The Advantages of RO Water in Finishing Systems
The Advantages of RO Water in Finishing Systems
The powder coating industry demands quality water to clean and rinse parts. By using reverse osmosis (RO) technology, finishers have found ways to help reduce water consumption and the overall volume of wastewater in their plants. In addition, purified RO water leads to better finish quality, huge savings in chemicals and energy usage, and the elimination of many mechanical problems with the washer.
Advantages of RO Water for Cleaning & Rinsing
Significant increase in salt spray hours due to a more precise control of the water chemistry. Using a water standard and getting more control over chemistry is helping many companies become ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified.
Spot-free final rinse water quality. Less than 15mg/L of total dissolved solids will not leave a “white aspot” residue on the surface of the parts, resulting in better paint adhesion and a higher quality finished part.
Reduces overflow rate for washer rinse stages and thereby reduces water consumption and wastewater volume.
Eliminating scale and sludge dame to heat exchangers. Dissolved calcium (hardness) in raw water supplies is soluble at ambient temperatures. However, when temperature rises over 105°F, calcium then becomes insoluble and precipitaties out of solution and forms scale on heat exchanger surfaces. 1/8″ of calcium carbonate scale will reduce the heat transfer coefficient by half, thereby requiring up to 2 times as many BTU’s to maintain temperature.
RO water reduces chemical usage and dump frequency of the chemical stages since the washer chemistry does not need to overcome the hardness in the raw water supply.