Proper Coolant Maintenance/disposal

[dumptruck]

I have been using TRIM SOL tm. Brand of coolant. (It is a green oil and mixes with water). We have a pre-mixed faucet that pumps out a 11:1 mix looking at it with a refractometer. ( 1 part coolant oil per 11 parts water) .
After about 1 year of continuous use the coolant looked really yucky and green. ( Freshly mixed looks white if mixed correctly / or light blue if mixed too rich). I pumped it all out into a container and am now having trouble with the disposal of it. The environmental disposal company guy said it has too much oil (more than 10%) and that they cannot accept it as waste-coolant. It has to be handled as contaminated oil, at a higher cost. $$

I think that the coolant is separating from water (unmixing) and this oil slick is actually mostly the trim sol oil and not way-oil).

I have some questions that I would like to toss around and see what anybody else has for their coolant maintenance/ disposal methods.


1) What is the correct mix ratio of Trim Sol tm. 11:1 ? (More/ Less?)

2) Is there a better type of coolant than this Trim Sol?

3) What can be done to keep the coolant freshly mixed and not creating a thick black oil slick developing on the upper surface?

4) Keep belt skimmer/ or disk , running constantly or only when coolant is settled, i.e. machine off ?

Thanks for any comments or reccomendations guys.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

A company I worked for back in the '80's had the same problem. I was assigned to solve the problem.

The disposal cost was $0.68/gal. so justifying a "system" was easy.

Coolant was collected from each machine. We used a "sump-sucker"

The coolant was transferred to a tank and allowed to "rest". Later, the tramp oil was separated with an inexpensive belt skimmer. The tank was tapered at the bottom to permit draining of fines that fell out of suspension.

The spent and de-oiled coolant was transferred to a second "reclaiming" tank. As it was being transferred, fresh de-ionized water was added to the stream.

The reclaimed coolant was closely monitored for concentration and any nasty bacterial growth. Samples were sent to the coolant supplier for analysis, for which there was no charge. (Coincidentally, happened to be the local Trim guy.)

Part of your problem could also be your water supply, as was ours. Our water was very hard which is the reason for using the de-ionized water. The hardness etc. should be checked by the coolant supplier to make sure the product you are using is the proper type.

All said and done, we never had to dispose of coolant again, with the exception of accidental polluting of the sump of individual machines. All we had to do was add fresh mixture to replace evaporation or lost with chips, spills etc.

My $0.02

Dick Z