Ultraseal recycling technology
Reducing waste and environmental costs in the vacuum impregnation process
Discover how Ultraseal Recycling Technology reduces waste, improves efficiency, and lowers the environmental impact of the post-casting vacuum impregnation process
For manufacturers operating in today’s global marketplace, optimising processes to achieve greater productivity, efficiency and profitability is crucial to remaining competitive. This is certainly the case in die casting operations, where environmental management and associated costs are also an important consideration.
Ultraseal Recycling Technology offers significant advantages for such manufacturers. By upgrading post-casting vacuum impregnation processes to Ultraseal recycling systems and sealant, manufactures can create substantial cost savings, as well as improvements in productivity and environmental performance.
The problem
Casting impregnation processes can often be the source of considerable production and cost inefficiencies, with systems unnecessarily consuming hundreds of gallons of sealant and thousands of gallons of water each year.
This waste occurs in conventional, non-recycling impregnation systems as up to 90% of the sealant removed from the surface of the component during the cold wash stage is lost to effluent.
Also, after a relatively small number of cycles the wash water must be replaced to prevent unwanted sealant contamination of components. The emulsified wash water can’t be discharged to the public sewer system and requires disposal or treatment by specialised waste management companies. This leads to regular plant downtime for the water change and process tank cleaning, in addition to high and expensive process water and sealant consumption and associated environmental treatment and disposal costs.
Finding a solution
Ultraseal Recycling Technology provides a solution by minimising and optimising sealant and process water usage.
The system is a fully closed loop on the cold wash operation and, when implemented by the conversion of a conventional system to recycling, requires no changes in the application of the impregnation process. The Sealant Recovery System (SRS) recovers up to 95% of the sealant washed away during the cold wash stage, separating the sealant from the wash water in the recycling system and returning both the recycled sealant and cleaned wash water in a closed loop system for re-use in further impregnation cycles.
With much lower sealant and process water wastage, facilities can benefit immediately from reduced effluent and contaminated process water treatment and disposal costs.
Further process water recycling efficiencies and effluent disposal cost savings are also possible by investing in a fully closed loop impregnation system. This re-uses process water from the hot cure stage after treatment in an energy-efficient vacuum distillation process linked to the hot cure tank, creating a virtually zero discharge production process.
Recycling sealants also offer performance advantages over non-recycling sealants. Ultraseal Rexeal 100 offers higher thermal resistance compared to non-recycling sealants, improved process stability and a faster gel time. This helps manufacturers to reduce cycle times and processing costs, helping to significantly reduce the impregnation cost per part.
Making the change
When making an investment in casting impregnation equipment, manufacturers need to consider a wide range of factors such as production volumes and schedules, available floor-space, the level of system integration, component handling methods and operating and environmental cost factors.
Ultraseal supports customers in making this decision and can tailor the equipment solution to meet customer’s individual requirements. All of our impregnation systems can be specified with our market leading Ultraseal Recycling Technology and Recycling sealants, providing best-in-class sustainability with greatly reduced sealant consumption, water consumption and effluent waste.
The benefits of adopting sealant recycling technology can also be extended to customers who wish to retain their existing impregnation system by converting the system to Ultraseal’s recycling solution. Delivered by a skilled and experienced team, the process starts with a site survey who will assess all aspects of your process to understand what will be required to upgrade your current system. One of the major benefits of upgrading existing systems is that work can be completed in a relatively short time-frame, allowing for costly downtime to be minimised and for improved levels of productivity to be seen almost immediately.
Find out more
You can find out more about Ultraseal Recycling Technology using the links below, including how we helped one customer achieve a monthly cost reduction of $19,000 by upgrading. Alternatively, please get in touch to receive personalised guidance from our team, or find us at GIFA 2019 on stand 11C59.
