The Filtration Division of intelligent power management company Eaton is expanding its established purifier series with a new, particularly compact size: the fully automatic offline fluid purification system IFPM 10. The unit is designed to remove free, emulsified and dissolved water, free and dissolved gases, as well as particulate contamination from hydraulic and lubrication oils. It is specifically suitable for applications where limited installation space has previously made it difficult to use of high‑performance fluid purification systems.
Proven product family, expanded range
For more than 20 years, Eaton’s purifier series has been used as a solution for fully automatic, PLC‑controlled offline fluid purification in hydraulic and lubrication systems. With the IFPM 33 and IFPM 73 models, the series previously covered flow rates of approx. 7.9 and 18.5 gal/min (30 and 70 l/min). The new IFPM 10, with a flow rate of about 2.6 gal/min (10 l/min), complements the family with a smaller, space‑saving unit size. In addition, all models in the series are now available both as mobile versions (IFPM) and as stationary versions (IFPS).
“With the IFPM 10, we are adding an important unit size to our portfolio,” says Christian König, Project Engineer R&D at Eaton’s Filtration Division. “In steel mills and power plants, in tunneling applications and in other industries with confined installation spaces, we can now offer the right purifier size for a broad range of requirements – in both mobile and stationary configurations.”
Water in oil – an often underestimated risk
In addition to particle contamination, water is among the most common contributors to failures and malfunctions in hydraulic and lubrication systems. It often enters the oil unnoticed through ambient humidity, cooling systems or leaking seals. The consequences can be severe: reduced fluid service life, additive depletion, oil oxidation, internal corrosion and abrasive wear of system components.
“Many operators underestimate the damage that dissolved water in oil can cause because it is invisible and may not be effectively removed using centrifuges or separators,” explains König. “This is exactly where the technological strength of our system lies. The IFPM 10 is designed to remove not only free and emulsified water but also dissolved water from the fluid.”
Reliable performance and easy operation
The IFPM 10 is based on the same vacuum evaporation technology used in the larger models of the purifier series. Contaminated fluid is drawn into the system under vacuum and distributed over a dispersion material inside the vacuum chamber, increasing the evaporation surface area. At the same time, ambient air flows counter-current to the oil and is drawn in through a breather filter, which helps manage moisture and releases it to the atmosphere via a vacuum pump. The dehydrated fluid is then pumped back into the reservoir through an integrated replaceable spin-on filter that is designed to retain particulate contamination.
Compact design for flexible applications
Operation is simple and convenient via push buttons located directly on the control cabinet. The compact design enables use even in severely space‑constrained environments maintaining the performance characteristics of the purifier series.
The IFPM 10 is ideally suited for applications where fluid purification has previously been limited by space constraints. Operators in power plants and energy generation facilities, steel production and processing plants, the oil and gas industry, as well as mobile working machines such as tunnel boring machines can now benefit from the same high‑performance technology relied upon in other sectors that depend on effective cooling, hydraulic and lubrication fluids.
