Stork chooses central oil mist filer system

Stork Turbo Blading has been supplying to its partners from the power generating industry for more than 80 years. Stork Turbo Blading has two large production facilities for turbine parts, one in the Netherlands and one in the United States. The company is a specialist for the production of turbine blades and components for industrial steam and gas turbines. Stork Turbo Blading forms part of the Stork Group with a total of 14,000 employees working in the power, oil & gas and chemicals industry.

The challenge

The Stork production facility in Sneek has 17 machine tools that employ metalworking fluids. Part of these fluids are released as mist or fumes during the machining process.

In order to protect the health of the workforce, create a safe working environment and extend the service life of the machines and equipment, it is important to remove this oil mist and fumes.

Every machine tool installed at Stork was equipped originally with an individual filter system installed on top of the machine. The installation of a separate system on each machine tool made it difficult to ensure the continuity of the air flow, and filter maintenance was very time-consuming.

The solution

In order to optimise the extraction capacity, two MistEliminator banks were installed that are connected to eight and nine machine tools, respectively. By extracting sufficient air from closed, semi-open or open (CNC) machine tools, the oil mist cannot escape from the machine tool. This drastically reduces the background concentration of oil mist at the workplace. The MistEliminator is a modular filter system. The flexibility of the system allows it to be expanded or adapted to meet changes in the processes of the machine park.

The fully automated and centralised system ensures a constant air flow from the machines, and filter maintenance can be carried standing at one central point. The installation of an automatic valve at each extraction point on the machine that opens as soon as machining starts, the frequency controller can set the fan to precisely the required speed, thus saving energy.

Each filter installation consists of four units, each with an automatic valve on the upper side. The units are ‘switched off’ in turn at periodic intervals to give the filters time to drain into the collecting tray. The collected fluid is automatically pumped into a buffer tank.

Main benefits

Testimonial

"A safe working environment is a high priority at Stork. With this system from Plymovent, we can satisfy all the applicable health and safety standards and minimise the health risks on the shop floor."

Quote by: Bouke Stiensma, Head of Maintenance & Facilities Department of Stork