rambo Posted June 7, 2008 Share Posted June 7, 2008 I have a 3 Ton Steam operated free forging hammer. My problem is that the exhaust steam comes out mixed with condensate and cylinder oil and this outlet is connected to a tank in which they collect. I need to separate this mix as soon as possible. This total mixture is at very high temperatures as the steam coming out is saturated steam and we need to separate it out continuously to drain the water in the drainage. Obviously, oil mixed with water cannot be let out in the drainage. Any ideas how i am to go about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironrosefarms Posted June 7, 2008 Share Posted June 7, 2008 The oil should float on top of the water in the collection tank, so if you have a drain on the bottom of the tank or you can siphon from the bottom to remove the water, being careful to stop before you get to the oil. There is also products that are designed to absorb oil off of water, these can be purchased through companies like newpig.com . Hope that helps in some fashion... James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted June 7, 2008 Share Posted June 7, 2008 There is also an oil "conveyor" system out there. Sorry, don't have any brand names, but the CNC drills at work used them in the coolant reservoirs. a belt would be suspended onto the reservoir and as it turned, only oil would stick to it. It was then squeegeed off at the top into a bucket. Pretty neat system. Kept coolant clean and we just had to empty oil bucket when it filled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torin Posted June 7, 2008 Share Posted June 7, 2008 They are called oil skimmers. There are belt styles and wheel styles. You can go to MSC Industrial Supply and type in "oil skimmer" in the keyword search box and have a bunch pop up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Yeah Todd, thats IT!!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Rambo, at the hammer shop I worked at the exhaust steam with the oil and water went to a Silencer exhaust. The steam went up a pipe and the silencer was at the exit end. It was a a bowl shaped device that caused the staem to expand to atmospheric pressure in the bowl, which helped cut down the noise. The oil and water droplets fell out as the velocity dropped as the steam expanded and there was a drain to capture. Most of the water would however flash to steam as the pressure dropped leaving much less water. Skimmers will pull MOST of the oil out but NOT all. If you have a permits sewer and can not send out oil, the skimmer won't do the job. There is a new product out that polymerizes the oil into a solid and leaves sheen free water. Most storm permits and sewers call out no sheen for discharge. Some sewer permits will allow as much as 100 Mg/Liter. Not knowing your location I can not give exact requirements. I do Environmental for my company and have been in this trade for a while. The polymer product is called C.I. Agent. (Cheap Insurance). They are on the web and I know that the main office is in Louisville KY. USA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 hey all. Thanks a lot. i'll forward your responses to my engineering department and see what they ask me to ask you again. Thanks a lot. ApprenticeMan, I will try to post the pics for you to see in the same thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 ptree, i am in India. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 the pic of the hammer is below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 Thanks for posting the picture! Hammer Envy is the next step along the progression from Anvil Envy to utter madness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 I would be looking at a way of either re-introducing the condensed steam back to the boiler, or using a heat exchanger to pre-heat your boiler feed water with the 'contaminated' steam exhaust. If you do go the second route it will be much easier to seperate the contaminents from the condensate when it is back to ambient temperature. This would save your company lots of $$$$ over a year, as well as doing your bit for the environment :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironrosefarms Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I lightened up the photo so more detail of the hammer can be seen... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Stegmeier Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Dude... plenty of room for tooling under those dies;-) I want a steam hammer big enough to forge anvils on;-) Fun little toy. I love steam hammers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Rambo, I do not know the Laws of India. If your Engineering Dept can advise what the standard for amount of oil allowed in the water to be legally discharged, and how it is to be discharged IE sewer, or into a river perhaps I can offer a little help. I have been doing this sort of thing for a while:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 16, 2008 Author Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) hey guys, sry for the late response, but i had a few family celebrations. Apprenticeman, ure more than welcome. i really appreciate all the help im getting here. i do have a few other things i wanted advice on, will be posting them seperately. Ptree, i will get back to you about the laws. advice is always good from people whi have experience. fionnbharr, i am not sure what tooling you have in mind which can be used here. ironrosefarm, thanks a lot. my pic was a bit dark and tooo huge but i dotn really use photoshop or anything so i couldnt do anything bout it. appreciate it a lot. john, we do actually use the steam to preheat the water for our boiler to conserve fuel and save money. however the sheer amount of steam being put out needs to be let out somewhere, hence the entire mixing problem.Also, we dotn use contaminated steam as it would mess up the boiler pretty bad. we wanna try and condense it as much as possible to reduce environmental impact and also try and save the water table. if we can condense it all back then the water being pumped out will be reduced to a minimum instead of the whole amount every single day. thomas, no prob. my pleasure. lol, hammer envy CAN drive people mad i suppose. however, im still a trainee in the business so i suppose i am safe for now. :P Edited June 17, 2008 by rambo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hammer Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) I'm hoping this picture of the steam hammer is a little easier to see. Didn't realize someone had already posted a lightened picture... Edited June 16, 2008 by djhammerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 The longer stroke of a steam hammer gives pleanty on room for tooling for ring forging (becking saddles etc) compared to the shorter stroke of a 'self contained' type hammer. If the environmental impact of running live steam is to much it may be worth doing a cost benefit analysis of converting to compressed air. You can save additional money on a 'live' steam setup by futher pre-heating the boiler feed water using a secondary boiler flue gas economiser (heat exchanger), there are some critical design considerations with these, but they are becoming increasingly popular as energy costs increase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Rambo, I do not know the rules for emmisions for India. I feel certain that if you search for a supplier of steam specialities such as whistles, trap and valves you will find a silencer. Don't forget that the recovered water will be too oily for use as feedwater for the boiler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 The longer stroke of a steam hammer gives pleanty on room for tooling for ring forging (becking saddles etc) compared to the shorter stroke of a 'self contained' type hammer. If the environmental impact of running live steam is to much it may be worth doing a cost benefit analysis of converting to compressed air. You can save additional money on a 'live' steam setup by futher pre-heating the boiler feed water using a secondary boiler flue gas economiser (heat exchanger), there are some critical design considerations with these, but they are becoming increasingly popular as energy costs increase. Well, converting to a compressed air setup is gonna be big bucks. the hammer itself isnt the prob. We are actually wanting to do some good by re condensing the steam in a resorvior so that we can then remove the oil from it to reuse the water. hence the thread. I am now trying to find a brand other than CIAgent as i am unable to get a response from them. the coagulent is the perfect solution, but finding one such is tough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambo Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 ptree, i agree with u. it IS a prob. but as of now, trying to work out between the systems adviced above is what we are trying to do. hopefully we can get a system which can help out a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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