Product category:
Cleaning media and cleaning systems
News Release from: MecWash Systems | Subject: Aqueous-based component cleaning facility
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 February 2008
Aqueous part cleaning copes with
complexity
An aqueous-based component cleaning facility is achieving levels of cleanliness in aerospace parts that are surpassing expectations despite the ever growing complexity of component design.
One of the aerospace industry's leading specialists, the Dunlop Equipment Division of Meggitt Aerospace, is now benefiting from the use of a MecWash Systems' aqueous-based component cleaning facility Apart from helping to maximise product quality, it is also making significant contributions to environmental improvement - not least through solvent replacement
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 3 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The installation at Dunlop Equipment's Coventry, UK, site is centred on a MecWash Solo 400 stand-alone component cleaning station linked to an Aqua-Save wash water recycling system.
The facility handles 95% of components produced at the plant and is achieving levels of cleanliness that are surpassing expectations despite the ever growing complexity of component design, said MecWash.
Its role in helping Dunlop Equipment to make dramatic reductions in its use of 'trike' (trichloroethylene) is equally important with solvent usage of some 2.6 tonnes annually prior to the installation now scheduled to reduce at the rate of one tonne per year - in line with regulatory requirements.
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The use of ultrasonic cleaning and dedicated jetting - all within the existing wash chamber - enables users to enhance performance, even for the most difficult cleaning tasks.
The installation of a further MecWash station could see 'trike' usage virtually eradicated on the site - down to just 0.2 tonnes per year.
* Compact and self-contained - the self-contained Solo 400 unit, whose small footprint is seen as a further advantage by Dunlop Equipment, features the acclaimed MecWash rotational cleaning technology.
Components - typically stainless steel, aluminium and titanium - are contained in a series of plastics compartments in two trays that are manually front-loaded into the wash chamber from a waist-height roller conveyor.
Each load can hold up to 40 individual components including bleed valves and solenoid valves.
With the door closed, a 10 min automatic cycle subjects the products to a heavy spray wash, rinse and drying program.
Components are then removed in a clean and dry condition for onward assembly.
Phil Law, production engineer at the site, highlighted the key benefits of the process.
He said that because products are held in storage ahead of assembly they are necessarily coated with an inhibitor, which has to removed.
"This is achieved by the MecWash system which, importantly, delivers the products in a dry condition including, of course, the complete elimination of trike residue.
This is clearly an important benefit to our workforce." He added that the MecWash facility operates five days a week for some 16h/day and is therefore, a key focus of operational procedures.
* Water recycling station - located alongside the Solo 400 is an Aqua-Save wash water recycling station supplied by the Tewkesbury, UK-based MecWash Systems' dedicated Aqua-Save Technologies Division.
The mobile unit, which can also be relocated alongside additional equipment, re-processes the Solo's wash solution to enable its repeated re-use with only minimal disposal requirements resulting.
Law said: "To date, we have found that we only need to operate the Aqua-Save for four or five hours per week to ensure that the wash solution meets the highest standard.
The significant reduction in disposal requirements clearly making a further contribution to our environmental performance".
MecWash director, Paul Young, said that the opportunity also exists for the company to create purpose-designed fixtures that can hold an entire assembly 'kit' and would effectively allow larger scale items to be processed.
He added: "Because each cycle would produce all required elements for a onward use, it would enhance the efficiency of the company's assembly procedures.
Importantly, this would also reflect on the ability of our technology to handle the increasing complexity of component design in the aerospace field".
With simple access to the design, installation and support services delivered by MecWash as a result of the company's UK manufacturing base, the benefits associated with the Solo 400 and Aqua-Save systems are set to be of major significance for Dunlop Equipment long into the future.
At a time when production quality is at the heart of success in this highly competitive field, they clearly offer advantages that will help the company sustain its leading position in this specialist sector.
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