I need any information I can get on how to remove oil mist from ambient breathable air.
I am an Certified Indoor Environmentalist and needless to say perform a lot of indoor air quality investigations. I have a plant production machining department that has an excessive amount of oil in the air. Does anyone have any information on best practices for how to remove this oil from the breathable air?
Thanks for any help!
Spence

If your machines are not enclosed in cabinets of sorts you are probably going to have a difficult time capturing a significant amount of the oil mist. Large vent hoods with local positionable ducting and an air/oil seperator of some sort would have to be designed. You would need to move a lot of air to remove an oil vapor from a shop floor with open machinery. Check with other machining operations to find out what the industry standard is. I'm sure there are some companies out there which specialize in this sort of problem. Good luck

Your best solution is to keep it from getting into the air in the first place. Control of the amount of oil, using biodegradeable cutting fluids, and local collection points are where you should be looking.

Spence,

I agree that the best solution is to prevent the coolant from going in the air.

I represent a small belgian firm that specializes in the design of custom low pressure micro lubrication system with no mist effect. In Europe, they have on more then one occasion eliminated such problems.

I would direct you to their website, but it is still in the process of being up-dated and translated in english. Though you might still be interested to view thier list of customers, under the link "Reference" at www.tecnolub.be.
If you have not resolved the mist problem yet, do not hesitate to contact me for further information.

Coolant Mist Collectors

In Europe, the removal of workshop oil/coolant mist/smoke has been common for many years. Indeed in Scandinavia the legislation is very stirct. A product which is available to remove the mist (and the entrained contaminants like bacteria) called ScandMist is also available in the US. This system relies on a series of high performance filters, which are highly effective and ensure that the workshop remains completely clean and the cutting fluid is returned to the machine tool.

It's available in the US through Dollinger in Ocala 352 861 7883.