Save Oil , Save Money, Run Trolley Tank Processes to Tight Specification
17th April 2010

The target temperature for the oil tank in Trolley Lubrication is 180°F.



In this example, using 176°F to leave the manufacturers data intact, referring to the table, the change in temperature from 80°C to 60°C (176°F to 140°F) results in an increase in viscosity of 59% on the 70-W oil and 77% on the 150-W oil.

The average between the two oil viscosities being 68%. The next step lower (60°C to 40°C) in temp more than triples the viscosity.

As the temperature of oil in the Trolley tank falls, the amount of oil taken out of the oil tank by the trolleys increases. In the 2009 Calender year, one plant was ordering 6,380 gallons of Trolley Oil at a cost of US$10.35 per gallon or total dollars of US$66,033.

As the plant was running their oil tank at around 140 degrees as an average operating temperature in 2009, the oil used was 168% of what is would have been at 180 degrees.

In dollars, this is ($66,033/168%) x 100% = $39,305 of oil used with a constant temp of 180 degrees or a US$26,727 cost savings.

If the temp average was 160°F, the cost saving would be a lower number.

With the Emech Trolley tank control system, the customer was able to justify the capital expense to invest in the accurate Emech Trolley Tank control system, and remove variance and waste from their process, saving around US$26,000 per annum.