Posted By: Glenn Schultz | Posted On: November 20, 2018
Guest Post from The Extractor Company
Every Waterjet operator faces the same challenge: “How can the garnet that enables high pressure water cut so effectively through virtually any material be removed from the catch tank?” While there are a variety of ways to perform tank maintenance, operators who can identify the lowest cost methods will generate extra profits from their investment in waterjet technology.
Every minute your waterjet is running, it is generating revenue for your business. So, any garnet removal method that forces you to shut down your machine will expose you to the opportunity costs of non-producing capital equipment. This is in addition to the direct cost of removing the garnet as well as the risks of having a third-party contractor interfering with your normal shop operation.
Common methods of garnet removal include expensive pump trucks, manual dig outs employing labor and shovels, mini-excavators, and back hoes. Alternatively, an investment in a garnet removal system can reduce many of the high costs associated with some of these cleaning methods and allows the waterjet operator to gain control over when and how frequently the garnet removal process will be performed.
Types of Garnet Removal Systems for Water Jet Machines
There are several garnet removal systems in the marketplace today. Some will pump garnet slurry from your tank into a settling bin, where the relatively clean water is pulled off the top and returned to the tank after the heavier garnet sinks to the bottom. Periodically, when the bin is full, it is dumped and the “pump, wait to settle, and then return to tank,” process is repeated.
These systems have very slow removal rates, are prone to plugging, have high maintenance costs and return the fine particles back to your tank or, worse yet, down into your drain lines—which can cause expensive clogging.
Other removal systems pump garnet slurry through a separator to achieve much faster garnet removal rates, but expose the operator to high maintenance costs as the sharp edges of the garnet eat up pump impellers and the slurry contaminates critical pump shaft bearings. While these systems can be effective, they also:
- Require a large footprint in your shop,
- Cannot service more than a single waterjet,
- Can easily become buried in garnet if not run on a regular schedule, and (as previously mentioned)
- Incur high annual maintenance costs.
The Waterjet Garnet Extractor
The Extractor Company offers a patented solution that allows waterjet operators to achieve removal rates of 100 pounds of garnet per minute, can be run while the waterjet is in operation, and does not require costly annual maintenance.
Our innovative design runs solely on shop air from your compressor to power a diaphragm pump. The pump is used to create a vacuum to pull the garnet slurry from the waterjet catch tank and through a separator. The garnet is collected inside the Extractor and the clean water flows through the pump and back into your catch tank. Because the separation occurs before the water flows through the pump, there is no wear on the pump.
Additionally, since the garnet is pulled through our machines under vacuum, there is little to no wear on any parts in our entire system. We offer a variety of machines to accommodate any size waterjet and because our machines can be easily moved anywhere there is an air drop, one machine can service an entire shop full of waterjets.
So, quit spending your hard-earned cash on pump trucks, overtime to your employees to dig out your tank while your machine sits idle, or on costly maintenance to a self-destructive removal system. Take control over safely and effortlessly removing the garnet on a schedule that fits your shop and does not make a hazardous (and expensive) mess out of keeping your tanks clean.
SFMS would like to thank Glenn Schultz for sharing his article with us so we could inform you about waterjet garnet removal options. At Southern Fabricating Machinery Sales (SFMS), we are experts in waterjet cutting systems and can help you select the right Extractor Abrasive Removal System for your needs. Contact us today to learn more!
