Copper Chip Removal Curbs Downtime & Improves Solvent Recovery System

Copper Chip Removal Curbs Downtime & Improves Solvent Recovery System

With the installation of a Lakos Separator to help clean up the solvent in their degreasing still, Cerro Copper Products in East St. Louis, Illinois reduced the maintenance to their solvent recycling system by 80%. Not only does the Lakos Separator remove 98% of the troublesome copper chips, but it also offers Cerro Copper a convenient means for recovering the solvent. And the whole process is achieved automatically with a Lakos Auto-Purge Valve to periodically flush the accumulated solids into a drum.

The degreasing still is used to regenerate dirty solvent to a usable condition. Contaminated with grease, oil and copper chips after having cleaned copper tubing, the solvent is pumped through the separator en route from the dip tank to the still (see diagram).

“Before the Lakos Separator was installed, two out of every eight hours were consumed in cleaning the still of accumulated copper chips,” says Dick Browning of Product Control (the Lakos distributor who proposed and initiated the application). “The Lakos Separator immediately reduced that to just two hours a week.”

The separator’s ability to reduce downtime and maintenance is further enhanced by its method of separation, allowing Cerro Copper to recover the valuable solids. “Without the Lakos Separator, their efforts at manually cleaning the still left them with copper chips heavily ‘contaminated’ with grease and oil,” says Browning. “Removing the chips before they can settle helps minimize that problem and offers a reasonable means of solids recovery.”

A spokesman for Cerro Copper reports that the Lakos Separator is “a complete success.”

Others who have used Lakos Separators for similar applications:

PHILLIPS CABLE; Watertown, NY

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY; Cambridge, OH

PERU FOUNDRY; Peru

ANACONDA; Marion, IN

JOE LEAD CO.; Herculaneum, MO

CONSOLIDATED ALUMINUM; Hannibal, OH

PHELPS DODGE; Ft. Wayne, IN

SOLIDS MILLS, INC.; Philippines

PIERSON INDUSTRIES; Rockaway, NJ

BETHLEHEM STEEL CORP.; Steelton, PA

JAPAN ALUMINUM CO.; Nagoya, Japan

OCCIDENTAL CHEMICAL; White Springs, FL