Parts cleaning in the tooling industry

The cleaning of borings and pipes and can be a particular challenge for conventional cleaning equipment, such as washing machines, high pressure or ultrasound, especially for internal cleaning. The problem is exacerbated by small diameters and long or curved pipes.

Here, ph-cleantec offers a simple and highly flexible alternative with its universal low-pressure hot cleaning technology. In principle, this equipment technology is a hand-guided system that works with low pressure (up to max. 14 bar) and high water temperature (up to 95°C). Via an electric flow heater, the technology is available within one minute and the low pressure ensures that nothing is damaged and the process can be used in the workshop without harm to people or the environment.

For internal cleaning, various lances or flexible nozzles from a diameter of 2.5 mm are available in almost any length. This means that sensitive components can be cleaned on the inside, even with curvatures or narrow passages. In combination with telescopic lances, pipes up to 7 m in length can also be cleaned internally. Of course, the process is also suitable for the external cleaning of shafts, pipes or cubic components. Larger and heavier parts can be cleaned on stationary collectors with almost any size. The water can be recycled using a special recycling process and thus be re-used multiple times.

In addition to process-related parts cleaning, the ph-cleantec cleaning devices can also be used in maintenance and for machine upkeep. Particularly worth mentioning is the possibility of cleaning tooling machines directly with their own cooling lubricant.

Applications/Requirements

• Quick, safe and complete cleaning of electric motorsin case of checking and repairing
• Usual sizes 1 –100 KW, independent of structural shape/type
• Cleaning of oily windings, dirty end shields,rotors and crowns

Advantages when using low pressure hot cleaners

• No special environmental conditions required as with high pressure cleaners
• No/little use of cleaning agents, in particular no hydrocarbonssignificantly reduced purchase costs
• Optimum accessibility also in radiator fins and holes
• Less water consumption and significantly reduced disposal costs
• No damage of sensitive components, as e.g. windings or insulations.
• Safeguards health, protects the environment, promotes motivation

General information

Heat exchangers are offered in the most different designs, e.g. as

• water coolers charge coolers
• fuel coolers motor oil coolers
• gear oil coolers condensators
• evaporators
• conditioning systems, etc.

Requirements

Coolers have on a large surface capillary fins, thus cleaning should be done quickly, efficiently and without damage to fins. In practice these parts are mainly cleaned by high pressure cleaners - causing damages.

Advantages of low-pressure hot-cleaners

• our technique offers “quick“ cleaning method
• the fins will not be damaged because of low pressure and the cleaning resultis excellent. Moreover: time-saving, free of chemicals
• usable in the workshop
• no special environmental conditions necessary

General information

Separators are used in the machining industry to separate / clean cooling lubricant emulsions, washing waters and oil-water mixtures.

Requirements

The interior parts of the separators must be cleaned regularly. The cleaning should be done quickly, efficiently and without damage. Some of the components are “nano-coated“ in order to guarantee a higher dirt-repellence. These nano-coated components must be specially protected from “rough” cleaning methods.

• The principle allows “soft“ cleaning methods
• Dirt from solid matter, oils etc. are difficult to be cleaned by cold cleanersand it is time consuming
• time saving
• without use of chemicals
• Application in the workshop is possible
• No special environmental conditions required
• The size of the components does not present any special limitation like e.g. washing machines or ultrasonic baths

Technical basis

Electrostatic filter systems are used for cleaning of the outgoing air of tooling machines working with cooling lubricants or oils from solid or liquid particlesbymeansof high-voltage.

• staff and environmental protection
• cleanliness in production

Functional principle

In order to protect the value and to secure a perfect functioning of filters a thorough cleaning is recommended by the manufactureres (4 to 12 weeks, dependingon contamination).

Applications/Requirements

quick, economical, effective and damage-free cleaning of preliminaryand afterfilter, of ionizers and collectors.

Former cleaning method

high pressure cleaners (damage of collector plates of tungsten wires of ionizers)

ph-cleantec technology

• universal cleaning method
• time saving
• high efficiency
• damage-free cleaning also at sensible components

General information

Spindles make very special demands on the cleaning technology due to their specific geometry and partly already installed electric motors or drive elements. The spindles shown here serve for opening and closing of smoke warning systems (SWS) as well as for positioning of workpiece carriers at the chip removal processing.

With alternative cleaning methods disassemblies of electric motors and a coding of spindle and electric motors as a matching assembly become necessary. Furthermore the required cleanness both at the spindles and at the spindle counter-bearings is only obtained with cleaning by hand or with our technology.

Advantages of the ph-cleantec cleaning technology

• Optimal success and accessibility in the spindle threads
• Our device can directly be used in the production. Distance and reloading
• times to the washing station can be reduced considerably.
• The cleaning agent contains a highly efficient corrosion protection (D 2100)
• Compared with ultrasonic bath or washing machine an efficient and quick procedure
• Device is also suitable for cleaning of tool machines operating with lubricants
• Mobile system without special requirements regarding location of use

Application / Requirement

Cleaning and accessibility in all Drillings. Dirt-free and dust-free cleaning at the complete block

Advantages when using low pressure hot cleaners:

• Lower water consumption compared to high-pressure cleaners; therefore considerably less costs
• No splash-back effects due to appropriate spray accessories
• When using a filter system the water remains in the circulation; therefore no separate washing bay with oil separator necessary
• Dust-free and grease-free cleaning without aggressive detergents
• When using a big base collector also suitable for heavy hydraulic blocks

Technische Grundlagen

Pipes and shafts or workpieces with the necessity of degreasing before further processing are manufactured from various materials and in all possible dimensions. Particularly at units with slim inside diameters or with a great length the cleaning in the inner side of the object is a problem in General.

Application / Requirement

Normally an oil-free removal of chips from the processing inclusively oil/cooling lubricants is important. The workpieces are either measured, assembled or surface treated after cleaning.

Previous technique

Generally such workpieces are cleaned with a high-pressure cleaner or with chemicals containing solvents. Both techniques are not considered as to be result-sure and workshop-suited. Moreover, the high-pressure cleaner requires special environmental conditions and due to the process it is scarcely resource-saving.

Advantages of the ph-cleantec technology:

• Universal cleaning technology
• There are no well-known alternative techniques
• High effectiveness, even at heavily accessible places
• Damage-free cleaning, also at sensitive components

The retarder shafts are produced for the end customer and gear box manufacturer. The production process of these shafts comprises an oil tempering as well as a blasting with steel balls after the metal cutting. The tempering oil hardens while the shaft is cooling down and blasting material adheres to it – particularly in the internal thread of the hollow cone. This resulted in very expensive claims and return shipments of complete trailer trucks full of goods. With the introduction of our technique this problem is completely solved.

Technical basics

Castings are manufactured from the most different materials and in all imaginable dimensions. Particularly in case of smaller units the accessibility into the casting inside for cleaning is not easy.

Application / Requirement

In this case primarily the removal of fine chips from the chip processing incl. oil/cooling lubricants and the so-called cast sand is important.

Previous technology

Compressed air with the „hope“ of blow-out of pollutions or ultrasonic cleaning technology in sufficiently dimensioned baths. Both alternative technologies are not „result-certain“ and rather represent a test of the users for complaint minimization.

Advantages of the ph-cleantec technology

• Universal cleaning technology
• Cost saving in comparison to the alternative technologies
• High effectiveness, even at heavily accessible places
• Damage-free cleaning, also at sensitive components

Low pressure hot cleaning systems as space-saving - low cost cleaning plant

The demand for a high degree of automation in the industrial parts cleaning does not also require the use of complex cleaning plants with a high investment requirement but can easily be realized in particular cases.

ph-cleantec offers solutions which comply with a high degree of automation and require only little space. Basic technology are low pressure hot cleaning devices. The high cleaning power of the systems is reached by hot water with a temperature of 95°C and a pressure up to 14 bar as well as a water volume of 4 l/min.

The performance can be distributed to several nozzles and thus reduced to approx. 3 bar per nozzle This low pressure ensures that no splash back effects arise and thus the plant can work trouble-free and without special casing. The components can be brought to the cleaning station with simple transport systems and are transported to further processing steps after cleaning.

The actual cleaning cell is very compact depending on the parts geometry. The integration into the automation is done by using a simple control technology. Alternatively a robot can take care of the handling of the parts or nozzles. The cleaning technique thus can be integrated into existing automation systems. The used water can be treated by a special sedimentation method and thus be operated in the cycle.

Summarized the user has the following advantages

• Simple design guarantees a manageable investment within shortest realisation period
• Small plant which could easily be integrated into the existing layout
• Full integration into the existing parts transport system
• Water recycling via automatic circulation with appropriate waste water filtering
• The hot water jet does not splash back; an expensive casing is not necessary

Moreover the low pressure hot cleaning systems can be used as mobile plants for the most different tasks in the industrial production. From small-series cleaning (without automation) over large components and tasks in the maintenance to machine cleaning the devices are all-rounders. By the way, due to the chemical-free cleaning method they protect the environment as well as the health of the operator and also the wallet.

Technical basics

• Electrical connecting parts made of brass which are produced by machines tool with cutting oil cooled technology.
• Large quantities (approx.: 500-3500 pcs./shift)
• Different part sizes (L=10–100mm, Ø2-50mm)

Functional principal

When producing continuously the work pieces are cleaned quickly and effectively in boxes next to the machines tools.

Application / Requirement

• Application free of cleaning agent and solvents
• No lime spots remain on the surface after drying
• Gentle cleaning for human and environment

Previous technology

• With petroleum, subsequent application dipped in the neutrodyne manually, afterwards blowing-off with compressed air

Advantages of the ph-cleantec technology

• Universal cleaning technology for all sizes of work pieces
• Time saving by mass cleaning compared with single parts cleaning
• 100 % gentle procedure for environment and operator
• Less compressed air consumption and thus less noise intensive

Application / Requirements

High-gloss polished workpieces must be free of grease after engraving so that they can be painted in another step. They are visible parts in an elevator and integrated in the control surface .

Previous technology

It is almost impossible to clean the components since they are too big for the ultrasonic baths/rinse baths and therefore uninteresting in terms of money. Above all, the scratch-free cleaning of the parts is a special challenge, since even the rags leave scratch marks.

Solution

Modified 1000 SRE with separate rinse device. The cleaning is carried out with an alkaline cleaner and de-mineralised water. The addition of an alkaline cleaning agent reduces the aggressiveness of the demineralised water;therefore a normal 1000 SRE could be specified. In a second step the degreased area is rinsed with de-mineralised water. Otherwise residues are left on the surfaces which later cannot be removed any more. Subsequently painting can be done and the components can be installed.

Advantages

• Efficient solution also for large components.
• High flexibility with regard to the quantities and sizes: you are not limited to the restrictive dimensions of washing machines and ultrasonic baths.
• Gentle procedure.
• Additional rinse cycle generates a residue-free Surface.
• The high-gloss polished executions till now were sold only reluctantly since the production and the maintenance are expensive; any dirt is visible.

Application

If serial parts are produced components are often glass bead blasted prior to coating in order to reach an optimal surface pretreatment with regard to adhesion and cleanliness.

Partly the glass bead residues adhere very firmly to the blasted parts and the removal is difficult. Particularly in uncovered threaded bores and undercuts glass bead residues can accumulate. If, for example, residue-covered threads are coated, the consequence is that the threads are no longer smoothrunning due to the residues trapped under the coating and therefore the parts have to be reworked or disposed as rejects.

State of technology

Up to now it is tried to remove the residues by dipping the components in a solvent-containing liquid and subsequent blowing out of the parts with compressed air which, however, succeeds only partially and thus led to relatively high rejection rates.

Advantages of the low pressure hot cleaning

• The deposits in the components can be residue-free removed by using hot water.
• Good accessibility of difficult areas using different interchangeable tools (optionally available!)
• Elimination of unhealthy solvents (cost reduction - disposal Topic)
• Compared with other methods a relatively favourable investment
• With suitable cleaning agents also usable for iron phosphating (better corrosion protection by iron Ions)
• Less use of resources compared with high-pressure cleaners
• Sewage situation is reduced as well since the water can be used several weeks in the cycle (only 90 liters per filling)
• Mobile system
• Due to cycle operation and low splash effects an „in house-cleaning“ is possible; thus saving way times and way costs
• Short lead time owing to the efficient flow heater, ready for operation after approx. 60 sec.
• Moreover, the high temperature contributes to a very fast drying of the workpieces.

Amoritization

Since the parts would be ready for sale after coating and some other operations were already carried out like (injection) moulding, turning, milling, thread-machining substantial losses are arising very quickly!

This is why a purchase of out technology has a very short amortization period: With assumed reject costs of only €50,-per piece the amortization period of a 1000 SR device is already reached after only 100 pieces of less rejects!

Requirements

• High demands on the surface cleanliness 40-42 mN/m
• Also suitable for larger and heavier parts
• Access even in the corners and holes
• Method favourable to the environment and health

Advantages of ph-cleantec low pressure hot cleaning

• Also suitable for large parts in combination with the stationary collector
• Cleaning method favourable to the environment and health
• No solvent required
• Cost reduction
• Disposal topic
• Better investment compared with other methods for large sized parts
• In combination with an appropriate cleaning agent also suitable for iron phospating (better corrosion protection by iron ionizing.

Application / Requirement

Small arms normally consist of several individual assemblies and are disassembled into these component parts for cleaning. Especially residual oils of the conservation as well as residues of propellants, environmental pollution etc. have to be removed.

The geometries of the individual assemblies are complex and interlocked in a manner that they can be cleaned only superficially with the normal techniques. Particularly for the weapon revision (police, forces etc.) a complete professional cleaning of the weapons is necessary. In this case all weapon parts are examined for capability of use, wear, microfractures etc.

A police headquarter in southern Germany uses a low-pressure hotcleaning-device for all cleaning tasks, which were done with a cold-cleaner washstand before. In this case the aspect of cleaning „at the most impossible places“ was appreciated as a very positive benefit. Among other things a magazine is cleaned well inside through permanently fixed springs. Even in hard-to-reach places, like for example the central mechanic system in the frame, really good results are obtained with our technique. The fast drying of the parts due to the temperature as well as the temporary corrosion protection added to the used cleaning agents are estimated very much. Of course weapon assemblies have to be cleaned also during production, e.g. barrels after honing etc...

For the production of wooden trusses which are particularly used as a static and optical element in building projects, a number of wooden boards are provided with a profile at the upper side and lower surface and then glued together. For this wood glue is applied on the profile by means of the glue combs (see above) and then with a „hardener comb“ (comparable geometry) a hardening agent is applied. The „tines“ of the glue combs apply the glue very exactly. Then the individual boards are stacked and injected mechanically. During production the glue and hardener combs have to be cleaned again and again since they are clogged with drying residues (see left area of the picture above) and so they cannot apply exactly and evenly.

So far these combs are cleaned in the absence of alternatives either mechanically or with a high pressure cleaner. Both cleaning methods cause a deformation of the tines. The effort for lining up resulting from it leads to additional time delays.

By the low pressure and the high temperatures we have been able to achieve really good and fast cleaning results with a 1000 SR and the cleaning agent 1000 HDF without damaging the tines. These tools were produced of V4A material.

under construction