Aero Components

Background

This international machining contractor to the aerospace industry uses DS Technology’s high speed machines to produce complex aluminium air-frame components.

Using atomised oil mist through the spindle, the machine was supplied with a centrifugal oil mist filtration system. However, due to the large amount of oil mist generated by the process, this system was simply unable to cope, causing a rapid deterioration of the internal air quality and many complaints from workforce.

Problem

When Vokes Air measured the performance of the existing centrifugal filtration system, we found:

• Inlet concentrations to the filter of 200 - 250 mg/m³
• Outlet concentration from the filter 200 - 250 mg/m³
  

The filtration system was serviced every 1 - 2 months, further proving that the filtration system was unable to handle the large amounts of oil mist and was simply discharging it all back to the facility. At this time, the efficiency of the system was nearly 0%.

Solution

Vokes Air engineers conducted a complete survey of the facility, producing a report and recommendations, first of which was the installation of a ScandMist MA 200 R unit. This was on a trial basis for three months, with tests conducted every month.

Outcome

The results were excellent and far exceeded the customers expectations:

• Inlet concentrations of 200 mg/m³
• Outlet concentrations of 0.002 mg/m³
• Outside air readings of 0.025 mg/m³

These readings meant that the ScandMist unit was exhausting air cleaner than that found outside of the facility. Furthermore, the ScandMist unit required no servicing and the gauges registered practically no wear to the filters.

The customer has now placed a rolling contract to replace all existing oil mist filtration with ScandMist units.