ATLANTIS FOUNDRIES

We have been using the services of Two Ships Filtration (PTY) Ltd since 2009, for the cleaning of our machine hydraulic tanks, in our engine block machining facility.

We started off with one tank to see if the Two Ships Filtration system was everything it was made out to be. We chose a machine that had endless pump failures as a pilot test. After cleaning the oil we completely halted the pump failures. We continued into 2010 with cleaning one tank at a time and the results were beginning to show promise.

The machine line we selected had a long history of piston pump failures, so in December of 2009 and 2010 I decided to clean all the machine tanks in the line during our annual shutdown.  The results of this decision are shown in the table below:

 

Year

Quantity of pump Failures

Cost of pump repairs in Rand

2006

12

223 070.70

2007

10

196 090.00

2008

11

275 164.00

2009 (Two Ships clean first tank)

9

281 955.00

2010

3

55 720.00

2011

3

94 672.00

 

Keep in mind than pump repair costs escalate over time and not all pump failures can be attributed to excessive particles in the oil. These machines dump coolant into the oil from time to time, due to a faulty coolant coupling mounted in an area where it can mix with the system oil.

Mr van Rensburg of Two Ships has highlighted issues that we, the customer had to do, to reduce system vulnerability. We have taken his advice and implemented certain simple checks and actions to improve tank integrity. By working together we have reaped the rewards.

Two Ships Filtration are now doing on line sampling of our hydraulic oil across the whole factory; some 150 machines. With the information gained, we can clean the hydraulic systems with high particle counts, thereby preventing breakdowns that cause loss of production. I�m looking forward to the benefits of future cost savings that this relationship will bring Atlantis Foundries.

 

SJ McDonagh - Maintenance Engineer (Machining) 

ATLANTIS FOUNDRIES