Reduced water consumption in the removal of paint from skids Compact filter MAXFLOW in the automotive production

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1 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

2 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

3 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 sludge. GKD MAXFLOW filter pack consisting of several 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

4 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 simple handling of waste. GKD Dry briquets being transported on a trolley to the collecting box. GKD 4

5 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 5

6 in 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 Düren Charlottenburger Allee phone: +49 (0) 2421 / D Aachen fax: +49 (0) 2421 / phone: +49 (0) 241/ compactfiltration@gkd.de fax: +49 (0) 241/ herrling-tusch@impetus-pr.de We will be happy to send you the desired images in printable resolution by . 6