Alaa Industrial Equipment Factory (AFI), a leading specialist in hydraulic systems and services in the region, offers the latest flushing, filtration and purification services in the region.
AFI has vast experience in providing hydraulic services to petrochemical and other industries. AFI designs, engineers and manufactures a wide range of hydraulic systems including powerpacks and hydraulic cylinders.
In addition to its manufacturing capability, AFI also offers a host of hydraulic services such as repair, overhaul and maintenance of hydraulic equipment.
One of the most important elements of an hydraulic system is the hydraulic oil, the cleanliness of which determines the effectiveness of the hydraulic system. AFI has realised the significance of hydraulic oil cleanliness and provides a host of services such as flushing, filtration and purification of hydraulic oils to ensure system integration and superior system performance, says a company spokesman.
AFI has carried out numerous service jobs on piping, flushing, filtration and purification of hydraulic oils activities in petrochemical and steel industries.
AFI has a pool of highly trained technicians and most sophisticated equipment to carry out these jobs. Its collaboration with Internormen-Germany, a world leader in filtration technology, enables it to provide the local industry with world-class products with local service back up, says the spokesman.
Hydraulic Flushing Services
With new hydraulic piping installation, oil flushing is mandatory. This gives the assurance that hydraulic pipes and tubes are free of harmful contaminants that can damage the entire hydraulic system. If the entire system is not completely clean during change out, a volume of contaminated fluid that remains will immediately begin the cycle of degradation, he says.
“Prior to typical start-up, the reservoir is drained and cleaned to remove accumulated silt, sludge, varnish and gels. The insides of walls, pipes and the bottom of the reservoir are rinsed manually to remove dust, lint, and other reservoir dirt. The reclaimed fluid is then returned to the reservoir,” says the spokesman.
Hydraulic oil flushing includes circulating the fluid in the system using the flushing unit with corresponding calculated flow requirements; and circulating the oil in the reservoir through off-line battery filters for an extended period and simultaneously monitoring particle contaminants until the target cleanliness level is achieved.
Hydraulic Oil Filtration Services
The objective of fluid filtration is to eliminate contaminants such as particles and water from the fluid. This is usually accomplished using a filter cart or by diverting system flow through an external fluid-conditioning skid.
The objective of filtering the system is to avoid downtime caused by failure of system components due to excessive loading of contaminated suspended solids, increase the life of hydraulic and lubricating oil systems of the fluid, attain the necessary cleanliness grade and increase the economies of operation and therefore decrease maintenance charges.
Common methods for filtration systems include:
• Off-line filtration standard
• Off-line filtration with cooler
• Mobile off-line filtration with water absorption
• Fluid purifier systems
The technique or combination of techniques employed will depend on the type of system and its size, reliability objectives for the equipment and the reason for filtering, says the spokesman.
Fluid Purifier Systems
Water ranks as one of the most frequently occurring kinds of contamination and as the second most destructive foreign matter behind particle contamination. Some of the problems and the damage water contamination can cause are as follows:
• Fluid destruction
• Exhaustion of additives
• Reduction of the lubrication characteristics
• Oil oxidation
• Internal corrosion
• Increased conductivity
Using the vacuum dehydration principle, a vacuum draws the fluid out of the reservoir into the system and it then purifies using vacuum evaporation with inert gas. Using dry air as inert gas, this enables dehydration process causing flash distillation and evaporative mass transfer. Flash distillation creates temperature and pressure conditions sufficient to cause free and dissolved water to literally boil or vaporise out of the fluid, while evaporative mass transfer utilises a lower vacuum and/or less heating of the oil to increase the rate of evaporation of free and dissolved water out of the fluid.
Benefits of system flushing, filtration and purification include:
• Extra protection for investment in critical equipment
• Start systems at the cleanest possible condition
• Avoid unscheduled downtime
• Prevent cutting short of components life
• Extend the oil service life and prevent premature oil aging
• Increased reliability and productivity of the plants
• Reduce expensive fluid replacement
The firm’s other capabilities include: Combination oil filtration and cooler system; Vacuum dehydration for water removal; Off-line filter skids – 20 LPM to 300 LPM; Filtration systems – 3 to 25 microns.
