Recently, a manufacturer of plastic grooming products asked FilterMan about difficulties they were having while recycling mold cooling water through a cooling tower. Specifically, the cooling water was picking up airborne particulate matter in the process -- requiring frequent blowdowns, maintenance and adding costly downtime on the molding machines.

Traditionally, engineers have opted for disposable media filters because of their lower initial cost. While initial cost may be lower for small batch operations, the same is not necessarily true for continuous operations.

The reason for this is that a completely redundant filtration system is needed to maintain production -- including piping, valves, supports, and service connections. Obviously, this is not an insignificant expense by any means. To remove this particulate, the company installed an Eaton (Ronningen-Petter) AFR Tubular Backwashing Pressure Filter. 

With this type of filter system, the media is cleaned and regenerated while the unit remains on-line. This means a simple single-piping arrangement, minimal valving, and fewer connections - for a lower total system cost and reduced waste. 

Since this installation in June of 2006, the company has eliminated costly downtime and reduced their waste.