Paint Recovery Technologies Inc.
Paint Booth Specialist
Mack Puts New Spin On
Paint Booth Recovery System
A New Water- Flow Concept and Efficient
Centrifugal Separation enhance high-solids sludge recovery
(Summary from Paint and Power magazine )
Like many manufactures, Mack Truck faced a problem with paint sludge as
production volumes increased. Mack has implemented a new sludge-recovery
system that has dramatically reduced cost and labor, water consumption, and
chemical use.
Mack Truck paints its chassis with a high solid two-component coating in
one of two spray booths. These spray booths were originally designed for
painting approximately fifty chassis per day, but the increased demand for
Mack Trucks has pushed the company's output to 76 chassis per day. This
volume produced more solids and the system could capture.
Mack's plant maintenance manager says the company was draining and
cleaning the pits every eight weeks. The system also required pump back
flushing once a day due to sludge accumulation.
In the end, Mack opted for a new technology. This design provided a uniform
cross sectional movement of paint laden water through the tank to avoid
dropout to the bottom and confines the paint particles to be extracted within
the consolidator. The consolidator absorbs the tank water at the rate of the
circulation pumps.
Mack's 30 foot booth has two circulating pumps rated at 1,100 gallons per
minutes each and the tank capacity is 7,000 gallons of water. The
consolidators uniformly turn over the entire capacity of the tank in
approximately 3.5 minutes. A total of 640 gallons of water is extracted at the
end of both consolidators with a separate pump, driving 40 gallons through
the centrifuge and returning 600 gallons back through the agitation headers
in the tank. This process prevents the highly contaminated water from
migrating and settling out in other areas. This short circuiting of the
contaminated water to each of the consolidators builds up a higher
concentration of paint particles to be extracted, thereby increasing the
efficiency of recovery.
The consolidators deliver the water to a centrifuge, which alternates between
the two sections of the booth. The cost effect use of only one centrifuge per
booth is possible because the system delivers highly concentrated water to the
feed stream of the centrifuge.
After more than seven months online, the newly designed system has
eliminated all traces of sediment in the water pits. This has exceeded Mack's
ambitious goals of reducing the pit cleaning task to once every six months.
With the new system Mack expects to clean annually, if needed.
In addition to labor savings because of reduced cleanup, Mack has also
saved money on chemicals. The centrifuge is so efficient, the need for extra
chemicals to coagulate to paint was not necessary.
The new system has virtually eliminated clogging. The new process has
additional filters and screens, so clogging is not a problem. An initial cost
analysis at Mack has shown potential savings of nearly $100,000 per year. A
typical system could generate cost savings in excess of one million dollars
over the life of the system.
We have been in contact with the personal at the facility and they have
informed us that production has been doubled and still are able to handle the
paint loads with their recovery system.
Mack Truck Paint Recovery Technologies Inc
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