Fruitland Manufacturing

Eclipse Product Installed: FiltraMag+ 5 units 

Industry: Machine Shop

Machined Material: Cast Iron

Process Type:  C.N.C machining, CAD/ CAM Systems

Application Background

Fruiland Manufacturing, established in 1957, is a tool & die shop, machine repair facility, and manufacturer of custom-designed production machinery. They supply to local steel manufacturers and metal working industries across southern Canada.

Problem

Manufacturing with mostly cast iron, and despite the use of a chip conveyor on one of the C.N.C. machines, fine metal particles were ending up in the coolant. As the coolant was being returned to the open fluid tank, the particulate would build up in the tank, delaying the machining process and significantly reducing tool life. Due to the high levels of contamination build up, Fruitland Manufacturing employees had to clean the tank frequently.

Solution

Eclipse Tools North America provided Fruitland Manufacturing with a FiltraMag+ magnetic filtration system, which is effective for use on materials with lower magnetic permeability such as cast iron. The FiltraMag+ can be used as a primary filter or in conjunction with other filtration systems to offer additional savings; reduce waste disposal, reduce down-time, improve tool life, and maintain accurate tolerances.
The filter holds the contamination collected until it needs to be cleaned. During the cleaning process, the filter is isolated from the system flow via a purge valve and the magnet cartridge assembly is removed for manual cleaning with a “cleaning tool”. Once the contamination is scraped off the magnet core, the magnet cartridge is refitted, and system flow switched back on. The contamination is extracted in a form that is ready for disposal or recycling.
Fruitland Manufacturing has benefitted from several cost and time savings since the installation of the FiltraMag+. The filter is removing ferrous particles from the coolant very effectively, ensuring the coolant is much cleaner and does not have to be changed as frequently.

As a result, there have also been significant improvements on level of production, time saved from fixing broken parts, replacing tooling bits, and having to shut down the machining process for cleaning.

Comments

Rod Renz, Machine Shop Supervisor of Fruitland Manufacturing said: “The waste removal process takes up too much valuable time. The proper filtration system is just as, or even more important than operation speed. It saves time and money from having to stop the manufacturing process to clean the tank and repair jammed parts. The FiltraMag+ is very effective for what we needed. I am truly surprised how much contamination we’re removing and how it’s improved our process. We are proud to say that there are currently 5 Filtramag+ systems installed at Fruitland Manufacturing and we are thrilled to be a part of Eclipses’ growing process”
Today, Fruitland Manufacturing continues to find ways to innovate and speed up their manufacturing process. One way is to add ceramic inserts to their machines. Ceramic inserts allow for operation at higher cutting rates and allow for finer, more precise cuts. The problem is, they create more dust and finer pieces of material, which get stuck in the system and are significantly harder to clean out. Rod commented “since we’ve installed the FiltraMag+, we are highly interested in installing ceramic inserts to our machines, as before it wasn’t something that seemed possible.”

Find out more about  the FiltraMag+ or contact us for more information.