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Ultrasonics clean up aircraft parts
A
Kerry Ultrasonics product story
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team
Apr 2, 2001
British Airways has made the maintenance of precision aircraft components a faster, more efficient process by using automated solvent cleaning systems from Kerry Ultrasonics.
British Airways has made the maintenance of precision aircraft components a faster, more efficient process with the introduction of automated solvent cleaning systems from Kerry Ultrasonics.
Three Kerry Microsolve units have been installed at the British Airways Component Engineering (BACE) site in Hayes, Middlesex.
They are used to remove all traces of oil, grease and carbon from the components of hydraulic, pneumatic and power generation systems.
The cleaning machines were chosen to replace trichloroethylene-based equipment, which sometimes left contamination on the components, necessitating additional scrubbing by hand.
The thorough action of the Microsolve machines, by contrast, means that manual finishing is no longer required.
In addition, where baskets of components were previously moved through the process by hand, the new Kerry systems are fitted with Autotrans Mk4 robotic work transporters for faster throughput and consistent quality.
British Airways uses two Microsolve M500/2C units and one Microsolve M450/2C, all providing two-stage "co-solvent" cleaning with a combination of hydrocarbon and HFE (hydrofluoroether) solvents.
This combination offers substantial environmental benefits over the chlorinated solvent formerly used, as well as being less expensive.
Both cleaning stages are ultrasonically assisted, ensuring thorough removal of soils from "difficult" components with complex shapes and blind holes.
Soiled components, which are made of high grade steel and aluminium alloys, are initially immersed in hydrocarbon and HFE.
The unmixed HFE agitates the hydrocarbon, which takes up large quantities of oil, grease and carbon without the aggressive action of chlorinated and brominated solvents.
In the second stage, pure HFE is used to displace the residual hydrocarbon.
Vapour rinsing and drying complete the process.
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