic design that is easy-to-navigate and creates a positive user experience. Begerow depth filtration and Internormen hydraulic and lubrication oil filtration products are prominently featured on the site.

 

To further enhance the website, the EMEA version will launch later this year.

 

 

 

 

How Manufacturing Companies Can Generate Less Waste

The filtration of process water can play a critical role in optimizing production lines due to its ability to protect downstream equipment and piping; as well as its role in the quality and value of finished goods. The right filtration equipment can affect a company’s environmental impact through the reduction of emissions and waste generation. It can also safeguard employees by minimizing their exposure to hazardous materials. These factors, in turn, affect the company’s productivity and bottom line.

Despite its significance, many manufacturing facilities have not realized the benefits of optimized filtration for process water. This is because installing a filtration system — where none has previously existed — can be difficult to justify with tight capital budgets. In addition, decision makers face the same challenge when a filtration system is in place and operating. However, a careful look at key cost factors can quickly justify an investment that will generate a significant return — whether it is a new investment or an upgrade — with an up-to-date filtration system.

Important: When exploring water treatment filtration options there is a growing area of concern pertaining to water conservancy and water supply — especially freshwater. When this is combined with an increased emphasis on reducing the environmental impact from waste creation and disposal, it is important that all industries take a second look at their manufacturing processes, and determine if it is time to evaluate newer filtration technology. The cost reduction resulting from a new system may surprise you.

There are two ways to achieve this. One method is to use equipment that requires less fresh water. The second method is water reuse when the amount of water used is mandated by the process requirement. This trend is fueled by several economic benefits that can be broken down into separate and specific areas of cost savings:

• Reduced cost for purchase and treatment of fresh water.
• Reduced cost for heating process streams or money saved through energy recovery.
• Reducing waste treatment costs.

Any decision regarding filtration of water should be weighed against the relative importance of each of these factors.

In addition to minimizing overall maintenance costs, other factors include labor costs, the potential costs of lost production, conversion, and recovery of valuable products during scheduled and unscheduled downtime. While much of this can seem intimidating, there are a few easy methods to determine whether your current filtration system needs an update to a more state of the art filtration system.

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Eaton Creates Waves of Innovation at ACHEMA 2012

Frankfurt … No, this isn’t a typing error in the heading! Let us explain. Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation today announced it will be presenting its filtration products at this year’s ACHEMA at not one but two booths –both visually linked by a bright, rippling wave.

At the world’s largest trade show for chemical engineering, environmental protection, and biotechnology the company will be exhibiting a veritable firework display of technical systems for liquid filtration. Eaton’s filtration’s product portfolio has never been so comprehensive. By integrating the German companies Internormen and Begerow into the Eaton family, clients now have access to extremely diverse competence in filtration.

The focus will be on filtration applications for pharmaceutical technology, industrial process and utility, and the chemicals and fine chemicals industries in particular. Each application will have its own product display, where visitors are invited to come and talk shop with Eaton’s filtration specialists. The company will not only enhance the tactile experience of product presentation, but will also make use of modern media to answer questions on the technologies and products presented in full detail.

For the industrial sector Eaton has a number of innovative solutions that redefine operating times and set new standards in the classification and maintenance of hydraulic and lubricating oil liquids. These include unique complete solutions, measuring technology for analysis and diagnostics, and filter systems that guarantee that equipment operates with the maximum efficiency thanks to lower maintenance times and longer service intervals.

Depth filtration will be another topic at the trade show. The innovative BECOPAD product, the only mineral-free depth filter medium worldwide, and BECODISC stacked disc cartridges serve filtration applications primarily in the fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries. Depth filter cartridges, membrane filter cartridges, and presentations of filter systems and housings of the highest quality round off our filtration portfolio.

Lastly, Eaton’s new pleated filter bag will be on display. This series of products is distinguished by its high dirt holding capacity and long service life compared to similar standard filter bags and cartridges. Eaton will also present a broad spectrum of application solutions and products for use in process filtration.

Experience the power of one with Eaton’s filtration business.

Eaton’s international filtration team is looking forward to plenty of interesting discussions.

ACHEMA 2012 from June 18 to 22 2012
Exhibition center (Messe Frankfurt) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Hall 5.0 | Booths D59 and D62

How does Backwash Efficiency Affect Your Catalyst Bed Protection Filtration System?

Filtration systems are generally regenerated through a backwash cleaning cycle. The primary factors effecting backwash efficiency are • Available pressure differential • Backwash flow • Filter media characteristics  

Available Pressure Differential:  During backwashing, the backwash differential pressure (between the backwash source and drain) should ideally be three to five times greater than the differential pressure across the dirty media.  In a feedstock filter, the maximum dirty differential pressure should not exceed 15 PSID, meaning the backwash liquid should be delivered at 45 – 75 PSID to maximize the cleaning efficiency.

Backwash Flow:
A sufficient flow rate of backwash liquid will also be required to regenerate the filtering media. The required flow rate will be primarily dependent upon the type of media selected. Sufficient backwash flow along with sufficient backwash pressure will lead to hydro-shock cleaning effect and completely regenerate the media to its clean differential pressure.

Filter Media Characteristics:
The final component of filter regeneration is the media characteristics. By their very design, slotted wedge wire and woven wire mesh allow particles to be captured on the surface of the media, providing optimum particle release and media regeneration.  Sintered metal is multi-layered and can offer higher per-cake efficiencies, but can be difficult to regenerate.  This leads to shorter run times and increased downtime.

In summary, feedstock filtration is an important aspect in efficiently refinery operation.  Protecting catalyst beds from particulate contamination prevents bed plugging and increases catalyst life. Several factors affect filtration system efficiency and should be carefully considered when selecting a feedstock filtration system.

For more articles, tips and information on industrial filtration products and solutions visit our blog at eatonfiltration.wordpress.com or simply follow @AskFilterman on Twitter

Eaton Filters are Can Do Solutions – Customer Success Story

Metal Food Packaging : Eaton Filters are Can Do Solutions

“Eaton has been right there with us and I have been very impressed with that.”  Quality Control Manager

Problem: Manufacturing facility was relying on an antiquated paper filtering process, which was expensive, hard-tomaintain, and time consuming.Eaton’s MCF 824-Series Mechanically Cleaned Filter.
Results: An easy to use filter that practically eliminated paper costs of approximately $60,000 per year, realized maintenance and labor savings, increased operator safety, and reduced landfill waste.

Background
The largest supplier of metal food containers in North America prides itself on quality,customer support, implementing leading edge technologies,sustainable business practices,and lowering costs whenever possible. Partnering with suppliers that can best help meet those goals is another primary objective. With annual sales in excess of a billion dollars, the company’s containers are used primarily by processors and packagers for foods such as soup, vegetables,fruit, meat, tomato-based products, coffee, seafood, adult nutritional drinks, pet food, and other miscellaneous food products. A wealth of well-known manufacturer brands, large and small, rely on the company’s cans for the consistent delivery of  high-quality, high-grade consumable goods.

Challenge
The cutting and shaping of metals is an important part ofthe manufacturing process. According to the quality control manager at one of the company’s 28 manufacturing facilities whose process requires the use of lubricants to keep the metal cool so that it can beshaped properly and precisely. The lubricant, or coolant, also picks up metal shavings, oils,and dirt that occur naturally. A filtering process is required to clean the coolant and return it to the manufacturing line.  For years, the facility was relying on an antiquated paper filtering process, which was expensive,hard-to-maintain, and time-consuming.Paper costs alone were running about $5000 per month, says the quality control manager. “On top of that, the changing of the paper filters would take the operator about a half-hour to 45 minutes of his time to cut offthe paper with a razor knife,carry it down stairs and put it on a pallet, dispose of it, and mopup the mess,” he adds.

Solution
However, that’s all changed now thanks to the installation of new Eaton MCF 824-Series mechanically cleaned filtration systems.The system features a cylindrical stainless steel housing that contains a cleanable, permanent filter screen. Unfiltered liquids flow from the top down and from the inside of the media toward the outside. Impurities are deposited on the interior surface of the filter screen, and the clean fluid exits through an outlet. When the media requires cleaning, a spring loaded cleaning disc travels top to bottom inside the filter media,directing collected contaminants downward, where they are concentrated in the purging chamber for easy expulsion. The whole cleaning process occurs while the filter remains in service, eliminating or reducing the use of disposable filter bags,decreasing operator handling,lowering inventory costs, and decreasing waste disposal. The innovative, magnetically coupled driving technology that moves the cleaning disc – without the need for shaft or drive external seals – adds additional appeal tothe unique design.

Result
The quality control manager reports significant financial gains by practically eliminating paper costs. The old systems are still used, but only as a backup when the Eaton MCF 824 units are undergoing scheduled maintenance.“We have been very satisfied,”adds the manager. ”We’ve been running the systems for four years and Eaton has been very helpful with us in making the original change over and later updating the equipment with new parts over the years.“They even came up with abetter way of cleaning the MCF824-Series filters. So we were able to extend the life of the filters even further. We originally had to change the filters every four or five days. Now we can stretch it out to once every eight days. “Eaton has been right there with us and I have been very impressed with that.” Not to be overlooked, he notes,are the additional gains being realized in maintenance savings,labor savings, and disposal savings – which deems that the responsible management of the environment plays a significant role in achieving success.“Now everything is pretty much automatic,” notes the manager. “It’s a much better system in a variety of ways.”He is confident other company manufacturing facilities around the country could also benefit with the Eaton setup, which has effectively turned the filtering process from a can of worms into a can of corn.

 

Read more customer success stories from Eaton’s Filtration Business.

How to Protect your Fixed-bed Reactors from Contamination

How liquid filtration systems protect fixed-bed reactors from contamination, leading to extended catalyst life and longer run lengths.

In the petroleum refining industry, catalysts represent a significant cost, so refineries are chiefly concerned with extending a catalyst’s life as long as possible. The simplest way to do this is to protect the fixed-bed reactor from becoming contaminated with dirt, carbon deposits, and other organic materials. These items can cause the bed to plug, resulting in decreased reaction efficiency, and potentially require the unit to be brought down early. Catalysts must then be regenerated or replaced.

In general, catalyst bed protection requires the filtration of all particles larger than 25 microns from the feedstock stream. Particles that are smaller than 25 microns will pass through the reactor bed without plugging the catalyst.

Three major factors must be taken into consideration when selecting a proper filtration system:

• Flux rate
• Filtration media
• Clean ability

Flux Rate:
The size of the filtration system is dependent on the flux rate, which is defined s the flow rate per unit of filtration area.
For example, 100 gpm of VGO flowing through a filtration system with 50 ft2 of filtering area represents a flux rate of 2 gpm/ft2. It can be seen from this flux rate formula that an increase in filtration area will lead to a lower flux rate, which will in turn result in a lower velocity of the fluid as it passes through the media.

Lower flow velocity across the filtering media allows the formation of a porous cake on the surface of the media. This leads to longer run times between backwash cycles and increases efficiency in particle removal.

This cake formation also has the added benefit of preventing particles from becoming embedded in the media, allowing for easy removal of particulate during the backwash cleaning cycle.

Filtration Media and Clean ability:
When selecting a feedstock filtration system, another important consideration is media type and its clean ability.

Possible media choices include slotted wedge wire, woven wire mesh, and multi-layered sintered metal. Each one carries its own advantages and disadvantages, but perhaps the most critical consideration when choosing a feedstock filtration system is the ability to completely regenerate the filtration media to its original clean state.

If the media is not sufficiently cleaned, the result is shorter run times and will eventually require the filter to be bypassed for manual cleaning or media replacement.

In summary, feedstock filtration is an important aspect in efficiently refinery operation. Protecting catalyst beds from particulate contamination prevents bed plugging and increases catalyst life.  Several factors affect filtration system efficiency and should be carefully considered when selecting a feedstock filtration system.

 

Why Cleanable Media for Industrial Filter Processes is More Environmentally Friendly

Due to the new environmental regulations — and the costs associated with waste disposal — the manner in which industries filter to either recycle or eliminate filtration waste is constantly changing.

Selecting filtration equipment is the combined result of many considerations.

In addition to removing undesirable material from a liquid stream, the filtration method selected must also satisfy other requirement.

Installed costs must be weighed against operating costs. Waste disposal costs must be considered. Is continuous flow a requirement of the application, or can the filtration equipment be operated intermittently? Is worker exposure to the process liquid during filter cleaning or replacement a problem?

These and other factors must be weighed when choosing the right filtration method for a particular application.

Today, more than ever, self-cleaning filters (cleanable media) is the better methodology — and many times the right thing to do — for many reasons.

With cleanable systems, you enhance employee safety by minimizing worker and workplace exposure to process liquids.

You minimize or eliminate the unlimited cost and inconvenience of media replacement.

You minimize or eliminate the never-ending and ever-rising cost and hassle of media disposal.

You drastically reduce the labor costs to source, purchase, inventory, transport, change, and dispose of replacement media.

You increase the quality and consistence of filter performance and productivity.

To help reduce the confusion when you are evaluating different filtration methods/systems, I have compiled a list of questions you may want to consider:

Factors to Consider: When selecting a filter for a particular application, the following criteria should be considered.

1. How large is the process volume? What is the flow rate?

2. Is it a continuous or batch process?

3. What are the material characteristics of the solids being removed? How large are the particles? Is the material hazardous? Can the material being removed be recycled back into the process stream at another point?

4. What are the waste disposal costs? How often do bags or cartridges need to be replaced? Can the waste volume be reduced or eliminated by switching to a different filtration method?

5. What are the labor and downtime costs for filter or cartridge replacement? Can downtime be reduced or eliminated by switching to a different filtration method?

— Eaton Filtration

For questions about industrial filtration, please visit the Ask Filter Man page on Twitter at www.twitter.com/askfilterman

The higher the velocity, the higher the potential for shock loading.

Velocity plays an important role when recommending a Strainer for a piping system. The higher the velocity, the higher the potential for shock loading (water hammer). Typically for metal piping systems the most desirable range is between 6 to 1 0 feet per second. For plastic piping systems the maximum recommended flow rate is 8 feet per second.

Most end users won’t know the flow velocity in their systems, but they will know the flow in gallons per minute. To convert gallons per minute to velocity Ft./Sec. take the GPM  0.4085 divided by the inside diameter of pipe squared.

(GPM x 0.4085) ÷ (ID² in Inches) 

Note: The above calculation is for water only.  

RUST AND MAGNETISM IN STAINLESS STEEL STRAINERS by Eaton Filtration

RUST AND MAGNETISM IN STAINLESS STEEL STRAINERS
By: Eaton Filtration

Every so often we get a call from someone who has just purchased one of our stainless steel strainers and they want to know, “Is it really stainless?” Why? Because the strainer shows rust spots or is somewhat magnetic.

This is a problem which has plagued producers of stainless steel castings for years. Can something which is supposed to be type 316 stainless really be 316 and yet show rust and/or magnetism? The answer is “yes.”

Let us take rust first. It can (and frequently does} occur on stainless alloys of controlled composition and heat treatment as the result of surface contamination. Among the many sources of contamination, the following are the leading offenders:

1. An iron film left on the surface as a result of a machining or other manufacturing operation will tend to rust in the presence of moisture.
2. Microscopic scale particles left on the surface after pickling may become visible as rust under suitable conditions.
3. Pickling solution oozing from minute pores in the metal may stain the surface and oxidize to a brown rust color due to the iron which it contains.
4. The accumulation of the natural corrosion products of the alloy in corrosive service on a rough surface may cause a brown stain due to oxidation.
5. Discoloration may be caused by the accumulation of any extraneous processing material which is of such a nature as to cause a “rusty” appearance on a rough surface.

A smooth or polished surface will always stay cleaner and brighter under mildly corrosive conditions than a rough surface. Although it is true that stainless steel is at its best when highly polished, (it should be remembered that, under strongly corrosive conditions, this polish is soon removed. It is the inherent resistances of the alloy that counts and “rust” conditions such as those described are relatively harmless. They are the results of surface contamination and in no way reflect the composition of the alloy.

Now for magnetism. Users of stainless steel are accustomed to finding the wrought types of 304 and 316 practically non-magnetic. It Rust & Magnetism in S.S. Strainers comes as a surprise to many that castings of somewhat similar composition are often found to have considerable magnetism. The result is that such compositions are suspected of being improperly made, or outside specified limits, and lacking in proper corrosion resistance. However, such is not the case.

Stainless alloys, wrought or cast, are composed of elements like carbon, nickel and manganese, which tend to promote a non-magnetic austenitic structure, and elements such as chromium, silicon, and Molybdenum, which promote. a magnetic ferrite. The amount of non-magnetic austenite and magnetic ferrite varies with composition and can co-exist.

A stainless steel composition that is to be produced in the wrought form must be one that has satisfactory rolling or forging properties, while a somewhat similar cast composition is designed
to give the foundryrnan good “castability.” Hence, the wrought composition will be made with higher nickel and manganese than the comparable cast type.
This is particularly true of type 316, where to overcome the ferritizing effect of molybdenum, considerably more nickel is used, resulting in a composition that can withstand the rigorous rolling or forging operations. Such a composition is virtually non-magnetic.

The corresponding cast form is lower in nickel, because the hotworking difficulties caused by molybdenum need not be counterbalanced. On the other hand, the foundryrnan, to gain “castability”, will increase silicon. This change in composition tends to promote the formation of ferrite with an increase of magnetism in the product.

For process industry use, our interest is not in how much magnetism an alloy has, but how corrosion-resistant it is. Corrosion rates are related to the amount of each element present in composition. Chromium imparts oxidation resistance with increasing amounts of the alloy present. Nickel and manganese, within normal ranges, have little effect on corrosion rates but carbon and silicon tend to decrease corrosion resistance. Studies made of comparable types of wrought and cast alloys show that corrosion resistance is approximately the same, even though the wrought type is non-magnetic and the cast type magnetic.

There are other phenomena which affect magnetic characteristics. Heavy sections tend to be more magnetic than thin ones. The cause is “mass effect”, which means that different sections have cooled in the mold at different rates, promoting the segregation of ferrite. Since these ferrite areas are not changed by subsequent heat treatment, they remain in the finished casting.

It must not be assumed that this ferrite segregation is harmful to corrosion resistance. In some cases, it can be helpful because ferritic material- is less •susceptible to intergranular attack. It will trap chromium carbides that ordinarily would be precipitated• along- the- grain boundaries of a completely austenitic (and non-magnetic) composition.

 

For more information please visit Eaton Filtration
Article Copyright Eaton -2011

Water Hammer and Pressure Loss Calculators

Did you know that Eaton’s Filtration Business offers free online calculators to help determine pressure loss and water hammer?

Water Hammer Calculator
Calculate the total pressure change due to a sudden shutting of a valve, or water hitting the end of a pipe with our Water Hammer Calculator

Pressure Loss Calculator – Other
Enter your Flow Rate, Cv value of the strainer, basket mesh size, gravity of your liquid and the viscosity of your fluid is SSU into our Non-Water Based Pressure Loss Calculator which will compute the pressure loss for liquids with a viscosity other than water.

Pressure Loss Calculator – Water
Enter your Flow Rate, Cv value of the strainer and the basket mesh size into our Water Based Pressure Loss Calculator  which will compute the pressure loss for water and liquid with water-lilke viscosity