The three-year project aims to eliminate the use of biocides in process liquids and drive down both fresh water consumption and waste water generation.
Cutting paint-shop water consumption is just one of the goals of DiWaL, a new research initiative involving Eisenmann. The project's focus is the decontamination of industrial water and paints. Eisenmann is collaborating with three other manufacturers and two research organizations to develop innovative water-management solutions and enhanced designs for pretreatment and electrocoating systems. DiWaL receives funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and has a total budget of 2.9 million euros.
The three-year project aims to eliminate the use of biocides in process liquids and drive down both fresh water consumption and waste water generation. Efficient monitoring and management of microbial loads in process liquids leads to consistently high finish quality. Furthermore, it means no reworking is necessary, minimizes paint consumption, make more efficient use of resources, and lowers operating costs. "In this project, we are taking an end to-end approach to the treatment process and using dynamic process simulations and intelligent monitoring," explains Georg Fröhlich, project coordinator from Eisenmann Anlagenbau.
The project also sees electropulsing being employed for the first time to decontaminate electrocoating fluids. This purely physical method, which is suitable for automation, enables a significant reduction in the usage of chemical agents. Voltage pulses cause pores to form in the cell membranes of microorganisms. Cytoplasm (intracellular fluid) then escapes from the cells, killing the organisms. This technique is also effective in the treatment of turbid liquids with multi-resistant microbes.
DiWaL benefits from the combined skills of production-system specialist Eisenmann, paint manufacturers Emil Frei and PPG Deutschland, carmaker BMW, Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, responsible for the coordination). The joint project to improve decontamination of industrial water and paints commenced on November 1, 2016 and will conclude on October 31, 2019.
For further information: www.eisenmann.com