ICI Paints improve economy and housekeeping with self-cleaning DCF filters

ICI Paints improve economy and housekeeping with self-cleaning DCF filters

Keywords Filtration,Paints, Reiss Engineering

Filtration of up to 100 million litres per year of Dulux emulsion paint at ICI's Premier Whites Plant in Stowmarket has been made more efficient with installation of four Ronningen Petter DCF filters supplied by Reiss Engineering (Plate 12). The four DCF 800 units with 230 micron elements, located between mixers and automated can filling lines, fulfil the final product filtration stage where reliability is all important.

 Plate 12 One of the four Ronningen Petter DCF filters recently installed in ICI's Stowmarket plant

The new Ronningen-Petter DCF filters with their clean-in-place operation, replace previous bag filter systems which involved costly downtime to change filters, waste disposal problems and occasional failures due to over-pressurisation, resulting in working areas that were unacceptably messy by ICI standards. Following the success of an initial trial installation with one DCF 800 filter unit, the clean-in-place concept was adopted in a rebuild of the Dulux filling lines,incorporating three additional DCF units. Resulting reliable operation and savings have been achieved with minimal maintenance, no filter blockages and much improved housekeeping.

In ICI's Premier Whites Plant, mixers feed a variety of filling lines via the filtration zone, all under the control of a centralised computer system and including built-in cleaning cycles. Operation of the DCF filter cleaning disc (air cylinder actuated) and purge sequence was incorporated into the computer control system.

The benefits of DCF filter installations at the ICI Premier Whites Plant in Stowmarket has led to further orders and project evaluation for other ICI Paints' manufacturing plants.

Ronningen-Petter DCF 800 liquid filters supplied by Reiss Engineering offer process engineers the benefits of advanced "clean-in place" technology. They are designed for removal of suspended solids from 15 to 6,250 microns, typically in the production of paints, inks, pigments, adhesives and coatings. The system incorporates the"travelling doctor" concept of filter element cleaning which maintains productivity without downtime for filter replacement. This factor, combined with reduced operator requirement and absence of waste disposal problems, means that pay-back timescales can be swift or even immediate.

For further details contact Reiss Engineering Co. Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 181 204 7155; Fax: +44 (0) 181 206 0459