Finishing - July-August 2023

PRE-TREATMENT 41
interruptions of production and high labor
costs.
Moreover, the liquids must be regularly
replaced and cleaned, which is also costly and
disturbs the production flow. In addition, the
discharge of the tanks and refilling them is an
environmental hazard.
Simon Wagenaar, manager of the technical
services department for coating at Ulamo
Coating BV explains: „The contamination of
the cleaning liquids was costing us thousands
of Euros for personnel, lost sales and scrap
parts.”
Cleaning centrifuge eliminates
the problems
It is not surprising that Ulamo was looking
for a solution to this problem and finally found
one at the Dutch subsidiary of Rösler. The
solution consists of a cleaning centrifuge: A
charging pump transfers the liquid from the
tank into the rotary basket of the centrifuge.
The high centrifugal force of the rotary basket
causes the tiny dirt fines to be deposited on
the basket wall in the form of sludge. The
liquid, now free of the contaminants, is
transferred back into the cleaning process.
Simon Wagenaar continues: „Any investment
in new equipment should amortize itself
relatively quickly. Therefore, it is always good
to learn that an investment really pays for
itself. Rösler allowed us to test the centrifuge
free of charge for a month. So, we only had to
commit to a purchase after we had learned
that our requirements can be met. For my
department, where we are coating aluminum
components, we installed a semi-automatic
centrifuge.”
A second centrifuge for coating
of steel components
Later on, for the coating of steel
components, primarily radiator components,
the company purchased a second cleaning
centrifuge. Norbert Becking, production
manager for coating at Ulamo Metaal B.V.,
adds: „Once we saw how well the centrifuge
technology works, we purchased a fully
automatic centrifuge for my department. We
had previously tested a unit from another
supplier. But this was too big and complex.”
Semi-and fully automatic
centrifuges
The semi-automatic centrifuge is used for
the pre-treatment of aluminum components
and is handling very contaminated liquids. The
insertable basket containing the sludge
separated from the liquid is manually
exchanged and emptied once per day. This
work is done without having to interrupt
production. The fully automatic centrifuge for
pre-treating steel components is connected to
two tanks containing pre-treatment liquid. The
centrifuge cleans the liquid from one tank at a
time. Switching from one to the other tank is
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handled by a special valve. The fully automatic
centrifuge removes the sludge from the drum
wall automatically and dumps it into a large,
mobile container that must only be emptied
once a month. Norbert Becking explains:
“Rösler helped us in organizing the switch
from one tank to the other. The compact
machine is easy to operate. Twice a year it is
thoroughly checked by Rösler and, therefore,
demands very little attention by our technical
department.”
Zero scrap parts
Both centrifuges have been in operation for
over a year. And both investments have been
a win for Ulamo. The spray nozzles are not
plugged up anymore and must, therefore, not
be checked and replaced so frequently. The
pre-treatment liquids must only be replaced
once a year instead of three times before.
Because of the substantially more stable
quality of the liquids fewer chemicals must be
added. And finally, the employees became
free to perform other, more productive tasks.
Overall Ulamo is highly satisfied with the
centrifuges. Simon Wagenaar concludes: „In a
few years we want to replace the tanks in our
production line. On this occasion we will
replace the semi-automatic centrifuge with a
fully automatic unit. Moreover, we plan to
expand our production capacity with an
additional line. For this project we will again
use the products and service from Rösler.”
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Finishing – July/August 2023