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/ Contamination Control
The associated costs of the upgrade have been minimal. The cost
to purchase and install the filter housing: less than $4,000, with an
annual filter usage of $1,000-$2,000. Based the original annualized
maintenance cost of $48,000 per line, the upgrade is projected to
achieve a first year savings of more than $40,000 per line (or
$1.9MM overall).
Following the process review, it was concluded that the best way to Each of the filter housings was 24 in diameter and held a total of
minimize pump failures would be to make significant improvements to 55 nominally rated, resin bonded filter elements (2.5 by 30).
the overall fluid conditioning methods. Making these upgrades with the Depending upon how rapidly the elements fouled and how quickly the
existing housing design did not appear practical; as a result the customer flow was switched from the on-line to the stand-by housing, element
opted to replace the old style sock filter housings with new housings that change-out could require anywhere from 4 to 12 hours of
would be better suited to the application. The new housings (Figure 6) maintenance labor. Furthermore, during system upsets, situations
had several features that were going to be beneficial: had occurred where a single filtration circuit consumed over 600 filter
elements over a 2-3 day period.
Each line would have a single housing with a single element,
6.5 by 38 long Review of the system revealed the following:
The elements had a pleated configuration, 1. During element change-out, maintenance had to insert a cup
offering an extended surface area to and spring assembly into the top end of each element and then
maximize the overall dirt holding capacity carefully close the cover on the vessel. If any of the springs
were dislodged or askew, the element would not seal.
The element sealed into the housing using
an O-ring seal, preventing fluid bypass 2. If elements were allowed to run too long before switching to the
stand-by housing, they could collapse onto the support bars.
The housing used a quick-opening clamp
When this happened, the support v-bars had to be removed and
style closure to make element changeout
each element manually cut off of each bar.
less time consuming
3. The elements were 2.5 by 30 depth style elements. With 55
Multiple filtration grades are available: 25
elements, the system was limited to 86 square feet of media
micron filtration was chosen as a starting
surface area. At 135 GPM, this creates an element flux rate of
point with the potential to lower the rating
1.6 GPM/ft2.
to 12 or 6 micron in the future.
4. Due to high contamination levels, oil samples were not tested
for particulate contamination.
Initial results indicate that the lines that have
been upgraded are maintaining very high levels 5. During system upsets, maintenance efforts needed to be
of fluid quality. The primary mills have seen completely focused on changing filter elements, preventing other
contamination ratings of ISO 15/13/11 and the necessary maintenance tasks from being completed.
secondary mills are at ISO 18/15/12. At the 14
micron particle size range, this equates to a The objectives of the project upgrade were to protect the
contaminant reduction of 99.9%. Most lubricated equipment through improved fluid quality, extend the life of
importantly, they have been able to operate the filter elements, and to make element change-out quicker and easier
upgraded lines for over a year without pump for maintenance. In order to improve fluid quality, the plan was to
Figure 6: New upgrade the housing using elements based on high performance
failure.
Filter Housing
microfiber media technology, which were Beta rated at x=1,000. In to extend the life of the processing machinery by 4-5 times.
addition, all internal seals would be positive O-ring style seals,
preventing potential fluid bypass. The one-time capital cost for upgrading each of the systems was
less than $4,000 per vessel. Operationally, with an element life of 4
To make change-out quicker and easier, the number of elements months, on-going operating costs will be less than $6,000 per year,
would be reduced from 55 to 7, each significantly larger at 6.5 by per system. While the resin bonded cartridges were quite
28 long. Each element would have a handle for ease of removal and inexpensive (< $4 each), after all materials, labor, and the higher
the need for springs and sealing cups has been eliminated. frequency of change-out are factored in, the operating cost of the
system with improved fluid quality will be equal or less than the
Finally, since the new elements were of an extended area, pleated original system.
configuration, the surface area of each element was increased to 46
ft2, resulting in a total surface area of 322 ft2, resulting in nearly 4 Example 3: Obsolete Equipment
times the usable filtration area and a more appropriate 0.4 GPM/ft2 The gearboxes on the primary crushing stage at an ore mining
flux rate. facility were originally equipped with a large serial filtration system.
The system was comprised of two 24 diameter filter vessels in
The process was accomplished in the following manner: series. The ISO320 lubricant was pumped from the reservoir, through
All of the filter elements, v-bars, and seat cups were removed the filters the first housing held 32 wire screen elements, the
(Figure 8) second held 32 pleated paper style elements. Downstream of the
A machined 2 high spacer ring (23.5 diameter) was positioned filters, the fluid went directly to the gearbox. In order to prevent any
at the bottom of the housing potential for oil starvation to the crusher, an external bypass line was
also installed around the housings. If the combined filter differential
A new tube sheet (Figure 9) with semi-permanent element
pressure became too high, the bypass was intended to allow
support cores (Figure 10) was placed on top of the spacer ring
uninterrupted flow to the gearbox.
Compression bars were installed to secure the tube sheet and
spacer ring in place as well as ensure proper sealing of spacer
Even with the original filtration system in place, the oil in the
ring O-rings
system would continuously buildup excessively high levels of
The new elements were installed and the vessel put into contamination. As a result, once a month, maintenance would need
service (Figure 7) to bring a portable filter cart to each of the 3 lines to provide
additional fluid cleaning.
The first systems placed into service indicate that the upgrade has
successfully achieved the projects goals. The filter elements have The root cause of the continuous contamination buildup appeared
achieved a 4 month service life and are maintaining excellent fluid to be due to the systems spring loaded bypass valve (Figure 11)
quality. Oil analysis indicates contamination ratings of ISO 20/15/13, being open nearly all of the time, allowing a significant amount of the
a substantial improvement over the initial ratings of >ISO 24. Based fluid to remain unfiltered. Initially, the set point of the bypass was
on the life extension table shown in Figure 4, this would be expected increased to prevent it from being open at all times. This, in turn
/ Contamination Control
caused the filters to see the entire system flow and contamination With this in mind, a target element change-out frequency of once
load, and as a consequence, they required change-out more every 2 months was chosen as an acceptable rate.
frequently than operation would like. As a result, the valve was
returned to the original setting. New triplex full-flow filtration systems, with a significantly smaller
footprint (approximately 18 by 30), were installed (Figure 12). An
At the same time, the original manufacturer had stopped integral manifold on the new systems enabled the flow to be evenly
manufacturing the screen style elements. Another manufacturer had split between three housings, each with a single 6.5 by 38 filter
agreed to custom manufacture a replacement element, but after a element. The GenesisTM glass microfiber filter elements provide high
short period of time ceased production as well. dirt holding capacity and are rated for 25 micron solids removal. In
addition, the elements have an optimized deep pleat configuration
Examination of the pleated paper style elements indicated that they that allows for extra life.
may be unsuitable for continued use as they did not provide high
contaminant holding capacity, particularly with the high viscosity fluid Knowing that the systems were already highly contaminated,
being used in this application. flushing equipment was brought in to clean the fluid prior to starting
operation of the new triplex filtration units. In operation, the
The potential for upgrading the filters in both housings was upgraded system has been able to maintain acceptable fluid quality
evaluated. The plan was to eliminate the screen filters as they were (ISO 20/16/14) as well as meeting the target change-out frequency of
too coarse. Secondly, they wanted to upgrade the pleated paper every other month.
style elements with a synthetic media to get more consistent
filtration efficiency and higher dirt holding capacity. After additional Economically, the cost per change-out has been reduced from
discussions with the maintenance technicians and engineers, it was $1,869 to $1,020 per line. Based on 3 lines, each requiring 6 change-
felt that the space constraints within the work area made continued outs per year, the new systems are projected to reduce operating
use of the large housings impractical. The original filtration system expenses by $15,282. The payback cycle for the capital equipment
required a 3 by 6 floor space and overhead piping interfered with the upgrade will be approximately 18 months.
ability to easily change filter elements.
Example 4: Nominally Rated Filters
Preliminary fluid sampling indicated that if they were able to OEM equipment manufacturers often select filtration equipment
continually keep a fluid filtration system in service and without based on the least costly technology that will attain an acceptable
bypass that it should be possible for a new filtration system to keep equipment life. In many cases, the primary goal is to simply get
up with the rate of contamination ingression. With that in mind, the through the warrantee period. Within lubrication and hydraulic
existing filtration systems were completely removed and discarded. systems, one way to do this is to minimize the physical hardware
Since the new systems would use quick-opening v-band closures, being used to house the filtration elements. As a result, it is not
element change-out could be accomplished quickly and without tools. uncommon for filtration systems to be subjected to excessive flux
rates and/or nominally rated filter media, either of which can limit the
users options for improving fluid quality.
Elements operating at high flow rates per unit surface area (flux
rate) can limit system performance in several ways. In aggressively
sized applications, a significant portion of the filter surface area may
be required to simply maintain fluid flow, making it impractical to
increase fluid filtration efficiency. If an attempt is made to increase
filtration efficiency while continuing to use the same style filter media,
the element life may become too short for sustained operation.
Figure 12: Triplex System
At the same time, nominally rated elements can create limitations
as well. In one particular application, the OEM equipment consisted In order to increase oil life, it was necessary to increase filtration
of a set of two filter housings in series, each containing a single 6 by performance while at the same time obtaining a suitable filter life and
28 bag style filter (Figure 13). This type of filter element is overall operating cost. To do so, the duplex filter assemblies were
comprised of a single layer of polymeric media with a very open pore removed and replaced with a single filter assembly. The new
structure. Since it is a single bag, the element surface area is limited assembly utilized a high capacity pleated style filter element, with
to less than 4 ft2 per element, limiting the overall dirt hold capacity of microfiber media and wire screen support for use with high viscosity
the element format. Even if a bag was manufactured from more lube oil (Figure 14).
efficient filter media, the high flux rate would cause element life to
become prohibitive. A manual bypass line was also installed so that element change-
out could be performed without needing to shut down the entire
In operation, it was found that the nominally rated filter elements process. However, the original pressure bypass line was removed to
would initially begin to build differential pressure very quickly. Once prevent unwanted filter bypass.
the differential pressure began to rise, operations would generally
partially open a bypass line (bypassing both filtration stages). As a Since being upgraded, periodic oil samples have shown that the
result of contamination, it had become necessary to drain, discard, fluid quality is now being properly maintained. Average ISO
and replace the lube oil several times per year. Over recent periods, Cleanliness codes range from 19/17/13 to 18/15/12, compared to
it had become necessary to do so an average of 5 times per year. 21/19/14 prior to upgrading. This cleanliness improvement reflects
With each system containing 200 gallons of oil and more than 40 the elimination of approximately 75% of all contaminants from the
systems total, this resulted in the consumption of 40,000 gallons of system. Since the elements were designed for long life and the oil
oil. At $4-$5 per gallon, the material cost alone would be $160,000 circulation rate is low, the system flux rate is also low. As a result,
to $200,000 per year. they have been able to limit filter changes to approximately 4 element
changes per year. At $340 per element, the total operating cost of
/ Contamination Control
Summary
Figure 13: OEM Duplex These examples illustrate some of the different strategies and
each system becomes $1,360 per year ($54,400 for 40 systems). technologies that can be applied to lubrication and hydraulic systems
that are situated in environments prone to high levels of
At the same time, they have been able to reduce the frequency of contamination. And, more importantly, they have enabled operations
oil replacement dramatically, now averaging 1-2 changes per year. and reliability teams to significantly increase the quality of lubricant
This amounts to a total oil consumption of 8,000 to 16,000 gallons and hydraulic oil conditioning within their facilities, ensuring better
per year or, based on the previous cost of oil, oil expenses are machinery life as well as extending fluid life.
reduced to $32,000 to $80,000. If the filtration costs are also
considered, the total operating cost has been reduced by $65,000 to
$114,000 per year.
In a particular deep mining application, the maintenance requirements Figure 14: Simplex Upgrade
and lost operating time associated with maintaining a number of small
gear boxes became an issue. The location of the systems made routine
service very difficult, and there was resulting concern that this could
lead to very serious and costly equipment failures.