Product category:
Cutting lubricants, coolants, systems and treatment
News Release from: Fluid Conditioning Systems | Subject: Magnom filter systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 February 2004
Magnetic field technology filters down
costs
Using magnetic field technology magnetic filters can reduce or even eliminate the requirement for consumable filter elements and the associated disposal costs.
The filtering of contaminants is subject to many problems, not least consumable and environmental costs And filtering to sub-micron level increases these costs considerably
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 22 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Or, to be precise, this was the case before Magnom, designed for the gruelling Formula One environment.
Using magnetic field technology Magnom filters can reduce or even eliminate the requirement for consumable filter elements and the associated disposal costs.
Uniquely, it achieves this without incurring the age-old problem of pressure drop, even when the filter element is full.
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This yields incredible benefits: for example, for the first time this allows fine filtration on the suction side of the pump.
Even the viscosity of the fluid has little, if any, effect on the performance of Magnom.
This is due to the design of the magnetic filter element in which the flow channels have an area equal to 110 per cent of the inlet, giving the filter a flow area greater than the pipe that feeds it and thereby allowing Magnom to be installed at zero risk.
Tom Hulme, Chief Executive of Fluid Conditioning Systems (FCS), the company formed to take Magnom 'global', says: "Magnom has proved itself in a wide variety of application areas under diverse operating conditions.
The key applications currently are transmission, machine tools, hydraulic, water and engine filtration, but we are confident that Magnom can improve filtration in any process involving any liquid with an element of ferrous contamination.
We have successfully worked in applications varying from 1 CSt water right up to 8,000 CSt (like thick treacle) open gear lubricant.
Existing customers range from a front-running Formula One team right through to global oil companies and power stations." Being a magnetic filter, Magnom is ideal for applications where ferrous material from build or wear processes is likely to contaminate the lubricating or cooling fluid.
Interestingly, however, FCS was alerted by one of its customers to the fact that 60% of the contamination that Magnom removed in their application was non-magnetic.
Subsequently, FCS has commissioned a report from the University of Salford to explain this phenomenon, called heterocoagulation.
Magnom's core consists of a series of annular magnets with larger steel plates shrouding them.
These plates, which have a series of flow channels running through them, become fully magnetised.
When the fluid to be filtered is run through these plates, it is subjected to a high magnetic flux gradient, caused by the focussing of the magnetic field at the tips of the plates.
The result is that any contaminant is drawn into collection areas (out of the fluid flow) between the plates.
This contaminant is trapped, preventing it from washing off back into the fluid as is the case with magnetic sump plugs, for example.
Magnom's filter life is also considerably longer than traditional barrier methods, due to the greater contaminant retention capacity of these plates by volume.
The simplicity of its design means that Magnom benefits from 100% scalability and current applications employ Magnom filters from 10mm (0.4in) diameter up to 300mm (11.8in) diameter.
The length of the filter core can be as short as 4 mm, as in the Formula 1 and World Rally Car motorsport application, while the longest filter in operation to date, at a UK power station, is 0.75m (29.5in) long.
This design flexibility, and a relatively low cost (at present from GBP 25 to GBP 3400), open up a wealth of application areas for Magnom that are closed to conventional filtration systems.
"It is amazing," says Hulme.
"Every time we have a meeting with a potential customer they come up with new applications; the cleverness of the Magnom? is a function of its simplicity'.
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