Rahul Gore, Head – Business Development, Neotech Equipments Pvt Ltd, speaks to IPF about the FORMECO range of Solvent Recovery Systems and its advantages.

Neotech offers solvent recovery systems. What are these?

Solvents or organic cleaning agents are a blend of multiple organic compounds, which have a high absorption/cutting power hence find their use as cleaning agent or application agents in paint shops and various surface preparation and cleaning techniques.

These solvents, when used specifically for cleaning application, form an unavoidable mixture of solvent and impurities, which are either disposed through waste treatment processes or sold to some third party agents; thus leading to high generation of volatile compounds, and a future need to buy more solvents.

We offer easy to use, skid mounted plug and play machines manufactured by FORMECO – Italy, for recycling this impure solvent through a simple distillation process in a highly safe and controlled environment by heating of solvent uptill its boiling temperature, which takes place in a boiler covered by a peripheral heating jacket filled with diathermic oil – which is heated by an electrical element. The vapours are conveyed to a condenser cooled by air or water, condensed solvent is collected in a tank for re-use.

What are the benefits of using solvent recovery systems? What is the USP of these products?

Firstly, solvents are highly damaging to the environment as they release volatile compounds in the atmosphere which can lead to respiratory as well as other permanent ailments, so it is advisable (internationally) to recycle and reuse them inside a controlled environment (industry or production plants) rather than discharging it into the environment. Further, solvents are expensive and recycling them back to their original form can lead to tremendous cost saving. We have customers who have procured high end systems costing Rs 30 lakh plus and recovered the entire cost of the project within a span of 6-7 months, and further started saving money by reducing their monthly solvent purchase volumes.

The surface cleaning/protection processes and products contain many harmful ingredients causing serious concern. How does the system work?

We focus on this very fact that solvents are highly flammable and harmful to the environment. Thus, the user should be responsible for its lifecycle and it is any day beneficial to the society that the users of these products themselves recycle and reuse them rather than discharge them in the environment

Our machines have optional level of automation, whereby with just a push of a button dirty solvent is loaded into the machine, through a level sensor filling of the boiler is detected, machine initiates its cycle which can be programmed (i.e., time and temperature settings for a cycle – the machine has a memory for 10 programs in industrial models) at the time of installation; once the cycle is complete fresh solvent is available in a collection tank, there is option for auto unloading of sludge which is available in dry or paste form – hence much easier to dispose with minimum or zero traces of solvent in it. Next cycle can also be initiated automatically – thus operators are not directly exposed to solvent.

Is there a one-size-fits-all solution? What is the total range of products on offer?

Not at all, globally we are the only company with a wide range of machines available from 15 litres of treatment capability per 4 hours cycle, going up to 2200 litres per 4 hour cycle.

Our systems are categorised into three ranges:

1. Standard Range – entry level range – does not have memory, auto loading feature can be added.
2. Professional range – 60 litres to 230 litres, has option of auto loading, unloading, memory for 3 different cycles and other add on options.
3. Industrial Range – 230 litres to 2200 litres, most of the processes are automatic, have a memory, can be integrated with PLC system or even Ethernet and wireless systems.

All the above machines have been ATEX approved by the European Union’s safety council for industrial systems, thus giving its customer a satisfaction of working in a completely safe environment.

What are the main application industries/areas?

Paint shops – where solvent are used for purging and cleaning of equipment
Metal degreasing – where solvent are used for removal of oils and other impurities from the surface of the job
Printing industry – where solvent are again used for cleaning of machines
Pharmaceutical and chemical industry – again used as cleaning agents for boiler and reactors, and
Tanneries, goldsmiths, furniture manufactures, etc.

With growing environmental concerns and stricter legislation, do you see demand growing for these products?

We have high expectation from this product and other products that we market under our ‘Filtration, Separation and Recycling technologies’ category. We are already observed a good demand from MNCs who are bringing in best practices for industries from their respective countries and have been a user of our products in their international locations such as – Honda, Yamaha, Alstom, CAT, to name a few. We hope to see more and more Indian companies and SMEs opting for these machine as they are very cost effective and in future lead to cost saving.

These are imported at the moment, it appears. Any manufacturing or assembly operation on the anvil?

We have kept our options open, we are presently working as representatives for FORMECO throughout India taking care of sales, installation and servicing of FORMECO’s systems in India, our present journey has been only 5 years and have seen a above expectation increase in sales of these machines.

Coming to your question – we have had internal discussions with FORMECO’s top management that India should be the home to their second production facility globally and we will support them maintaining the same level of quality that the systems manufactured in Italy have. Manufacturing in India can also lead to reduction in prices of these systems, but all will depend on the demand from this market in the due course of time.

Neotech Equipments Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. Tel: 011-25740364. Email: sales@neotechworld.com