An Auto-Mag Skid magnetic filtration system supplied by Eclipse Magnetics (www.eclipsemagnetics.com) to Ridg-U-Rak — one of North America’s largest manufacturers of pallet storage racks — is saving the latter about $20,000 a year.

Ridg-U-Rak uses the process of roll forming at its facility in Pennsylvania; this involves the continuous bending of a long strip of steel sheet metal into the required cross-section by passing the strip through various sets of rolls until the required cross-section is achieved.

The roll-forming machinery requires the use of coolant/lubricant to ensure its smooth operation, but fine metal particles up to 50µm in size occur as a result of the forming process, contaminating the fluid and building up in the supply tank.

Ridg-U-Rak used to remove the contamination and clean the tank every three months — at a cost of $3,000 each time. This contamination also damaged the roll forming tooling, which would need regular resurfacing (grinding) — and even replacement.

The Auto-mag Skid supplied by Eclipse Magnetics is a self-contained magnetic-filtration and fluid recovery system designed to minimise fluid loss.

It removes magnetic and para-magnetic contamination (down to sub-micron size) from coolants and lubricants.

The filter holds the contamination until it is released during an automatic ‘purge’ process that carries all the contamination to a buffer tank.

This feeds the contaminated fluid to the high-intensity magnetic coolant roller, which removes the contamination from the fluid and puts clean fluid back into circulation (the contamination is extracted in a form ready for disposal or recycling).

The fluid tank at Ridg-U-Rak now only needs to be cleaned out once a year. There have also been significant improvements to the quality of the product as a result of the cleaner fluid and, therefore, cleaner tooling.

Moreover, during the 18 months that the Auto-mag Skid has been in use there has been no need to regrind any rolls.