SmartSkim® CoolantLoop™
Frequently Asked Questions

1 What coolants can be recycled?. Any type of coolant can be recycled. Some are better than others because they reject, or split out oil better than others. Synthetic and semi synthetic coolants reject oil better than water soluble oil coolants, and therefore can be recycled faster and more efficiently. However water soluble oil coolants can also be recycled. It just takes a bit longer.
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2. Will portable devices work? Portable devices can’t deliver the range of treatment steps needed. Different types of portable devices each ineffectively tries to address only one or two of the many problems your coolants face. One tries to get solids, but can't handle oil. Others try to get oil but can't handle solids. All of them blind over quickly, requiring a lot of maintenance. There is nothing tricky to understand here. Portables do not have the skimming or separation capacity to handle the demands of production machining sumps. They are band aids on symptoms, not solutions to the problem. However, it’s not just the fault of the portable devices. The design of most sumps themselves also prevents the majority of contaminants from ever reaching the skimming area. There are many built in, structural reasons inside your sumps that prevent portable devices from working. Sure it sounds like a good idea to push a portable device around and hope it helps a little. It just doesn’t work. Want to learn more about this subject? Take a 9 screen tour of what you should know about portable treatment devices and machine coolants.
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3. Why recycling over portable devices?. Think of machining parts. The most efficient approach you can take is to get hold of that part and do every single thing you can to it while you’re holding it. To set it down the part and then pick it up again leads to remeasurements, inefficiencies, errors and cost. Smart coolant maintenance is no different. To effectively clean and recycle your coolants you have to hold and control them completely. You take the coolants from their individual sumps and put them in a recycler. Hold and control. Now you can introduce coolant treatment strategies that address all coolant in a sump, and ultimately all of the same coolant in your plant. You get to use the most appropriate, least cost treatment strategies needed for each stage of the coolant treatment. Options can be added as needed. You just can’t do this with a portable device moved from sump to sump. Portables can’t carry enough solutions to make much of a difference. They have to throw expensive consumables at your problem right away and hope for the best. Not a strategy in your interest. Only freestanding cooolant recyclers give you the ability to hold, control and treat effectively. It’s just common sense.
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4. Payback? This is where it gets fun. If you’re like most plants you spend a boatload of money on coolants. It’s painful, because so much of it gets wasted. Dumped due to oil contamination. Dumped due to biologicals. Dumped do to solids. Dumped due to degraded tool life. Dumped due to oil mist building up in the shop. Lost through chip hoppers and puck making tools. Hurts thinking about it.
Effective coolant recycling will cut your coolant use dramatically, typically 45% to 75%. For a ballpark, assume you’ll cut your coolant use in half. How much are you spending per month for new coolant now? Cut that number in half. Then get your cost for monthly coolant disposal. For reference, natural gas costs average about 10 cents per gallon to evaporate coolants. Cut that by 75% to be conservative. Add those monthly savings together. These numbers get big fast. One CoolantLoop™ customer with about 200 machine tools cut their coolant use in half immediately. They saved over $144,000 the first year in coolant costs alone. Another $19,000 saved in disposal costs. This is just the first year. These savings continue. Year in year out with very little operating cost for the CoolantLoop™. These figures also do NOT include improved tool life, any health and safety benefits or, the biggest money waster of all, savings from reduced downtime.
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5. MetalWorking Fluids Magazine The following is from the opening of an article about coolant recycling in Metalworking Fluids Magazine. “ The economic benefits of recycling coolant are enormous. The larger the shop, the larger the savings. Does it work? Absolutely. Manufacturers of metalworking fluids have vacillated between selling them and pretending they didn't exist. Let's face it. The machine shop that recycles uses less coolant, a lot less. ”
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6. Is this new technology? No. And yes. Coolant recycling has worked for decades. The problem has been the reliability and the effectiveness of the component parts of the recyclers. The SmartSkim® CoolantLoop™ takes a successful, proven recycling program and equips it with the best tools in the world to do the job. The award winning, multi patented SmartSkim® technologies have proven themselves in the most difficult industrial skimming and separation environments in the world. Add SmartSkim® to the program and you get success from day one. Every time. If you would like an in depth look at the separate components that are included in the CoolantLoop™ click here
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7. What sized shop? Any size shop can benefit. We have customers with just a few machines and customers with over 200 machines. The ability to tighten up this purchasing and disposal loop will deliver an immediate payback no matter the size shop.
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8. CoolantLoop™ sizes? CoolantLoop™ Coolant Recycling Systems are available in the following sizes. CL150 (150 gal.), CL300 (300 gal.) CL600 (600 gal.) CL900 (900 gal.) CL1200 (1,200 gal.) and CL2000 (2,000 gal.) Total capacity is split between clean side and dirty side. For example a CL300 would have 150 gallon capacity on the clean side and 150 gallon capacity on the dirty side.
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9. What size CoolantLoop™? Guidelines will follow, but please know you can call toll free 800 663 2167, any time and we’d be glad to help determine this or answer any other questions you may have. A coolant recycler is basically a lifetime purchase. Sized right you won’t need another one. It will just sit there and work forever. It’s inexpensive to add tankage at this point, so factoring in a number of variables helps get you all the recycler you’ll need without adding much cost. The rule of thumb for sizing coolant recyclers goes like this...
You want the recycler to be able to store the most coolant you’re likely to need to move there at any one time. One rule of thumb is to add the total gallons of you’re two largest sumps then add 50% for growth and unexpected coolant maintenance demands.
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10. Tank sizes? For perspective, the CL300, our 300 total gallon recycler, the tank footprint is 42” X 60” X 36” high. Our large shop recycler, the CL2000 holds 2,000 total gallons. Tank size is 96” X 84” X 62” high. You will want to leave some room around all sides of the system for maintenance.
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11. Site requirements? The CoolantLoop™ should be installed levelled. No electric hooikup required. System is air powered only. We need about 3-5 SCFM total air regulated down to aprox. 30 PSI (regulators supplied). You will need water service for low level water make up and coolant proportioning.
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12. How to transport dirty coolants to the recycler? Portable sump cleaners are ideal but not necessary. Portable sump cleaners remove all the coolant and chips from the sump by vacuum, filtering out coarse solids as it works. Sump cleaners are available as air operated or electric operated. They can be pushed or towed. Larger units can be equipped with a fork stabable base. Sump cleaners come as single tanks or split tanks. Single tanks are used to transport dirty coolant from your sumps to the recycler. Split tanks can transport dirty coolant from the sump to the recycler and clean coolants from the recycler back to the sump. Split tank sump suckers have separate, segregated transport chambers to prevent cross contamination. We can include a portable sump cleaner as an options to CoolantLoop™ quotations.
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13. Portable sump cleaner sizing? This is a function of the largest amount of fluid you'd like to move at once. For many, this is defined by the size of their largest individual sump. For others, it may be the total amount of coolants in the combined sumps of an individual cell or group of cells.
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14. Portable sump cleaner alternatives? If you have a working method for evacuating fluids from your coolant sumps now, just transport those fluids to the CoolantLoop™ for recycling. If you don’t have a current method you like, get a portable sump cleaner. It’s the way to go.
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15. Clean coolant return? You can transport clean coolant from the recycler back to the sump if you have a split tank sump sucker. This prevents cross contamination. You can also pump clean coolant back to the sumps directly. We can supply a high volume coolant return pump with CoolantLoop™ systems and the advice needed to deploy this option appropriately.
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16. Recycle all coolants? No. Not all coolant can be captured for recycle. A small amount will always be lost as dragout on parts, chips, overspray, etc. The best most shops can recycle is typically about 85% of your coolants. The remaining 15% can be periodicly added back as fresh coolant. All CoolantLoop™ systems come with a Hydrominder™ water level controller and coolant proportioner as standard equipment.
By always having a small amount of old coolant bleed out of the system and adding a small amount of new coolant to replace it, the overall health and effectiveness of the entire coolant system stays high.
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17. How does the CoolantLoop™ remove floating oil and solids? At the heart of the CoolantLoop™ is the SmartSkim® Crossflow Separator System. This is an all stainless steel open channel gravity separator. That means there is no media to blind over and clean. The Crossflow System uses no consumables at all. Captured oil typically drains from the separator by gravity to a customer supplied oil capture drum. The Crossflow System is comes with an angled bottom tank, so that captured solids which have accumulated in the bottom of the separator can be easily flushed out as needed. The award winning, multi patent SmartSkim® Crossflow System includes the the best surface skimmer in the world, having proven itself in many of the most difficult industrial skimming and separation applications possible. The CoolantLoop™ System continuously skims the dirty side of the system to remove oil and floating contaminants. This delivers multi pass treatment through the Crossflow Separator System, giving you the greatest separation capabilities possible, all without the use of any consumables. For more information about the Crossflow Separator, click here
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18. How does the CoolantLoop™ remove fine solids? We call it our FilterLoop™. Dirty coolants are continously skimmed and pumped through the SmartSkim® Crossflow Separator. Inside the separator, floating oils and coarse solids separate by gravity and are captured inside the separator. Clean treated coolants exit the separator into the clean side of the CoolantLoop™ System. It’s here the FilterLoop™, our fine filtration step takes over. We continuously withdraw clean treated coolant from the clean side of the recycler and pump it through a pressurized bag filtration assembly. Filters can use the lowest rating allowed by your coolant supplier, typically 5 or 10 micron. Additionally for shops working on cast iron and steel, we can further separate small contaminants down to the sub micron range by including an in line magnetic separator on the clean discharge side of the FilterLoop™ bag filter assembly. This step allows you to remove fine ferrous contaminants from your coolants in a way that is not possible with any barrier filter. The magnetic separator will not stip out chemical components of the coolant the way barrier filters would at micron ratings below 5 or 10 micron.
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19. How else does the FilterLoop™ contribute? While the main circulation pattern through the recycler skims oil from the dirty side through the separator, we also separately circulate the clean side of the CoolantLoop™ through the FilterLoop&trade at 10 to 15 GPM. When this filtered fluid reenters the system we put it through a manifold which evenly distributes the flow across a system wide cascade overflow channel feeding back into the clean side. This cascade overflow gently aerates your coolants continuously. This continuous aeration step mitigates anerobic bacteria contamination that can build up in coolant sumps, often eliminating the need for using biocides.
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20. Can I add an ozonator? Sure. We offer them as an option on all CoolantLoop™ Systems. Ozonators are deployed when extra biological control is needed. Our standard ozonators will need a 110 electric outlet. Our ozonators can be turned on and off in any time pattern, using control timers that come standard with the unit.
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21. What kind of maintenance does the CoolantLoop™ need? We build our CoolantLoop™ Systems with ease of maintenance as our primary goal. All separations and waste flows are designed to work by gravity, minimizing pumps and consumables and expense. Captured oil typically drains by gravity to a customer supplied oil capture drum or tote. Solids are manually drained from the Crossflow Separator as needed, typically once every 4 to 6 months. The solids discharge flow can be filtered to eliminate any fluid waste. Here are a few general maintenance guidelines...
EACH SHIFT. Check skimmer operations (about 1 minute), check pressure drop across FilterLoop™ bag filter assembly (about 1 minute) Change bags when pressure differential across bag reaches 10 PSI. Check level in oil capture drum (about 1 minute). Change drums as needed.
WEEKLY. If an optional magnetic separator has been installed with your FilterLoop™ components, it should be checked for cleaning (about 1 minute). Check the air filter element on the pneumatic controls supplying the AOD transfer pumps to see if a replacement filter element is needed (about 1 minute). Change as needed.
EVERY 3 - 6 MONTHS OR AS NEEDED. Clean out the solids captured inside the SmartSkim® Crossflow Separator (about 1 hour). Because our systems use angled bottom tanks, solids discharge easily. Gravity drain the contents of the Crossflow separator out through the solids discharge port at the base of the separator. Because of the design of the CoolantLoop™ this cleaning step can be gravity fed through a simple filter to dewater the contaminants. Fluids can typically be returned to the sumps. Solids can be discharged as a dry trash. No wastewater. That’s a good idea.
EVERY 6 - 12 MONTHS OR AS NEEDED. Drain the dirty side of the CoolantLoop™ System. If solids have accumulated inside the dirty side they can be removed by your sump sucker or shoveled.
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22. What is the role of centrifuges in coolant recycling? Centrifuges are used in an attempt to remove emulsified oil from machine coolants. When centrifuges are fed raw dirty coolant they are quickly overwhelmed by oils, grease and solids. Centrifuges are expensive capital purchases and are very labor intensive devices to maintain. Centrifuges also remove good coolant components, such as defoamers and biocides. When you use a good coolant that rejects oil, simple, effective recycling using open channel coalescing and gravity separation provided by the CoolantLoop™ can supply all the coolant treatment most people will ever need. If you would like to learn more about centrifuges and coolant recycling click here.
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23. Why does the CoolantLoop™ use air pumps? Several reasons. FIrst, it’s the right pump for the application. Centrifugal pumps will shear oil molecules into smaller pieces due to their high mechanical impact on the oil. Positive displacement pumps transfer “packets” of fluid which has litttle or no impact on the fluids being transferred. Our choice of air operated double diaphragm (AODD) pumps is based on the parameters required for the fluid being pumped. Coolant sumps by their very nature have a great deal of solids present. By choosing the right AODD pump we can specify the pumpable solids specification we’d like to see for the application. Other positive displacement pumps, such as progressive cavity pumps, are quickly damaged by solids in the fluid being pumped.
Another reason we use air operated pumps is that it means you don't need electirical control panels, or electricians to hook it up or repair it. All you need to do is attach an air line and you’re underway. Plug and play!
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24. How much air do the CoolantLoop™ pumps use? Our entire coolantLoop™ System typically uses 2 to 4 SCFM. We supply the system with big pumps and then run those pumps very slowly. Because we oversize our pumps to get a bigger, better pumpable solids specification, we can run them much slower than their top flow ratings. Consequently, this technique uses very little air. Most plant air systems bleed out far more air that the CoolantLoop™ ever uses.
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25. Can I dedicate a CoolantLoop™ to one specific sump? Yes. This is an effective way to recycle in-ground coolant pits or large coolant tanks. In this case, dirty coolant is skimmed and pumped from the source tank through the recycler. As floating tramp oil separates from the coolant inside the recycler, the oil is skimmed, concentrated and removed by the CoolantLoop™. Clean, recycled coolant continuously returns to the source tank. To see photos of a dedicated recycler working on an in-ground pit CLICK HERE
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26. Do you have a question we didn’t answer? Send us an eMail with any question you’d like answered and we’ll get you an answer right away. Thanks!
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SmartSkim® CoolantLoop™ Frequently Asked Questions

SmartSkim® CoolantLoop™
Frequently Asked Questions