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Mack Trucks Paint Booth Recovery System

US Centrifuge Systems saves manufacturer $100,000 per year after engineering Mass Flow™ automatic centrifuge system.

Before US Centrifuge Systems

Like many manufacturers, Mack Trucks, Inc. faced problems when production volumes increased. Equipment used to recover paint sludge from paint booths no longer kept up with production volume.

Mack Trucks paints chassis with high-solids coating in one of two paint spray booths, each with a 30 foot long upper section for painting the top of the chassis and a 15 foot long lower section for painting the underside. Downdraft booths were installed in 1975. Upper and lower sections of each spray booth have separate water pits, and the combined capacity of all four pits is approximately 21,000 gallons. These spray booths were originally designed for painting 50 chassis per day, but the increased demand for Mack Trucks pushed the company's output to 76 chassis per day. This volume produced more solids than the recovery system could capture.

Beyond the Centrifuge

US Centrifuge Systems expanded its research and development in 1999 with a successful waste-to-energy system that can now convert up 8 tons of waste within one hour of operation into renewable energy. Sister company Organic Power Solutions was established, and now, high-value co-products are created and used in the production of in-house renewable energy or sold to third-party utility companies. View waste-to-energy.

Mack Trucks used a traditional tank-agitation system. Each re-circulation pit had an agitation manifold around its perimeter. A side stream flow went to a centrifuge, which alternated among the four pits. A portion of the water was then delivered to the centrifuge for separation, and the rest of the water was blown through nozzles at the bottom of the pit to keep the solids in suspension.

Tim Litzenberger, Mack Trucks plant maintenance manager, said the company was draining and cleaning pits every 8 weeks. Mack Trucks called on US Centrifuge Systems to implement a new sludge recovery system that dramatically reduced costs in labor, water consumption and chemical use.

Solutions

Mack Trucks implemented US Centrifuge Systems Mass Flow System™ technology, a centrifuge sludge removal system that incorporates centrifuge separation technology and sludge dewatering. The patent-pending Mass Flow™ design provides 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 pump.

Mack Trucks' 30-foot booth has two circulation pumps rated at 1,100 gallons per minute 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 to the agitation heads in the tank. This process prevents the highly contaminated water from migrating and settling out in other areas and creates a higher concentration of paint particles to be extracted at the end of each consolidator, thereby increasing the efficiency of recovery. The consolidator delivers the water to a centrifuge. The centrifuge alternates between the two sections of the booth.

Results

Mack Trucks implemented the system in less than 3 months. It only took a few hours to get the system up and running. After approximately 7 months online, the Mass Flow System™ eliminated all traces of sediment in the water pits, reducing pit cleanouts to once a year.

"Many times, the old system was down because of clogs," Litzenberger said. "The Mass Flow™ process has additional filters and screens, so clogging is not a problem."

The centrifuge separates nearly 1.5 pounds of solids per minute (700 pounds per 8 hour shift per booth) when running at peak efficiency.

In addition to labor savings because of reduced cleanup, Mack Trucks has also saved money on chemicals. "The centrifuge is so efficient, we don't need a lot of extra chemicals to coagulate the paint," Litzenberger said.

An initial cost analysis at Mack Trucks shows potential savings of nearly $100,000 per year. US Centrifuge Systems estimates that a typical system could generate cost savings in excess of $1 million over the Mass Flow™ system's lifetime.

Receive help with a properly designed automatic centrifuge system or solve existing water wash paint booth problems. Contact US Centrifuge Systems.

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