Paper Industry Pilot Coater Optimized with Ronningen-Petter DCF Self-Cleaning Filtration System--A Real World Documented Case Study

Two Ronningen-Petter Disc Cleaning Filter (DCF) stations help contract paper-coating R&D line increase capabilities, flexibility, and ease maintenance.

(PRWEB) January 12, 2006 -- SITUATION: When a new contract paper-coating pilot plant opened recently, it sought to enhance operational capability, flexibility, and maintenance to better approximate production runs for paper mills and converters who were looking to improved their current products, develop new products, or try new coating methods/equipment.

The coating plant (along with its sister plants) is a strategic R&D resource for the paper and printing industries. Ninety percent of the plants activities -- including coating, papermaking, printing, and recycling -- support their operating budget through contract services within the paper and printing industries.

Because of the variety of coatings and papers involved, proper process filtering of the type found in the actual paper mills was a critical part of enhancing the coating plant's operational capability, flexibility, and maintenance. This would better approximate production runs for paper mills and paper suppliers, and would result in more efficient production and better margins for them.

The coating plant turned to Ronningen-Petter for an effective process filtration solution.

After the engineers at Ronningen-Petter reviewed the filtration process, they notice that the coating plant had different flow rate needs depending on the setup configuration of the coater.

Taking into consideration that sometimes one coating would be used, and other times two different coatings would be used, the pilot plant ended up with an automatic filtering system that is used in mill metering size press installations and applications where similar setup needs exist.

SOLUTION:

Two Ronningen-Petter Disc Cleaning Filter (DCF) stations now share the same drain lines and inlet-outlet headers at the coating pilot plant, and are located between the run tanks and the coater.

The beauty of this type of set-up is that if the company needs to use one DCF station for one coating -- and the second station for another -- they close the two butterfly valves installed in the headers that separate the stations.

They can then open these valves when they need both stations for single high-flow rate applications. This allows the filter to act like two filters, and saves the expense of two control systems and piping.

HOW IT WORKS:

With the DCF self-cleaning filter, coatings enter the top inlet of the filter housing and passes through the screen. The screen holds any particles over 75 microns, while cleaning coating exits the bottom outlet of the filter.

A cleaning disc moves up and down the filter screen, removing debris. With the aid of the downward fluid flow and the disc movement, the debris is deposited into a holding chamber at the bottom of the filter housing, and it regularly purged from the housing via a valve at the bottom of the chamber.

RESULTS:

The coating company monitors the DCF filter's differential pressure to see if the cleaning system is being over tasked by a high debris level in the coating.

The good news is that they have not found a coating or dirty base stock it could not handle.

The differential pressure remains steady. Its ability to remove air from a coating is also a great asset for run ability, especially when we are operating the short dwell applicators.

The best part is that the filter is very easy to clean, and they have not found it necessary to open it to remove coating. They simply flush the system with water and have no compatibility problems. This is yet another example where a Ronningen-Petter filter has exceeded our customer's expectations!

-- by Ask Filter Man

For questions about industrial filtration, please visit the Ask Filter Man forum at http://www.ronningen-petter.com/Ask-Filter-Man-Blog.asp.

If you would like to discuss this filtration solution with one of our highly trained Applications Specialists at http://www.ronningen-petter.com/ContactUs/Contact-Us.asp.

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