Any ideas for reducing flammability of an oil spray?

[gregjwilson]

I'm developing an application that requires a finely atomized oil mist in a hot environment. Any ideas on a simple way to reduce the flammability other than flooding the chamber with CO2 or Nitrogen? Any clever ways to get O2 out of fire triangle in an oil mist?

thanks.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Put a flame arrester in all the vent paths.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[gregjwilson]

I wish I could, but it's a coating spray on a manufactured product passing by in flat sheets. I don't really have much control over the venting.

 

[saberblue]

Look for one of the PAO "synthetic metal working oils" many of them are water dilutable so you could add say 10% water and raise the flash point to essentially that of water. you need to be very careful in the selection process as some of the these types of oils have substantially changes in viscosity with the addition of water -- in some cases the vis. goes up and in other cases down -- the water content can also serious change the amount of mist

These kinds of oil are also very easily washed off for easy cleaning

A.R. "Andy" Nelson
Engineering Consultant
anelson@arnengineering.com

 

[romke]

be aware that "synthetic" in metalworking products means "no mineral oil based components". the emulsion that saberblue is referring to in mwf terms is called "semi-synthetic" or "micro-emulsion". the word "synthetic" thus has a different meaning then when discussing lubricants in general.

what do you need the oil for? can it not be substituted by another - inflammable - fluid e.g a phosphateester?

 

[gregjwilson]

Oil is to reduce dust in a later process. I don't have much control over its makeup, I'm trying to introduce a upgrade in the existing process. I thought about introducing water or something in the oil, or using an additional spray of water in the enclosure, but need to get with the process owners to see if the addition of water will cause problems.

I realize I'm not making this easy, but I appreciate your inputs.

Greg

 

[saberblue]

There are numerous straight oil formulations that are essentially 100% synthetic oil (meaning oils that are synthesized) they are the MWF equivalents of Mobil One -- the basic chemistry is similar to that of antifreeze and many of them are water dilutable.

The PAO I spoke of in the initial answer are a large class of these types of chemical called poly alpha oliphines,

these kinds of synthetic oils can be used to make high end semi synthetic, soluble, micro emulsion and straight cutting oils.

As with synthetic oils in the automotive industry coolants or metal working fluids (MWFs) made with synthetic oil tend to be more expensive than those using conventional petroleum oils.

A.R. "Andy" Nelson
Engineering Consultant
anelson@arnengineering.com

 

[romke]

if the purpose is to collect dust use of a micro-emulsion (say 5% pao in water)might be a good solution - both from the safety and dust collecting point of view. it will also reduce the amount of oil needed - so the total cost might also be lower, even although pao's are much more expensive then conventional oil.

 

[saberblue]

Once the decision has be made to look at things that are not functionally like straight cutting or grinding oils a whole bunch of possibilities become possible. However as the first post says that they are spray misting the oil on one of my first question would be about fluid recovery etc.

A.R. "Andy" Nelson
Engineering Consultant
anelson@arnengineering.com

 

[HEC]

if it is flat sheet passing through why not use a squeege roller in a bath?

Mark Hutton

 

[gregjwilson]

Thanks, HEC, but surface of product is ridged.

What I'm trying is adding an O2 pre-burner flame upstream of the spray process. I can burn off the O2 level in air before it reached the spray enclosure. O2 levels would then be below flammability levels for this oil. As Saberblue pointed out, though, gotta watch out for conditions after the application.

 

[Pressed]

Have you looked at mixing the oil with a high flash point oil, like vegetable oil? Hard to say, without knowing the temp and application.

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