/Oil centrifuge units – manual or fully-automated self-cleaning?
oil centrifuge

Oil centrifuge units – manual or fully-automated self-cleaning?

What type of car do you drive? How long have you had it, and what influenced your decision to buy it? You may have been prompted by style choice, colour, image, features, budget, or roadworthiness. Maybe you simply inherited someone else’s car. In reality, all cars serve the same function – getting you from A to B. But if you have a large family or you regularly transport cargo (sports team equipment, shopping for a large household, construction materials), you need a bigger car. If you mostly drive in urban areas, emissions trump speed.

On the other hand, if you’re more of an off-road driver, then power and traction are more important factors. You may consider fuel efficiency, or even fuel type. After all, the world’s greenest driver can’t do much in an area with no electric cables or car charging ports. So the car you buy isn’t just driven by budget and trending brands. Functionality and road conditions play a role too. This same principle applies to oil centrifuges.

These industrial pieces of equipment serve multiple functions, but the main one is to clean oil-based products. They use centrifugal force to separate and extract submicron contaminants from oil. Water-based centrifuges can be used to remove fats from oil, because the fat globules will be tossed to the side, being lighter and less dense than the wastewater they’re floating in. Oil-centrifuges are more for products that are liquid at room temperature.

Rust-proof equipment

The main contaminant in oil is water. It could be condensed droplets or vapour, and while it can’t harm the filtration equipment, it can damage your fuel tanks and other equipment where your oil and fuel will end up. Water and vapour can rust the metallic portions of your machinery. Or it can expand in heated working conditions, causing explosive reactions with the oil or fuel in your equipment. This is why multiple rounds of filtration are required.

Green fuel needs even more intense filtration, because it has no artificial additives. This makes your biofuel more susceptible to germ attacks, and these germs are encouraged by the presence of water. Biofuel is therefore filtered to remove all traces of water, as well as fungi, mould, and other organic contaminants. If the equipment is self-cleaning, it will guide contaminants to the top where they’ll be sucked out of a pipe.

The clean oil drains out the bottom of the filtration vat. On the other hand, for manual cleaning, you have to physically empty the vat, wiping off the contaminants that may have adhered to the sides of the vat. This is fine if you’re working with small volumes. But sometimes, your manufacturing situation has no room for the stop-start approach. In such cases, self-cleaning mechanisms are far more helpful.

Enhanced efficiency

Some oil-centrifuges exist as a permanent part of an engine system. They don’t clean all the oil. The simply hive off 5% to 15% of the oil, clean it, then re-introduce it to the main fuel supply. Cleaning that minuscule proportion is enough to maximise engine function without halting your equipment. This allows you to maintain the integrity of your production line. It’s a common feature in vehicle lubricants, because you can’t stop driving every time you want to take the toxins out of your fuel tank or vehicular mechanism.

Other types of equipment need lubricants or coolants. In industrial settings, making the machine too hot can lead to expensive repairs. Plus, the machine doesn’t work when it’s overheated, and any products it creates could be flawed. That said, stopping the machine and giving it time to cool down isn’t an option. Any halt in production affects the number of finished items you can release, and that influences every other step of the chain, from production deadlines to output, launch, and available stock.

Self-cleaning oil centrifuges come into play here, because they can clean your oil while your equipment continues to run. This extends the lifespan of the equipment itself, because you can go for longer periods before it needs service. Even then, maintenance activities will be minimal, and therefore kinder on your pocket. Self-cleaning centrifuges can also help you stay within warranty, because it lowers the service calls you need to make. It can cut down internal labour costs, because automating your cleaning cycle means one less staffer to supervise or implement the cleaning process. Just set a timer using your touch panel.