There are many different options in oil water separators. The design of the system varies based on the needs of the application, including the volume of liquids to be processed and the speed at which the separation needs to occur. Smaller units are designed to work with a specific machining system, extending the duty cycle of the coolant.

There are also different separators used in different industries. A key factor in the design and choice is the type of oil or contaminant that needs to be removed. This may include free-floating oil, dissolved oil, mechanically dispersed oil and even oil that may contain suspended types of solids.

Based on the oil droplet size, the density, temperature and viscosity, the rate of feed of liquid to be treated and the desired end quality of the discharge water/liquid, different systems are more advantageous and efficient.

The basic operation of the oil water separator is to use a skimmer to remove the free-floating oil on the surface. This liquid, with the free-floating oil skimmed from the surface, is then pumped into a tank in the system.

The tank has a solid filtration system, a coalescing chamber as well as a tramp oil trough and a weir to drain off overflow and control the volume of fluid in the tank, preventing any of the coolants from being pushed into the tramp oil trough. The filtration system removes larger droplets and particles, with the coalescing chamber designed with a finer filtration system to trap the smaller sized droplets, coalescing them together until they create a larger oil droplet that floats to the surface.

Highly efficient and easy to operate on equipment, the use of an oil water separator extends the life of cooling fluids and helps to reduce overall costs in machining shops and other similar types of applications and industries.