Mist Collection in Wet Machining

Mist Collection Helps Maintain a Better Work Environment & Reduces Maintenance in Manufacturing Facility Applications

AST Canada designs mist collection systems used in wet machining applications where water & oil often create a film that can collect on surrounding surfaces.

Reliable Fume Extraction & Explosion Mitigation in Wet Machining Applications

AST Canada supplies reliable mist collection solutions for wet machining processes.

With several decades of experience engineering collection systems, AST Canada is the name you can trust above all others for solutions to dust, mist & fume collection plus fire & explosion mitigation in industrial settings.

Wet Machining & Mist Collection

Coolant mists, including water soluble or oil, when used in manufacturing processes often create droplets that can collect on surrounding surfaces. Mist collectors, when properly selected and applied, help reduce this situation, maintaining a cleaner work environment and reducing maintenance on process machinery as outlined in Donaldson’s Filtration Technology for Mist Industries. Workers do not have nuisance coolants, oils or lubricant mists in their work environment.

Mist Reclamation

Many large facilities reclaim their coolant for re-use. Small machine mounted mist collectors can mount directly into equipment and drain the coolant back into the process minimizing consumption of metalworking fluids, achieving cost savings.

Mist Generation

The industry’s need for more machined parts with extremely tight tolerances has led the metalworking industry to require faster production machines leading to increases in the amount of coolants, oils, and lubricants used and higher delivery pressures for those coolants plus increases in tool speeds. All these factors affect the size and amount of mist generated and the mist collector needed since they can contribute to the characteristics of the mist generated in the process. Typical metalworking operations vary in how the mist is formed, how much of a mist is generated, and size of the mist droplets needing to be captured. Some more typical metalworking operations with droplet sizes are as follows:

Mist Droplet Size

	Water-Soluble	Oil	Smoke	Particulate / Fume
Milling	2-20 microns	0.5-10 microns	.07-1 microns	N/A
Turning	2-20 microns	0.5-10 microns	.07-1 microns	N/A
Grinding	2-20 microns
Metal Forming: – Die Casting* – Heading / Stamping	2-50 microns	1-2 microns	0.7-1 microns	< 1 micron N/A
Drawing*	1-20 microns	0.5-2 microns	.07-1 microns
Parts Washing**	Up to 10 microns
Heat Treating	0.8-5 microns	0.8-5 microns	.07-1 microns	0.5-2 microns

*Caution: Waxes may be present
**Mist may contain water, water vapor and rust inhibitors

Beyond the typical operations noted above are operations such as EDM machines, lube oil reservoirs and plastic molding/extruding machines, which also produce mists. With over 40 years of experience, Donaldson Torit® can provide collectors and guidance in collector selection. Refer to Donaldson’s Technical Reference Guide on Mist Collection of Metalworking Fluids for an in-depth discussion on mist collection for these operations.

AST Canada & Donaldson

AST Canada designs systems using Donaldson’s full line of mist collectors from a single source machine-mounted units, all the way to a central mist collector. Donaldson Torit’s WSO Mist Collector with its unique Synteq™ XP filter media is an extremely versatile collector for all operations. It can provide a solution for water-soluble coolants, straight oils, or operations that have oily smoke. If your machining operations change, the only modification is a filter change.

Collectors for Different Applications

In addition to the WSO, you can apply the Dryflo® (MMA, MMB) Mist Collector and Centrifugal Mist Collector as single-source machine-mounted collectors. Single source collectors offer a production facility a compact solution for mist collection. Donaldson’s Mini-Mist and Modular MediaFilter™ provide excellent solutions for operations where mist and particulate fume are generated in a process. For general plant ventilation, the horizontal Modular MediaFilter is an option.

Special Considerations

Corrosive Coolants

Some coolants can be corrosive to sealing materials and gasket materials. Provide proper coolant data to your mist collector supplier to minimize any risk of coolant/oil not being compatible with the sealing and gasket materials used in the mist collector to avoid leaks.

Coolants in Ductwork

The design and components of any duct system must take into account the amount of coolant or lubricant that may collect in the ducts prior to the mist collector. Sloping the ducts, and providing a means for coalesced coolants to exit the duct are just a couple of examples of actions to consider.

Hood Design

Mist collection hoods at the machine take-offs should be designed and located to limit mist collected to only airborne mist. Avoid directing excess coolant into a hood.

Proper Traps & Drainage

In order for a mist collector to properly function, always ensure a proper trap or storage device is used so that collected coolant or lubricant can drain from the collector.

HEPA or 95% DOP After Filters

A monitoring HEPA or 95% DOP filter option is available. These after-filters commonly provide an indication of performance for the primary filter. These filters may also minimize the discharge of particulate smoke generated by metalworking operation.

Related Products

Mist Collectors

WSO

The Donaldson Torit® WSO mist collector system filters water, smoke and oil via Synteq™ XP draining technology resulting in lower pressure drop and longer filter life.

Dryflo®

The Donaldson Torit® Dryflo® machine-mountable coolant mist collector use a three-stage filtration process to reduce machining mist to create a safe work environment.

Modular MediaFilter™ Vertical

Donaldson Modular MediaFilter™ Vertical mist collector systems use three-stage filtration to remove air contaminants produced from applications like grinding and wet machining.

Centrifugal

The Donaldson Torit® Centrifugal oil mist collector is compact, machine-mountable and engineered to collect, filter and reclaim mist generated from wet machining.