Varnish removal

Brett,

This has been a topic of much discussion on this board. There is some great information in the older posts on this topic. I highly recommend using the search tool in this forum and searching under the word "varnish" or varnish removal. You will find about 17 pages of discussion. Here is one of the notes from back in 07 I found to be very helpful when I was researching. I try not to impart commercial messages on this board but I do rep for one of the oldest electrostatic oil cleaning firms. The technolgy has a lot of data to back up the varnish removal claims. If you would like more information on some on this technology please let us know.
My thanks go to John M for his inciteful note.


"In general, the choice of using one technology or the other and sizing them properly depends primarily on the particularity of the application this filter system will be use for. Factors to consider, among other things, include the rate of particles ingression (environment), degree of moisture present in oil (environment and/or the system), the rate of wear generation (the system), oil viscosity, and type/size of contaminants being targeted (desired cleanliness level). I have personally noticed high degree of disappointment some folks have towards filters for reason that has nothing to do with the performance of filters, and should be blaming themselves instead. Because they never knew, or considered and insisted on factors (mentioned above) when choosing filters, and ended up with an inadequate filter. When this is combined with a greedy salesman (selling them what is cheaper and what customer is willing to pay, and disregarding the fact that the sold unit is grossly undersized for the application), the final outcome is obviously disappointment. A bit of knowledge goes a long way. Making blanket statements could be misleading, because what works in your application (well, nobody knows what that is as you didn’t bother to mention it), may not work for someone in mining or paper industry. Also, it does not help to lump all the equipment of all manufacturers out there of either technology in the same bag and pass a judgment favoring one system over another. There always were and will be the "Good, Bad, Ugly" in this field, just like in every other field. Some are perfectionists always striving to break new grounds in the field, and there are others that are driven to make a quick buck. Therefore, the conclusions and judgments of the performances should be more specific.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: John Micetic, Tue November 27 2007 08:55 PM

Hi Brett

Electrostatic varnish removal certainly works but so do the roll filters.
Roll Filters work well as when the lubricant is pumped down the length of the rolls the varnish particles commence to agglomerate together holding the varnish in the filter. (Roll Filter Dunny Roll, Towel roll, specially made rolls)

We had a good example of this with 4 X 2000 Ton Injection molders running specially made roll filters, the reservoir breather filter failed from over loading and we were watching the system by microscope the fluid remained clean and bright with the only change being the viscosity was lightly low but OK.
The site engineer rung us and said there was brown crap all through the reservoir causing us to do a very rapid site visit and there was earthworks next door causing the hydraulic system to become dusted damaging the fluid.
We opened the roll filter and imaged it and filter had removed all the varnished agglomerations floating in the fluid but there was a significant layer plated out through the reservoir the reason the engineer rang.
I’ll get James to pop a copy of the report on our web site, it will be under example reports so you can see what we found. We have removed the brand name of the roll filter as all of these types of filters appears to work OK as we have had the similar results from a floppy old towel roll
Or email us and I’ll pop it over

lab@rttech.com.au
www.rttech.com.au

Regards


Rob S