Full-Stream Cooling Tower System Reduces Maintenance

Full-Stream Cooling Tower System Reduces Maintenance With LAKOS Separators

The General Electric plant on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio produces tungsten wire and powder. In 1976, Mr. LeRoy Reeves, Senior Development Engineer for this plant, was first exposed to the Lakos Separator. He recognized that the Lakos Separator could be a simple, inexpensive way to substantially reduce current, continual maintenance costs.

Their cooling water was normally contaminated with airborne grit, attracted in their large cooling tower located at ground level in a heavy industrial area. This normal and continual induction of grit forced General Electric to constantly maintain screens that protected their sophisticated process electrical equipment installed throughout the plant. This screen maintenance procedure required inspection and often cleaning once every shift.

Mr. Reeves first installed a Lakos Separator unit on a side-stream of his tower flow. This original side-stream installation proved two things to General Electric. First, the Lakos Separator was capable of removing the bulk and the weight of the grit. Second, the side-stream flow pattern would not be sufficient to accomplish the full plant protection desired.

In late summer of 1976, General Electric then installed a dual manifold of two Industrial Model Lakos Separators on the discharge side of one of their main plant cooling water supply systems. Once properly adjusted and adapted to operating flow rates and corresponding pressures, the Lakos Separators began to pay for themselves quickly.

The equipment protection screens that once required inspection and/or cleaning are now inspected monthly…and the screens only require actual cleaning during six weeks in early summer when a temporary addition of vegetation fuzz is blown into the tower system. The only routine maintenance required on the Lakos Separators is a weekly or bi-weekly manual purge of the collection chamber.

With no moving parts to wear out, no screens or filter elements to clean or replace and only a very low line pressure loss, Lakos Separators effectively and efficiently remove up to 98% of all solids as small as 200 mesh (74 microns) from virtually any liquids system. Models are available for flows ranging from 3 to 12,750 GPM per unit and may be manifolded for greater and/or widely variable flow range.

Complete information and engineering assistance are available from your local authorized Lakos distributor or the main office in Fresno, California.

Others who have also used Lakos Separators:

FAIRCHILD INDUSTRIES; New York

PIERSON INDUSTRIES; Rockaway, NJ

OCCIDENTAL CHEMICAL; White Springs, FL

UNIROYAL, INC.; Opelika, AL

KRUGER PAPER; Quebec, Canada

EUROCAN; Vancouver, British Columbia

CROWN ZELLERBACH; Bogalusa Mill, LA

UNION CARBIDE; Indianapolis, IN

3M; Rochester, NY

EASY HEAT WIREKRAFT; Rolling Prairie, IN

OWENS ILLINOIS; Pittston, PA

GUARDIAN INDUSTRIES; Upper Sandusky, OH

ANCHOR HOCKING; Winchester, NJ

GUARDIAN INDUSTRIES; Kingsburg, CA

CENTRAL FOUNDRY; Danville, IL