F+L Week 2015 | 10-13 March 2015
33
Singapore. Narasimalu has publishedworks in
more than 90 international journals andhas
presented at several international conferences.
His areas of technical interests are tribology,
mechanics of lubricants anddrivetraindesign,
structural healthmonitoring and simulation
methods. He is amember of ASME, ASM, ASPE,
IEEE andMRS(S).
FluidManagementSystem
forZeroWasteOilDischarge
andZeroMachine
Downtime
Tuesday 10 March 16:00 | 17:30
VICHAI SRIMONGKOLKUL
OilPure Technologies, Inc.
America uses roughly two billion gallons
of lubricating oil each year. About 20% of
these oils are recycled by American indus-
tries. American industries have seized the
alternative of the In-House Oil Reclamation
through a better fluid management system.
Later on, they have learned that extending
the lubricant life also improves precision
quality control and reduces machine break
down.
It has been easy for operations to just
throw oil out and replace it with new oil.
Today, many factors are changing this
situation. There now exists new technology,
such as an online oil monitoring system, a
CLOUD-based server, a Mini SCADA and
new oil purification technology, etc., to help
industries extend lubricant life. However,
some companies still use the same old
conventional oil filtration technology, con-
ventional oil analysis from labs and human
expertise to check lubricant quality.
A fluid management system requiring
best practices to improve plant equipment
and its reliability will lead companies to
more profitable operations. Reliability man-
agement can be controlled by excellence
lubrication practices, which will improve
company Return On Assets (ROI), thus
leading to enhanced shareholder values
and earnings from better corporate returns
on investments.
This hidden cost occurs from the fact that
80% of the root cause of equipment failure
comes from lubrication failure. Today, busi-
ness rules have changed. Corporate hidden
profit can be obtained within the company
by improving machinery productivity and
cost savings. The internal productivity cost
savings is easier to access for profit than
the profit that comes from sales revenue
deducted from operating costs. Extending
lubricant life has a lot more benefits than just
savings from oil purchases.
The successful practice of a fluid man-
agement system results in the following:
Extending lubricant life by as much as 10
years without new oil replacement.
Reducing more than 80% of equipment
failure, such as hydraulic components, by
continuously cleaning lubricant supply in
the lubricating process. More than 90% of
leaked hydraulic oil is recovered and recy-
cled for reuse.
Increasing average tool life of drills by
209% and other tools by 44% to 87% by
reducing oil contamination.
Improving the stamping and forging
process in high precision quality control
and reducing the defective rate by more
than 15%.
Improving the precision hardness value
of heat-treated parts for better surface
quality and reducing stain on parts surface
by reducing excessive carbon in quenching
oils. More than 90% of waste quenching
oils from washing tanks is also recycled for
reuse back to a furnace.
When continuous clean lubricant is con-
tained in the process equipment for longer
than five years, this lubricant becomes
an asset of the company. This leads to a
zero waste oil discharge, zero machine
downtime, company asset utilisation and
world-class manufacturing practices.
Vichai Srimongkolkul,
president of OilPure
Technologies, Inc., is a native
of Bangkok, Thailand. OilPure
was established in 1994 and
is based in Kansas City, Mo., U.S.A.
Since 1988, Vichai has developed a
patentedoil purification technology, OilPure,
whichwon the 1989GoldAward Product of
the Year fromPlant Engineeringpublication.
In 2004, Vichai received a grant from theU.S.
government tobecome anAdvancedManufac-
turing Specialist at theUniversity of Missouri
Rolla School of Engineering. In 2007, hewas
