IQS Newsroom Articles on Parts Washers
About Part Washers and Part Washing Including: Agitating Parts Washers, Aqueous Parts Washers, Automatic Parts Washers, Automotive Parts Washers, Drum Washers, Industrial Washers, Parts Cleaners, Parts Cleaning Equipment, Parts Cleaning Systems, Rotary Washers, Small Parts Washers & Spray Washers.
Parts washers are one of the last steps in the parts manufacturing process, designed to clean, degrease and dry mass quantities of small or large parts before they are surface treated and shipped for distribution. Newly machined, forged or fabricated products are usually coated in oils, chemicals, burs, abrasive dust, debris, paint and other residue left over from the fabrication process. Finishing coatings such as zinc and electroplating are not effective if they are applied on a dirty surface. Industrial washers are manual, semi-automatic or most commonly, fully automatic. Parts cleaning systems differ depending on many factors. Most are aqueous parts washers-either spray washers, rotary washers or agitating parts washers, all of which clean parts with different methods. Parts cleaners wash many different parts, from small parts that are high in volume to large parts like drums or automotive parts. Aside from industrial manufacturers, the electronics, automotive and medical industry often use industrial parts washers. Equipment, furniture and technology which are a part of our daily lives require paint, powder coatings, zinc coatings, lubricants, electroplating and other surface treatment which would not be possible without thorough parts washing.
Parts cleaning equipment, which make up the washer machine, consist of a cabinet (also called enclosure or housing), which is made of steel (usually stainless), glass or plastic or enclosure, a gas, electric or steam water heater, a filtration system, which collects waste and debris during the cleaning process, pumps, which increase the pressure of sprayers, and scrubbers, brushes or nozzles. They use hot water, detergents, solvents, vapors, acids and alkaline solutions, some of which are chemical, while some are natural (and now preferred). Some are fully automated and controlled by a CNC machine to adjust settings, while few require manual loading. The parts being washed can be front or back loaded, and washed in a basket, tray, rack system, by a robotic arm, a rotary table or conveyer belt. Most part washers are aqueous, meaning they use water and a water-based chemical or natural solvents that they boil, blast or soak the dirty parts in until they have been cleaned.
Spray washers, which are quite common, are built with an enclosed conveyer belt that moves parts through a spraying water cleaning machine. Other types of aqueous washers include ultrasonic, agitating and rotary. Ultrasonic washers are relatively new to the industry. They immerse parts in water and clean their surface by using tiny underwater air blasts and solvents. Agitating are also immersion washers, and after the parts are underwater and coated in solvent, mechanical energy creates a vibrating and mixing action via impellers or paddles. Both of these immersion methods are effective in cleaning parts ranging from small to large. Rotary drum washers are a neither immersion or spray washers. Instead, they tumble smaller parts through a rotating drum that washes, rinses and dries the parts. It has a spiral conveyer on the inner wall that move parts in a circling motion in order to clean all sides.
Some washers are designed specifically around the product they are washing. Automotive parts washers clean vehicle engines, transmissions, pneumatic parts and hydraulic parts in hot water solutions and ultrasonic cleaning tubs. Not only do they clean newly manufactured car parts, but used parts that have become dirty due to road grime, dirt and grease as well. Drum washers are used to clean larger drums, pails and barrels in industrial settings that hold and store different chemicals and materials, such as paint, inks, grease and adhesives. Each time they are emptied or change the chemical, material or product they are housing, drums must be thoroughly cleaned. Drum washers must be able to clean the interior and exterior of these containers since both come become dirty very easily. Spray washers and rotary washers are the best solution in this case, since the nozzles can reach the drum interiors. They are then air or heat dried. Finally, small parts washers, either rotary or immersion washers, are designed specifically to handle large amounts of small parts such as fasteners and screws.
Because there are as many types of unfinished parts to wash as there are fields of industrial manufacturing, many industrial parts washer manufacturers offer custom-designed parts washing machinery. These parts cleaners may be as simple as a stand-alone basket immersion washer or they may be as complex as a five-step deburring, aqueous tumbling, rinsing, drying and paint coating machine. Innovative industrial technology makes it possible to combine many parts of the finishing process into one specialized machine. Whether the equipment used is a bench-top rotary tumbler or an outdoor washing, drying and powder coating system, parts cleaning is essential to the proper function of equipment. Aqueous parts cleaners have traditionally used chemical solvents to strip parts of grease and dirt during the cleaning process, but recent environmental concerns and regulations have encouraged the innovation of natural, non-chemically based solvents. Ultrasonic parts cleaning is the latest technology in environmentally safe precision surface cleaning.
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Part Washers and Part Washing
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Part Washers Types
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and is the
use of water and chemicals to cleanse components; agitation, rotations
and/or jet spraying along with appropriate detergents, saponifiers and
any other additive required to improve solubility and removal of soil
Aqueous cleaners are basic, acidic or neutral.
- are used in automobile manufacturing and repairing processes.
-
is a cleaning process with extremely specific requirements so that cleaned
parts meet highly stringent standards and have some form of measurability
integrated in the process. Industrial cleaning equipment is built to
meet extremely strict cleanliness standards.
-
is the most common cleansing process used for industrial applications,
and involves the bulk cleaning of products.
- are machines that clean industrial parts.
- are machines that clean components after they come off the production line.
- mass cleans heavy industrial components.
- is the group of mechanisms and machines used to clean industrial parts.
-
is the cleansing of parts so there are no contaminants at a predetermined
level in the process; following processes cannot support contaminants
left from the previous level.
-
is a cleaning process that utilizes vibrations and waves; frequencies
between 40 and 400 KHz, emitted by transducer, result in the expansion
of air bubbles in a liquid until the bubbles implode in high pressure
areas; this is known as cavitation, which causes energy transferals
able to displace contaminants from a substrate surface.
Part Washers Terms
-
A substance for aggressive cleaning, typically sand, garnet, steel or
aluminum oxide.
- Any aqueous mixture having
a pH less than seven on a one to 14 scale. Any acidic solution with a
pH lower than three is considered strongly acidic.
- Cleaning utilizing
acids combined with surfactants to removing rust, metal or scale. Acids
with a pH lower than six do not work as degreasers.
- The use of mineral
acid to remove scale and rust from metal.
- A device that provides
a pressurized "curtain" of air for cleansing, cooling or drying.
- An aqueous
cleaning process done with a greater than 7 pH level utilizing phosphates,
silicates or other alkaline salts combined with surfactants in water.
- Materials that
microbial activity can naturally reduce from their original state into
simple chemical compounds.
- Nature's
way of cleaning using microorganisms (bacteria, enzymes, fungi) to break
down the organic compounds in waste or pollutants.
- The use of pressurized
air to clean or remove excess water.
- Solutions of salt
in aqueous cleaning systems that maintain a preferred pH level. Aqueous
cleaners use buffers since the precipitation and solubility of metals
affect the pH level.
- These additives enhance
the effectiveness of detergents by sequestering metals like magnesium
and calcium. A problem is that a lot of builders contribute to environmental
damage, with substances such as phosphates.
- A rinsing process
that involves transferring product through a sequence of tanks, in which
the rinse water in the last rinse tank runs over to previous tanks in
the sequence (a countercurrent flow). This permits the product to be subjected
to progressively pure water.
- A drying
process using a basket quickly spinning for separation of excess oils,
water or other substances from parts. A turbine fan installed underneath
the basket pulling the air through improves the process.
- A parts
cleaning system in which the water is purified and then re-circulated
through the system after purification treatment; in aqueous cleaning systems,
it goes back into the wash and rinse tanks and is a cost saving measure.
Membrane, reverse osmosis and ion exchange filtration are typical techniques
to purify the water.
- The degree to
which an aqueous mixture can conduct electricity and an indication of
the purity of the water. The level of conductivity is reciprocal to the
level of resistance (e.g. the lower the conductivity, the higher the resistance
and the greater the water purity).
- The use
of companies through contracts that specialize in cleaning industrial
parts and components and provide services to a wide range of industries
and are comprehensive in their operations - from simple aqueous and solvent
cleaning to analytical testing.
- A chamber
that evaporates water from cleaned components through heated air.
- A substance
used to slow the chemical reaction that causes rust.
- A cleaning
process that utilizes at least two solvents to achieve the cleaning and
rinsing. The action of cleaning results from the combination of the characteristics
of each solvent involved, which are selected for the greatest optimization of the system in relation to the particular contaminants involved.
- A solvent or combined
material for removing grease, oils, or fat from substrates.
- Water
that has enhanced purity resulting from the elimination of ionic species.
- A solution that
is a combination of surfactants comprised of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic
material for making grease and oil water soluble. Cleaning is actually
done when the soil attaches to the hydrophobic group and when the detergent
soil mixture is emulsified in the water; the detergent's cleaning
capabilities are increased through the addition of builders or other additives.
- Solvent cleaners
that have an insoluble aqueous level that is typically utilized along
with paint strippers; when combined with denser chlorinated solvents,
the water becomes the upper level.
- This material
enhances the stability of particles emulsified in a liquid-solid or liquid-liquid
suspension and is also known as an emulsifying agent.
- The creation
of micelles in a cleaning procedure resulting from the dispersal of liquid
or solid globules or fine particles into a bulk liquid.
- A device that circulates
large amounts of solution in the tanks.
- Cleaning the cleansing
solution and trapping the contaminants so the solution can be used for
a longer period and so the components being cleansed don't retain
any of the soil or particulates.
- A surfactant
molecule that results in the proclivity of the molecule to be water
soluble.
- A water resistant
substance.
- Also known as cold
cleaning, it is the cleaning that takes place in a tank, usually of a
rectangular shape, using an aqueous solution. The cleaning is done primarily
through soaking in a water chemical solution.
- Additives that
impede harmful chemical reactions between an aqueous cleaner and a substrate.
Inhibitors typically retard the corrosion process of non-ferrous substrates
in high pH or iron.
- The use
of mechanical energy via a circulation pump to circulate cleaning solution,
effective for components with flat surfaces or those that have a simple
configuration.
- An amalgamation of
solutions with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties that trap non-water
soluble oils. Dispersal of detergents and other surfactants results in
micelles.
- The use of nozzles
to aim air at specific areas of a component for water removal.
- A process in which a cleansed component with intricate passages
is subject to a clamping procedure and forced air enters the passages
and dries the part.
- To flood the washed
components with clean water or a rinse solution.
- A binding agent
that prevents chemical reactions.
- A substance's capability
to dissolve within another substance, usually a solid in water. Quantification
is in grams per liter, and the general classifications for material solubility
are fully soluble, partially soluble, slightly soluble and insoluble.
- In cleaning systems,
a liquid substance that cleans a part by dissolving the surface contaminants.
- Heavy soils that sink
to the bottom of an aqueous solution.
- Allowing components
to rest in cleaning solution so chemicals can "lift" the dirt.
- In reference to
industrial part washing, any item with contaminant or soil on it that
is being exposed to a cleaning process.
- An abbreviation
of "surface active agent," it is a common additive for lowering
the surface tension between an aqueous cleaning solution and hydrophobic
soils in order to loosen the soil or other contaminants. Detergents are
principally composed of surfactants.
- Organic compounds
that occur naturally and are usually found in essential oils. Utilized
as cleaning agents in semi-aqueous cleaners, they come from natural sources
like citrus fruit or pine trees.
- A process that
is particularly useful for evaporation of water at a relatively cool temperature.
A vacuum pump is used to dry the product.
- An
up-and-down movement of components to allow cleaning solution to remove
contaminants; vertical part agitation is effective for parts with cavities.
- Soiled water from
the cleansing process.