Customer Background
The customer is a designer and manufacturer of powdered metal parts for the automotive OEM industry. The company has multiple locations in the United States. A sampling of their products include camshaft sprockets, pinions, gears, crankshaft sprockets, clutch assemblies, magnetic actuators, and bearings.
Challenge
The customer was seeking a parts washer to remove light manufacturing soils and vibratory residue from automotive one-way clutch components. Dryness is very critical; parts need to be 100% dry upon exiting the machine.
Solution
Alliance provided an Aquamaster CB-1400E conveyorized belt parts washing machine which was designed to completely clean and fully dry the automotive components. The machine utilized a 14” wide open mesh flat wire belt. Open mesh belts allow for less restriction for the washing process and also minimize surface contact for drying. Process zones included a heated wash, intermediate blowoff, heated rinse, ambient blowoff, and heated blowoff. For this application, an intermediate blowoff wash incorporated between the wash and rinse modules to help prevent cross-contamination between the wash and rinse zones. Due to the critical dryness requirements of the parts, this parts washing system included both ambient and heated blowoff stages. The ambient blowoff utilizes recirculated room air delivered at a high velocity to strip moisture from parts prior to entering the heated blowoff. The heated blowoff can be operated up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit to remove all residual moisture from the parts. Parts existing the machine were washed, rinsed, and 100% dry.