Reconditioned separators

What You Should Know Before Buying It

From this article you will learn how many processes are required to make a reconditioned separator look and, first of all, work like a new one.

Buying a reconditioned separator is like buying a used car. Not every car polished to shine before selling will guarantee a stress free usage. On the other hand, not every car with the outside not being properly taken care of should be turned down right from the start. Sometimes you do not have to bear high costs to enjoy a ride. It is much easier to refurbish the outside of a car than to spend a fortune on continuous engine repairs. So, to buy a good used car, advice from someone with specialist knowledge is certainly needed.

It is the same with used separators. The process of supplying tested and reliable reconditioned equipment to the customer starts with the purchase of equipment we will undertake to repair. A good look taken by a specialist is enough to know who the former owner was. A well- maintained machine can be restored to an as-new condition even after many years of operation. There are a lot of companies on the market that specialise in the disassembly of equipment from scrapped ships. They offer competitive prices but such machines do not always qualify for professional overhaul. The equipment that should be scrapped is often roughly repaired and offered for sale. So, once again, be careful not to use equipment of uncertain origin. At MAEM, we buy machines only from reliable sources, preferably from our customers. The use of MAEM parts, coupled with professional maintenance by the crew members, means that we will repair an item of equipment that is otherwise in good condition.

A machine delivered to our repair centre is dismantled and all parts are carefully inspected. The body is sandblasted, epoxide primer and polyurethane top coat are applied. This combination ensures strong coating resistance in the most challenging environment. Buying a machine overhauled by MAEM you do not have to choose between a nice look and a long faultless operation: here is what you get in the package. The dismantled machine parts undergo a series of processes such as sandblas ting, painting, galvanising, electropolishing, metalizing, machining. The machining is carried out until fits and tolerances specified by the manufacturer are achieved after the machine parts have been put together again.

All consumables such as bearings, shafts, seals, etc. are always replaced with new ones made by MAEM, irrespective of their condition.

When the whole set of repaired and new parts is ready and the body shines freshly renovated, we proceed to reassemble the machine. Once all repaired and new parts manufactured by us have been connected, the separator bowl together with all auxiliary systems reappears. The machine has been given a new lease of life and again looks like it has gone straight from the production line.

All of you who are expecting a happy ending of the story here and now just wait for what else we have to say.

Beware of separators with a bowl that has not been rebalanced. This is the key element of the machine, rotating at a high speed, and its balancing is absolutely necessary. So, a balancing machine should be among the basic equipment of any company that repairs separators professionally (we wrote about it in #3 of our M Magazine, to be found at www.maem.com).

Once the bowl has been balanced, we issue an official certificate to confirm that all the dynamic balancing conditions have been fulfilled. The machine then goes to the test bench where start-up testing is conducted to verify the effects of our work. We check the acceleration and deceleration times, vibration level, correctness of the bowl operation. This stage ends with the issue of an appropriate certificate as well.

What remains to be done now is to prepare a set of additional gravity discs, a free service kit, a set of tools and documents. The as good as new separator will soon find its place in the engine room. We encourage you to see MAEM offer of machine servicing and repairs. You can find some of the machines at www. resale.info, www.machineseeker.pl and www.ebay.com.

Thanks to Piotr, Head of MAEM Repair and Testing Centre, for preparing this article.