Holiday Nightmare: Water in an Injection Molding Machine

By IFS-February 24, 2016
Holiday Nightmare: Water in an Injection Molding Machine

On December 30, a large plastic injection molder contacted us looking to remove water from hydraulic oil. Their plastic injection machine’s hydraulic system was contaminated with water.

They changed the oil in the 300 gallon system 3 times, but the oil was still cloudy. They now had 640 gallons (2 totes) of new, wet oil and a reservoir full of wet oil. Servo valves and cylinder seals were at risk.

IFS came in and reviewed the project. Based on the amount of oil to be dried and the timeline to accomplish it, we recommended our UV-5 vacuum dehydrator rental unit. Below are the results:

  • 3 days after starting the vacuum dehydrator, the 300-gallon hydraulic system was dry and clean.  Then they moved the unit to the 2 totes of wet oil.
  • 4 days later the 2 totes were dry and clean.
  • With a couple of days left on their rental, the company decided to run the unit on 4 additional machines to polish the oil.
  • 2 weeks after receiving the vacuum dehydrator they shipped it back to IFS.

By then end of the rental, the injection molding machine was clean and they saved 2 extra totes of oil that they were going to have to dispose.  The plant manager was thrilled with the efficiency of the unit, ease of operation and significant cost savings.

Check out a more detail description of the project here.

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