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.
We provided our customer with a quotation and he was ready to place an order when a colleague heard about our little project. Well, you can imagine what happened next! Upon his review, he saw other applications for our product, but a few additions were necessary. With some back and forth and a few more weeks, we had our new concept. However, the cost for the cart virtually doubled! So, while we where looking for ways to remove some cost on our product, our customer did some checking around for a competitive product. As you can see, we were moving forward with the project.
The initial conceptual drawing was approved and work started. When all our components arrived and the mock up put together, we found the product was not to our liking. We had a little gathering, made some cardboard mock-ups and came up with a brilliant new arrangement… Long story short – the laboratory achieved successful results once all the kinks were worked out
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
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