STONE WATER RECYCLING

Stone, granite and glass fabrication shops throughout North America understand the need to recycle their sludge water. Not only does stone water recycling allow water reuse and significantly reduce water use and costs, collecting the sludge aids in meeting federal, state, and local laws, regulations and ordinances. Many of today’s consumers are searching for fabricators that utilize environmentally friendly business practices. Recycling water can be one of your most important marketing benefits.

Stone industry water involves multiple challenges. Individual stones such as granite, slate, limestone, sandstone, and fieldstone each have unique characteristics. Glass is similar to these stones. Full Circle Water understands the challenges and offers industrial wastewater solutions such as filter presses, lamella clarifiers, vacuum drums, and silo systems.

Sludge water produced from stone fabrication presents unique challenges in sludge removal and in recycling of the water. The nature of the slurry varies by stone type, shop equipment mix, and specific operation of equipment. The largest issue is the removal of suspended solids (slurry) from the wastewater.
Offering multiple solutions to your challenging problems makes FCW unique. Most manufacturers offer one technology. Many times, this leads to unsatisfactory results and an unhappy customer.

No matter the stone processed, the resulting stone water sludge contains a very concentrated range of suspended solids. Stone industry water is made up of small particles of stone of various sizes ranging from as small as a fraction of a micron to as large as hundreds of microns. For reference, consider that a cross section of human hair is about 50 microns. Most of the suspended solids in the water are from 1 to 80 microns. By count, they tend to be 1 to 10 microns. By overall mass, the vast majority of the stone water sludge is in the 20- to 50-micron range.

The All In One slurry water plant is specifically designed to meet the challenges of the stone fabrication industry.  Stone fabricators and countertop specialists have struggled with maintaining adequate water quality and quantity and in managing their water system.  The All In One has greatly simplified the operation and maintenance requiring only minutes per day to manage.  Enhanced flow geometry and tube settling packs allow very clean water to be produced in real time as the shop is running so there is no waiting on water.

What makes your slurry settle out of suspension is the size and specific gravity of the stone water particles. The higher the specific gravity and density, the faster it settles. The larger the particle, the faster it settles. Some of the stone water particles can be so small that they will actually float in water for days before settling out.

What Makes The All In One So great?

The All In One is the ultimate Stone Fabricators wastewater equipment solution. It combines the clarifier, water tank, and pump skid into a single monolithic unit for easier, more compact installations. The core of the clarifier (the plate pack) and the control systems have undergone a major generational upgrade. The plate pack has been completely redesigned based on computational fluid dynamics and new plate materials, including an exclusive flow regulation technology developed by Full Circle Water. They were built to perform at full flow; they do not rely on throttling valves on the slurry inlet line. The system removes well over 95% of the solids in the slurry water with virtually no maintenance or babysitting required. For CNC spindle feed a simple large filter on the CNC spindle ensures that the water quality needed is met.

The touchscreens are big and bright with an easy-to-use interface and diagnostic capabilities. Almost any operation on the variable frequency drive (VFD), such as changing water pressure settings, can be easily completed from the touchscreen. If something goes wrong (like a purge valve not opening) the system knows and alerts the operator. If a purge valve sticks open, the system knows and shuts down. The system automatically adjusts to work load, purging more when the system is used more heavily (and not at all when the system is idle). Going to a second shift or working a Saturday won’t throw the system into chaos. Chemical dosing can be adjusted from the touchscreen without guesswork. Flow sensors can tell you how much water your shop is using (current and daily average). There is even a sensor to alert the operator if the system is low on polymer. And everything is tied into a multi-color status light and alarm that can be freely magnetically mounted on the system, so you know at a glance (or siren) if something has gone wrong.

Articulate error messages make it easier for the customer to self-diagnose and correct problems, making them more confident in the system and reducing the load on tech support. Solid state sensors have replaced all float switches on the advanced models, removing the risk of the float getting tangled or the contacts in it failing. A new generation of mechanically simplified, robust chemical pumps should reduce failures. Larger feed tanks make refilling easier, allowing a full gallon at a time of flocculant to be added. Other features, like a screen between the clarifier and water tank, reduce the potential for problems and downtime.

There are two control packages. The basic control package offers a similar functionality to our current design (a simple purge timer and a manual on/off switch for the repress pump). Basic systems include a stainless-steel pit stir wand for stirring up the pit as needed; the basic controller does not support an automatic pit stir system.

The advanced controller system uses a new 7″ touchscreen controller networked to a new suite of sensors and new VFDs to control the repress pumps. The advanced system comes standard with an automatic pit stir system. Advanced controller configurations include purge valve position sensors, a light stack/alarm, and low chemical sensors. A solid-state flow sensor—which tracks the amount of water being used by the shop—is available as an option.