Customer Background
The customer is a designer and manufacturer of metal and injection-molded plastic components for impact energy management in vehicles and products for a variety of other industries. The company is based in the U.S. but has affiliated companies in the U.S, Asia, and Europe.
Challenge
The customer was seeking a washer to clean chips and light soils from aluminum vehicle bumper beams. The company produces 500,000 bumper beams annually. The bumpers needed to be visually clean with gross amounts of moisture removed.
Solution
Alliance provided an Aquamate RF-7284 front loading cabinet parts washer with wash and regenerative blowoff stages. This large cabinet washer has a rotating perforated parts table 72” in diameter and capable of accommodating up to 1,000 lbs. The parts to be cleaned measure up to 84” in height. The machine and piping were constructed entirely of stainless steel. Spray bars with quick-release spray nozzles clean parts from multiple angles as they rotate past. A cut-away door design allows for parts to be lowered into the machine via overhead hoist. The exhaust fan system is located on top of the machine in a sound-dampening enclosure. A regenerative blowoff delivers high velocity air to a vertical air knife located on the back wall of the machine. Residual heat from the wash process and heat created by the regenerative blowoff aid in part drying. Regenerative blowers are not thermostatically controllable, but will naturally heat air above ambient temperatures.
