- Photo: PriscoTech's SpinKlene centrifuge
Take Your Rags for a Spin
by Terry Poltrack
"Rags to Riches" is what Paul Wavrock, national-sales manager of Maratek Environmental Technologies Inc. of Bolton, Ontario, dubbed a presentation about his company's centrifuge/distillation unit, which recovers solvents from rags used to clean press rollers. Wavrock closed the Health & Safety segment by echoing Andrew M. Douglas, national equipment manager of Printer's Service Inc, who earlier had spelled out the units' advantages: a dramatic lessening of solvent purchases and rag-cleaning costs, and an equally dramatic reduction in volatile-organic-compound emissions.
Wavrock's STOR unit puts dirtied rags through three cleaning rinses, then uses a high-speed centrifuge to extract solvent. The extracted, and still dirty, solvent is then heated, condensed and collected in a clean tank. Solvents are distilled, and water is extracted. Wavrock claimed a case study resulted in an average 85 percent solvent recovery. His system begins at $101,000.
Douglas shared details regarding his PriscoTech SpinKlene and SolveKlene units. SpinKlene whirls rags at 1,200 Gs of force to recover solvents. Tanks come in different sizes, handling from 120-to-450 rags. On average, 250 rags will give up four gallons of solvent in the spinning, he said, and can then be reused. SolveKlene permits further purification of solvent for general reuse. Douglas claimed recovery of up to 95 percent of used solvent, cutting VOC emissions and saving money.
He offered this model: 12,000 rags a year; 9,984 gallons of solvent; a solvent cost of $5 per gallon; and a VOC level of 6 lbs. per gallon. Using a "conservative" 90 percent recovery rate, he said, the centrifuge/ distillation system could recapture about
9,000 gallons of solvent, representing 27 tons of VOCs and savings of $45,000. Subtracting labor and processing costs, Douglas estimated savings would net out at $33,000. A full-feature system, at about $45,000, would have a probable payback of 16 months.
Switching to ergonomics, Kenneth Scott Wright of Lockheed-Martin led attendees through a dizzying array of computer keyboards. He began with the familiar QWERTY keyboard and its problems: Work is unevenly divided between hands in typical English typing and the shape of board all but dictates poor wrist positions. Alternatives include Dvorak, Chording, split keyboard, sculpted/laterally, data hand, detached, voice recognition and handwriting recognition.
Terry Poltrack is vice president of editorial services at NAA and editor of Presstime magazine. E-mail, poltt@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1682; fax, (703) 902-1690.
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