The Challenge
The powder coating and E-coating industries face many environmental challenges. With increasing focus being placed on these industries, meeting state and local regulations for waste water discharge can place a significant burden on business owners. Many times being able to meet environmental requirements means the difference between operating, and being shut down. With our patented process for heavy metal removal, we can help bring you back into compliance, and help reduce surcharges and fees.
Metal finishing companies using various electroplating process have been faced for many years with the problem of heavy metal contamination in waste waters. Some operators have tried the “dilution is the solution” method for solving their problems, but with rising costs for water being faced by businesses all over the country, this solution does not remain an effective solution. Many municipalities will now set specific amounts of metals that an operator may discharge per day; these changes in regulations render the older dilution methods obsolete.
In the metal finishing process, most heavy metal contamination comes from the various rinse baths that the metal parts must go through during the operation. Drag out from process baths can contribute to oil and grease, and suspended solids in the waste stream in addition to trace metals being leached from the work pieces. We will work with you to strike a balance between the time it takes to process your water, and the concentrations of contaminants in your rinse water.
Powder coating operations generally have metals, oil and grease, and suspended solids in their waste streams from the cleaning and pretreatment phases of their operations. During the cleaning and pretreatment phases different acidic and caustic solutions can leach base metals from the various work pieces much the same as in the E-coating process. Since the piece being coated must be absolutely clean, any contaminants on the part will end up in the water used to clean the parts.
Our Solution
The Continuous Metals Removal® process was perfected and patented by IWWS to meet the needs of the E-coat and powder coating industries. Through the proprietary use of flotation, instead of sedimentation, CMR® equipment allows waste water to be treated much more quickly. In addition to saving time, our process allows the treatment of the entire waste stream, not just part of the waste stream like other process. Because of the automation built into every IWWS unit, labor costs can be reduced compared to other batch process. And because the CMR® process does not use filters, you do not have to worry about costly filter replacements.