Cool and clean: Turning Performance

Hypertherm Inc. designs and manufactures plasma, laser and waterjet cutting systems, as well as CNC motion and height controls, CAM nesting software and consumables.

The Hanover, N.H.-based company opened a 165,000-sq.-ft. facility—Hypertherm’s newest—in Lebanon, N.H., in 2012. Among other machinery, the facility contains 26 multiple-axis, Swiss-style CNC lathes, which are used in the manufacturing of plasma cutting torch components, primarily electrodes and nozzles. The components are made of nonferrous materials.

The filtration system designed by Eriez for Hypertherm incorporates 160 sq. ft. of filtering material. Images courtesy Eriez.

Hypertherm soon realized it needed to reduce the amount of cutting oil the lathes consume and recover the valuable copper chips the machines generate, noted Tom Woodward, manufacturing engineer, and Dave Bean, maintenance leader. Woodward contacted Tom Cassese, director of sales at Eriez HydroFlow, Erie, Pa., to map out a new method of recycling the oil and recovering the copper chips and fines.

The Eriez HydroFlow team, led by Cassese, recommended a Star Filter vacuum element filtration system combined with a temperature-control package and an oil-conditioning system.

“We gave Eriez a challenge to develop a system that would maintain oil heat at 90° F ±5° F, recapture all our turned and milled chips, recycle 90 percent of the vegetable-based oil and spec the system to handle up to 52 machines in the future,” Woodward said. “We have a 5,000-gallon system with about 160 gallons turning over every couple of hours on the machines. Eriez had to build a system big enough to filter and recycle that much oil. The oil we use fluctuates between $22 and $25 per gallon, so the cost savings alone are significant.”