Separators Blog

Recently, a large dairy plant experienced the nightmare scenario of a catastrophic failure when the bowl cracked on one of their plant’s MSD300 centrifuges. 

All too often, issues with a centrifuge’s separation process aren’t related to the centrifuge itself. Instead, the culprit is often found within other areas of the production line. 

When it comes to troubleshooting and diagnosing a process problem, many technicians look to the centrifuge first — but this is a common mistake, as it’s not the most efficient or effective way to go about fixing your problem. 

Whether or not you’ve ever heard of centripetal force before, you’ve definitely seen it in action, and even felt it in your entire body.

In fact, you’re probably using centripetal force more often than you realize. Even some of your home appliances help you use it for everyday tasks (more on that later).

Sometimes, something as simple as a plant visit can save a facility well over $15,000. Here’s how it happened.

Is your centrifuge currently driven by a fluid or friction clutch? While clutch-driven centrifuges used to be the standard, those days have come and gone. Now, direct drive systems are what everyone wants. They provide numerous benefits, which I’ll cover below. 

When it comes to getting the most out of your centrifuge, a great place to start is by taking an honest look at your separation process. Centrifugal separation is complex, to say the least. Every process differs based on countless variables all working together. Still, when you break things down to their simplest forms, you’ll find that separation processes as a whole all depends on similar variables. 

By servicing centrifuge equipment all across the United States, we’ve come to know these machines really well. After all, Separators is the largest independent centrifuge service provider in the U.S. We work on (and remanufacture) machines from all the major OEMs and we’ve developed an expertise that allows us to help customers — and facilities — operate at peak efficiency.

When you're familiar with centrifuges, you'll see they are simple machines. They do one job, and when they're properly outfitted and operated, they do that one job extremely well. Our training and consulting services educate owners and operators on how to successfully run their equipment and optimize their separation process.

Before we dive into the role air pressure plays in centrifuge performance, it’s important to point out that air pressure is just one factor out of many. In other words, air pressure is important, but it’s not the whole picture. With that being said, here’s a look at how air pressure impacts centrifuge separators.

Time is one of those things we never seem to have enough of. Even (or should I say especially) facilities that run 24 hours a day could use more time. Sometimes, the need to get more and more done in the same number of hours can make it even more difficult to make time for maintenance. Pausing operations for preventative care can be stressful, but ignoring those needs can lead to an even greater loss of time and productivity.