Oil Skimmer Blog

Recently, a US automotive parts engineering facility contacted Abanaki Corporation about two issues it was having at its plant.

1. Wanting to reduce the high costs of constantly needing to replace its coolant due to oil contamination
2. Removing the oil from the wastewater recovery trenches.

The Tote-It machine center skimmer was the answer. The skimmer is well suited for parts washing and machining center applications. By removing surface oil from a wash tank, the parts will not be recontaminated as they are withdrawn. Furthermore, by removing tramp oil from a coolant tank, the company prevents excessive smoke and fumes that are caused by oil burning during cutting operations. The Tote-it also reduces bacteria growth in the tank, along with the resulting odor.

Once the facility utilized the Tote-It skimmer in both the cooling tanks and the recovery tanks, it was able to successfully remove the oil from the coolant and from the wastewater.Additionally, with the ability to clean the oil laden coolant, the facility was able to save a significant amount of money and time on coolant disposal costs.

Tramp oil is huge problem for machining centers.  It can affect the appearance of the finished part, lead to worker skin conditions and leave a haze of smoke in the shop creating an environmental hazard.  Many machining centers built today have limited access to the coolant sumps more than they used to.  This creates a dilemma: how do you remove oil from a coolant sump when you barely have access to it? A mini tube skimmer, like the Abanaki’s Tubetastic!®, may be the perfect solution for this problem. The Tubetastic! has an oleophilic tube that snakes into your machining center and removes the oil from the surface of your coolant.  It attaches to the side of the tank lip or it can enter through a slot in the side of the machine.   Furthermore, it has a high capacity to remove oil.  The Tubetastic! can remove as much as 1.5 gph of oil from the surface of cutting fluid, enough to handle virtually any tramp oil problem.

The TubeTastic! features a 50/60hz fan-cooled, continuous duty motor in either 110 or 220v and standard collector tubes allowing reaches of 8″, 12″, 18″ or 24″ with longer lengths available.

Many of the machining centers built today have limited access to the coolant sump. This presents an interesting challenge to plant maintenance personnel on how to remove the oil from the coolant sump in their machine. They need a small solution to a big problem; a tube skimmer like the Tubetastic is the perfect fit. The tube skimmer has a small footprint and an even smaller mounting arrangement. There is a small lip on the front of the tube skimmer that allows you to easily mount the skimmer on even the most limited-access tank. The tube skimmer has an oleophilic tube that snakes into your machining center and removes the oil from your coolant. Keeping coolant clean is important in reducing shop odors and will make coolant last longer. See how the Tubetastic tube skimmer works in this animated demonstration.