It was early Wednesday morning when I received a call from a man named Tom. He found PFP on the Internet while searching for filter carts. He was working for a company in the mid-west that manufactures machinery for processing plastics and rubbers, such as injection molding and extrusions. Many of their customers come from the automotive, pharmaceutical, and packaging industries. Anyway, they had a big trade show coming up the following week, and they needed to know how to use a filter cart to display particulate being filtered out of the hydraulic oil in one of their injection molding machines. They wanted to show how to properly maintain the oil quality in their equipment.

Based on their request, I recommended to Tom that they go with our 5-GPM Dual-Stage Filter Cart, with spin-on filters, which were perfect for the viscosity range of their lubricating oil, Mobil DTE25. This particular oil has a kinematic viscosity of 44.200 cSt at 40°C and 6.650 cSt at 100°C. The recommended viscosity range for the spin-on filters that I suggested is 6 cSt to 400 cSt. So, like I said, the spin-on filters were perfect for their application. Initially, Tom was so enticed that he offered to buy the cart in full, but due to the time constraint, I suggested that we provide it as an emergency rental instead, with the option to purchase it after the trade show. Tom agreed, and I immediately began to put together the order.

The next day after I received Tom’s order, I made sure that the filter cart was shipped out ASAP. The company received it on time, and they were able to take it to the trade show and show it off the whole time. Tom was so happy with the filter cart rental that, 2 weeks after returning it, he placed an order to purchase an 11-GPM version of the same model that we had rented to him. I felt proud that our team was able to help Tom’s company so quickly when they had a small emergency. We made sure to have the filter cart prepared and shipped out the day after it was ordered, which is a service that is hard to find. We make sure to keep in stock this type of rental equipment because we just know that someone from somewhere is going to call us with a similar urgency. Onward to the next filtration challenge!

Do you have a question about portable filters or mobile filtration equipment? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

Sean at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen our latest videos? If not, click here to check them out now!

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Diesel Fuel Oil Sample: Before/After

How can dirty fuel endanger lives at a hospital? Well, if there is a power outage, how does the hospital keep its equipment running in case of an emergency? Like any other critical operation, they use emergency power systems such as back-up generators in conjunction with uninterruptible power supplies. But how do the back-up generators produce electrical power? Many of them convert chemical energy to electrical energy by burning clean diesel fuel oil. At least this was the case with a hospital that called me recently.

The president of this particular hospital was concerned about the quality of the fuel oil in the generator tanks because it had been sitting for a while. Fuel that sits goes bad. Therefore, from time to time the diesel storage tanks that are used for the standby generators must be treated and filtered. If no one does this, the generators will not work properly on stale fuel, right when they’re needed most, which would be a catastrophe! The president asked me if we could help them analyze and, if necessary, purify the diesel fuel to ensure continuous operation of the generators in case of a power interruption.

We checked out the diesel fuel oil by running a few pre-service oil analysis tests. All our tests showed heavy bacterial growth, free water contamination, and heavy amounts of solid particulates. The fuel definitely needed to be treated immediately! We collaborated closely with them from start to finish, and we designing and built a custom mobile filtration system to meet their needs. We utilized Facet filter elements along with a custom pre-filter vessel to ensure high quality results. After we finished purifying the fuel, our post-service oil analysis showed much better results. The diesel fuel passed all fuel quality standards and it was approved as “safe to use” for their emergency back-up generators. Sooner or later that hospital is bound to have a power failure, but I felt good knowing that many lives are going to be saved as a result of the them having clean diesel fuel. Success once again!

Do you have a question about filtering diesel fuel or about hydraulic filter systems? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

Charlie at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen us in our latest VIDEOS? If not, click here to check us out now!

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Have you ever had an emergency situation with contaminated fuel oil? We were recently contacted by a manager at a fuel terminal company in the northeast that receives, stores, and ships fuel for petroleum refineries and pipeline companies. All of a sudden they found themselves faced with a major problem at one of their terminals – 40,000 barrels of ethanol was contaminated with particulate.

They didn’t know exactly what caused the problem, but if they didn’t purify the fuel quickly, they wouldn’t be able to sell it because it was very dirty and it did not meet the required cleanliness specifications. They simply performed a “clear and bright” test by pouring the ethanol into a clear glass jar and reviewing it for visible particulate and shades of color. Since the fluid was anything but perfectly clear and bright, it had to be filtered… fast.

After listening to the manager explain the details, I knew that I could help them out by installing on site a temporary rental filtration skid for ethanol fuel. We dispatched our rental service team to their liquid terminal and our guys immediately set up a high-flow portable filtration vessel with a flow rate of 3,000 barrels per hour. We transferred the dirty ethanol from the primary storage tank, through the filter vessel, and into a secondary storage tank. We then tested the fuel again using the “clear and bright” guidelines… and it passed! The manager was very pleased that we acted so quickly, safely, and efficiently. The company was then able to continue selling the fuel to their customers. Success once again!

Do you have a question about fuel filters or about liquid filter systems? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

Charlie at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen us in our latest VIDEOS? If not, click here to check us out now!

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EasyWater Iron Shield

Have you ever had contaminated well-water at your home? How about “hard” public city water at the office? Did you know that there are alternative ways to properly condition and filter your water supply?

At a recent school fund-raiser, I ran into an owner of a local funeral home who had an issue with water contamination in his well-water supply. After a brief discussion, I learned that the well water was contaminated with coliform bacteria. The owner of the funeral home was looking for a quick and easy solution to remove the coliform from the public water supply. The timing could not have been better. We had just finalized a distributor agreement with a company called Frieji EasyWater, enabling us to provide a variety of solutions for commercial water conditioning for both well-water and city-water.

Before we could recommend an appropriate solution to his problem, we opted to first test the water for other issues. It was a good thing we did. In addition to the coliform contamination, we found high amounts of iron and other metals in the water. Needless to say, the funeral home also had “hard water” (excess mineral content), which was causing staining in the sinks and toilets, and scale build-up in the piping and in the faucet aerators.

EasyWater No-Salt Conditioner

Good thing for the funeral home, Frieji helped us to handle all of their problems. In response to the owner’s original concern, the coliform bacteria, we suggested the EasyWater Bacteria Shield. The Bacteria Shield uses a targeted range of ultraviolet light (UV) that inactivates harmful pathogens and prevents bacterial contamination. In order to fix the water hardness we suggested the EasyWater No-Salt Water Conditioner. The No-Salt Conditioner uses “electronic scale-control” technology to reduce hard water scale build-up. It works by applying a small electrical charge to the water molecules, thus dissolving existing scale and preventing scale from building up. As for the excess iron, we suggested the EasyWater Iron Shield. The Iron Shield injects air into a proprietary filtration media that eliminates contaminants along with undesirable iron stains, foul tastes, and odors.

The owner of the funeral home ultimately decided to go with everything that we suggested. We scheduled a date to do the installation and a few days later our service team showed up in person. We had everything up and running in under 3 hours. The owner was very happy and now he wants us to help him out with his other funeral home locations. Success once again… with a little help from our friends over at EasyWater. Thanks guys!

Do you have a question about EasyWater filters or liquid filter systems? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

Charlie at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen us in our latest VIDEOS? If not, click here to check us out now!

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Hydraulic Oil Filter Cart

On 8:00 AM one Friday morning I got a call from the owner of a company (let’s call him Joe) that works mainly with environmental clean-ups on the east coast. He was looking to rent a filter cart to service 1,500 gallons of lubricating oil on a Coast Guard vessel. Joe wanted to move the lube oil from a holding tank to a certified stainless steel tank. But the oil he was working with had a very high viscosity, so he needed something special. Was I able to provide him with a viable solution?

Joe wanted to accomplish two primary goals at the same time: 1. to remove water from the oil and 2. to filter particulate from the oil down to 5 micron. In order to help them out, I proposed our 22-GPM “LCFC” liquid filter cart (PDF), which we had available in our fleet of rental equipment. It’s great for filtering oil of higher viscosities and it’s capable of pumping 500 gallons very quickly. The company needed the filter cart for only a few days, but I offered it to them for a full week just in case they encountered some contingencies. I made sure to also include the appropriate filter elements that would enable them to both remove water and purify the oil. Joe also made a special request for camlock fittings for the end of the hoses so I had our team set up the hoses to accommodate that as well.

Fast forward one week later. Upon returning the filter cart, Joe provided a couple photos (the one close-up above, and this larger view of the operation) showing his setup of a diaphragm pump that he used to pull oil from tanks up to our filter cart. He said he had about 40 engineers standing around watching what he was doing, so needless to say he felt a lot of pressure while he was getting setup. In the end, he reported back to us that the cart worked wonderfully and they were very happy with the oil quality produced by the filter cart. All of the engineers were also impressed. Yes! Another happy customer.

Do you have a question about filters or filtration? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

  Sean at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen our latest videos? If not, click here to check them out now!

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Custom Filter Cart Engineering Drawing

(Note: This is part 1 of a 2-part series.) Picture this… A large national laboratory had just finished fabricating a special magnet system, but there was a lot of debris remaining after the process. This particular lab was circulating deionized water (also known as “DI water”) through the new system, but prior to start-up, the water needed to be filtered and recirculated until the system was clean. This situation actually happened to one of our customers. If it were you, how might you have resolved this sensitive issue?

The system had a high differential pressure of 70 PSI and a flow of 10-GPM to 15-GPM, so we actually needed to incorporate a custom stainless-steel pump in order to meet their flow and pressure requirements. Since DI water corrodes most metals, many of their standard components also had to be upgraded to stainless steel or a suitable plastic polymer.

So what made this situation any different than other filter cart application? This one was unique because the laboratory required the addition of an special compressor to purge the DI water from the system after it was purified. We knew the volume of the system and the pressure that needed to be overcome, so we decided that it was best to use a 5-gallon air tank to have enough air at the system’s disposal. In order to finish the job well, we ended up developing a full-scale custom filter cart that included an on-board compressor, which was needed to force air behind the deionized water and thus push it out of the vein in the magnet. The engineering sketch (click for full size) that you see with this article is the initial drawing that we devised. But we’re not done yet. What trials and tribulations may we encounter at start-up? Will the laboratory see successful results once all the kinks are worked out? Stay tuned to reading Part 2.

Do you have a question about filters or filtration? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

  Chris at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen our latest videos? If not, click here to check them out now!

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Jet-A Fuel with Storage Tanks

Have you ever had a contaminated jet fuel tank? One of my recent customers, a jet fuel storage facility (liquid terminal) had a fuel tank that contained 75,000 barrels of contaminated jet-A fuel. Our initial testing showed high amounts of particulates and significant discoloration. Our Millipore particulate tests showed a contamination level of B7, which meant that we needed to take significant action to lower the particulate counts. The fuel was also “straw-colored” (or yellowish) in appearance, which is definitely not how clean jet fuel should appear! Our Saybolt color analysis showed a discoloration level of 13, which was well below the minimum requirement of 17. We decided that we needed to install a multi-stage filtration system to lower the particulate counts and to remove the color bodies causing discoloration. We needed to quickly help them achieve their fuel quality requirements.

We immediately got to work by mobilizing an on-site service crew with the appropriate filtration technology to help the company to achieve their goals. The first stage of filtration implemented a 0.5-micron paper fuel pre-filter to efficiently remove particulate contamination. Due to the extreme discoloration, clay treaters were installed in both the 2nd and 3rd stages. Dual-stage clay treatment allowed us to maximize resonance time and to achieve the best possible results. After passing the fuel through our multi-stage fuel filtration system, our Millipore particulate tests showed a B2 level and the Saybolt analysis showed a level of 30! Overall, the outbound fuel quality was exceptional, and it significantly exceeded the minimum requirements. We provided a rapid solution that resulted in clean fuel, a significant cost savings and, ultimately, a very happy customer!

Do you have a question about filters or filtration? Feel free to contact us anytime. Our friendly team of experts will be happy to help you out with your particular issue.

Until next time!

  Todd at Precision Filtration Products

P.S. Have you seen our latest videos? If not, click here to check them out now!

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