It is that ime of year

I am sure you have seen the pictures of all the filters sitting outside "Ready to ship".  Cleaned  boxes of cartridges lining the drive waiting on truckers   Winter brings us some interesting challenges, mainly storage. We are designed to flow in and out.  We do not have room for storage unless items are taken to another building.  The filter cleaning orders, and the filter sizes we clean seem to be getting bigger and bigger.
I was just sitting here trying to plan for a change of season. Trying to not miss a detail.    I guess I best get out of the seat and start preparing for winter.  I am transferring to the plant in Porto Rico.  I wish, instead just another cold winter ahead.

Bless all those on the East Coast

I find it difficult to post anything this week.  All We can think about is all the pain and suffering due to the flooding.  Bless all of you.

Chemistry In Use

I can not tell you how important chemistry is in our day to day filter cleaning operation.   I try to tell young people not to take the easy way out.  Study hard.  Work hard. Play Hard.

Others in filtration look down their nose at people that clean filters.  Yes it is a very dirty job. 
Nothing bad, Just dirty.
It take a well educated person to clean a filter.  One must know what dust or dirt is trying to be removed from a filter (chemical make up).   Also a filter cleaner must understand, and have the knowledge to understand how the solvent works to remove the dust, and concentrations required to do a good job.
One method or type of  filter cleaning can be used to get all the different types of dirt out of a filter.

You have to use chemistry to figure out what is in the filter, what the filter is made of,  and what will give you the best results.
We also use physics to understand the timing, and the methodology, and the effects, and bio-science to understand the destroy  mold, mildew, and viruses to the DNA level.

We urge our people to continue their education to post secondary.  Close to 30% are in advanced course level work, and half of this is post graduate work

I would like to challenge those in new filter manufacturing.  When is the last time you had  an employee who studied physics, and chemistry as a emphasis.  Next time you meet a guy that cleans filter maybe you should consider that he quite possibly could be brighter that you.

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Just because we do a dirty job does not equate to our people being "stuuupid", As my father in law used to say.

Innovation

We are very lucky to have a very innovative person on our team.  Playing around this week with a small tool a brand new technology is found.  This is what sets us ahead.

Carbon Impregnated Filters

Carbon Impregnated filters are used to dissipate static discharge.  Huh?
When static electricity builds up  across a filter (because if the partials passing by the filter) there is a chance that a spark may occur from the fabric of the filter to the nearest steel ground.  This happens much as wearing socks on the carpet and touching metal.  The spark can cause disastrous results in and explosive environment.  A dust as simple as wood can explode into a huge fire.
There are various methods to prevent this.  Screen printing a carbon film on the filter media, weaving in stainless, or carbon wires into the media, or spraying a conductive material on the filter.  The the theory is that the discharge will travel up the filter which is grounded through a separate ground wire or tail.

Don't take a chance.

Cool new toys

Yesterday we installed a new Doppler radar system that controls our waste system.  It will monitor and  help us and collect information on what our usages are.  This is the first step for us to begin developing a water recycling system.  Recycling some of our water is one of our goals for next year.  Lots of challenges with this however, as cross contamination can be a big problem in our industry.

This device will also tell us in gallons the actual usages, and monitor flow rates.  Pretty cool.

Pasturization System Update

Our newly installed pasteurization process is reducing the risk of contamination for food filters.  "The project has performed better than I had ever expected", according to Walker who designed the system.  We are getting results that have been verified by Graduate Students at Washburn University.  "There is nothing alive left." according to one reseacher.

The Pasteurization process will superheat the filters to a set temperature, for a specific time under vacuum conditions to effectively kill all yeast, and mold spores. The entire process is computer controlled, and graphed for documentation.   This combined with the distainer process previously implemented gives double protection to the manufacturer.

This is unheard of in the filtration industry.  Not even a new filter is subjected to this type of sanitation.