Whats is new? First ,the crisis is present and the number of visitors seems to be  lower than last year( its my opinion).

Second: Some lack of presence from the main manufacturers:

Zippel is not present. They are not happy with this every year exhibition and they are pushing with others manufacturers to have the exhibition every two years.

 TMS(Valiant) has only a small information desk (exhibition cost reductions).

Out of that, talking with the manufacturers , everybody is happy with the last 12 months . A lot of work in Germany , a lot of work in USA… Problems with production capacity .

The delivery terms are longer than before due to this amount of orders.

A good opportunity to start new deals customer-manufacturer. In any case in the last two months business seems to be delayed.

A new small company from Turkey came to the Parts2clean. It was “EVEREST electromecanik” from Istambul with ultrasonic ans spray washers. No relation with the old italian EVEREST company of the 70′s - 80′s .

Another new in the exhibition an  Ultrasonic (water base) manufacturer “Tierratech”. It’s a custom-made equipment manufacturer . I will talk them more in detail in a next post.

Also in the ultrasonic , a fine manufacturer of chemical cleaning  detergents the swiss NGL .Products very specific with a good acknowledgement of the cleaning but also of the  drying and protection , no often easy to find in the market .Very interesting 

Form Italy , the main manufacturer was here : ICOM  trying to keep their contact with the german customers competing in this hard market but Tecnofirma was no present this year in the exhibition.

At the beginning the full electric car came very hard from USA  GM developments .The japanese remain on their hybrids . The European look also to the hybrids but mainly diesel . (or Hydrogen cells on the pocket too)

For some wash-deburr manufacturers it was a question of survive to know if the present  internal combustion engine (petrol or diesel) was damned or not.

Now it seems that the autonomy of the electric cars with the present battery technology do not allow a big Km range without the support of electric infrastructure and quick load for the batteries.

Up today it seems that the Internal combustion engine , petrol or diesel still has an important role to power the new cars coming . If electric car , like a range extender feeding electricity to the batteries. If hybrid , like support engine driving directly the car or helping the electric motors to drive the car. Or in the meantime as a low consumption, low emission car engine.

In consequence new engine programs arrive and also new  transmissions designs . Both search a low consumption and low emissions . The transmissions become of 7,8,9 speeds ( more mechanics..).The ICE engines with higher power on small engines .With cylinder head heads incorporated to the cylinder block , or the exhaust manifolds incorporated to the cylinder head . With double turbos , with gas recycling , higher injection pressures…

The petrol and diesel engines are still alive and for a long time.

More complexity in the engines or in the transmissions , more mechanical parts, better adjustments , in consequence a need of better cleaning .

Cleaning will remain a key production item for the automotive despite the pressure to reduce investments costs. The wash-debur manufacturers will have to do a big effort to fulfill the cost request from the Automotive customers . They will have to do a big effort to be global and follow their clients around the world. Installations in China , India, Korea, Romania, Russia , Brasil…

That’s means to have a company organisation with global service support, with better machine reliability,with proved cleanliness efficiency ,with well-trained engineers able to go around the world , speaking several languages.Companies giving quick answers to global clients.

It is a big challenge . Ten years ago it was a challenge too but now the washer manufacturers companies have harder conditions : high competition , pressure to reduce costs , harder credit access, global service to be implemented , emerging countries local manufacturing need , patents to protect the singular devices…They will need an effort on organisation , on human resources …

Good luck to everybody .I see you on the Parts2clean 2011 Stuttgart show.

First thing , there is a law to protect environment that force the washers to have a dip tray under to collect any leak. This tray under the machine is not easy to install and causes accessibility problems . Panelling the machine around the tray it allows to have the accessibility controlled and the noise and vapours controlled .The panels help to reduce the noise level and give a clean and beautiful look but another advantage is to avoid to paint  the machine. The machine normally built-in stainless steel is not painted. The panels can be built in high quantity , painted in a booth and dry at oven in inline installations . So the cost of the panels is low and allow to the manufacturer to give a “box look” to the machine without excessive extra cost.

This “box look” was common on the ultrasonic washers market , Roll , Höckh , Pero, LPW  ….But maybe Dürr Ecoclean has been one of the main supporters to this look . First for the general market on the inline ultrasonic multidip washers and single cabinets but also in the automotive market  where the other manufacturers have followed the tendency . People like LPW , Zipple , INDA-Markert , or Silberhorn, are designing their machines “box” in the same direction.

Other manufacturers from UK , Italy , USA or Japan do not build their machines with the “box look” , but I’m persuaded that if they want to sell in Germany they will have to do it.

Coming back to the german LPW manufacturer . LPW is part of the named ”Surface Alliance” with EMO and Hösel . Years ago LPW had in the program big machines custom-made for the automotive industry but they switched to the “general market” with cabinets single or multi-tank for cavitation wash of parts on basket. Basically the water base process are built by LPW and the solvent and hydrocarbon processes are built by the colleagues of the alliance EMO and Hösel.

From this “general market” with standard machines , now LPW is coming back to the upper market of the Automotive industry using a modular approach with similar machines of the general market. Multiplying the number of modules to have longer cycles times with the combination of spraying and cavitation is apparently obtaining good results on engine parts. As the modules are similar to the “general market” type, the price is low and the number of modules is not penalizing their competitiveness. This modular approach allows also the possibility to invest step by step , buying only the number of machine that the present production needs , and invest progressively in the future when the needs would raise.

One of the german suppliers that is growing step by step is Silberhorn .At the beginning this manufacturer was concentrated in one client , a major german automotive sup-suplier, who raised a complete specification about the installation that he wanted , and Silberhorn built the machine. But after years of work there is an engineering growing and they have a large variety of machines  from cabinets to rotary transfers , and multi-dip washers .

From wash to high pressure deburr . Of course they are more specialised in small parts to be clean-deburred but they have very interesting solutions . The machine look and he stainless steel finish is improving . Now the next step is the internationalization.

Another german manufacturer is in the opposite situation : Zippel . A german company of  40 years experience . Known for their very well finished  stainless steel machines in the mechanical parts market , they took an export orientation and now they claim to have 80% export working till Korea or India .  High pressure wash-deburr,  cylinder blocks washers , cylinder head or gear box washers.

Rotary transfer machines  with robots , or inline transfers or ultrasonic multi-dip machines.

Finally, for today , is interesting the race of another german manufacturer : Piller . For years it has been alone in the german market building CNC cabinet machines dedicated to the high pressure deburr of small mechanical parts at 400 to 800 bars . The machines were load/unload manually . After came the robot load/unload productivity increase. Now they enlarge their range to wash-deburr applications .They claim to be ready to supply the complete line of  wash-deburr , spray cleaning , blow off and dry process till to cylinder block or cylinder heads applications. They have expertise in the high pressure and CNC application . For the high pressure jet movements they use a gantry located on the roof of the machine. They supply to the  german automotive suppliers and the internationalization of their sales has begun.

Application of several Piller cells in the automotive market.

ICOM is very active company in the automobile industry in Italy , France, Poland,and also some programs in USA. It’s a medium size family own company with a custom-made vocation. The machines range is the typical of high pressure wash/deburr transfers , robotic cells , rotary transfers ..etc. His focus in the exhibition is to growth in the German market. Is funny because the machines have an Agullo look but with a medium position between the Agullo robustness and the HMM finition.Good luck.

Walking in the exhibition I met SUGINO. This japanese company is very old in the market but with no presence in Europe , but things will change. SUGINO is a high pressure specialist . Is the sole wash/deburr manufacturer that it builds his own high pressure pumps and his owns HP valves or HP distributors  . With a lot of experience in the high pressure applications it was uncommon to find them in the automobile industry out of  Japan. Some of their designs are still very performing.

They have a modular approach to the high pressure wash/deburr applications focused in the Japan style of reduced floor space and cost . Now they have a big opportunity in Europe. They obtained a good order for engine parts wash-deburr installations for an important French Automobile customer . It’s an scoop for the market. Congratulations . How they will reach the hard electric and safety european specifications? We will see , but is a big opportunity for them and for the customer , the japanese technique and the European rules integration.The machines will be of the CNC gantry type cells.

Is the advantage and disadvantage of this kind of specific exhibitions. Your client can contact with your competitors the same day that is visiting you for his”new project”. Competition becomes harder . The customers request price reduction or more content for the same price .

These two years of economic stop have been the opportunity to the customers to look more in detail to their specifications and the real results in their cleaning installations .In general the customer is now more conscious that he can’t ask for so small particles size dimension in the residual dirt like he did.

Now the tendency in metal manufacturing is to remain around the 400 microns particle size. Forget the 100 microns of some years ago.

After some time of working with their more performing machines the customer sees that a metal part manufacturing plant is not a laboratory and to maintain the cleanliness of a part or assembly is not only a question of a good cleaning machine , but also is a question of maintenance , handling, design…cost,and the Manufacturing Process itself. It has also revised his really performance needs. The present request of 400 microns particles size is a realistic target.

Concerning the particles size control I don’t want to forget that I saw in the Exhibition a new company arriving in this field , RapID Particle system gmbh. They come from the pharma-industry and they have systems that count the numbers of particles , shape , dimension and classify and refer to a ISO 1632 or VDA19. The advantage is that it can incorporate a laser spectrum to identify immediately the material of the particles. This identification is made matching the spectrum against the spectrum probe introduced , so it can detect more complex materials that only one metal.  In 10 to 15 min the machine is capable to count, analyse and report results for a standard filter patch . Is a good new tool for the cleanliness control. Now the next step is to have a real 3D dimension of the particles .

The more common is the residual dirty weight , measuring the milligrams of dirt remaining in the part after the final wash process of the machining line.

The part to be checked has to be removed from the machining line , and carried out to the lab area with care to avoid any change in the part pollution .

Once in the lab the operator has first to check visually the part , with magnifiers or endoscope , to detect areas with evidence of dirty accumulation. This information is basic for the washing machine maintenance.

After that a more in deep operation has to be made “the cleanliness test” .Roughly the test is as follows:

The part to be analysed is submitted to a manual accurate cleaning with a solvent , alcohol or degreasing agent and brushes , or ultrasonic to remove any small dirt that can remain inside and outside the part.

After this operation the next is to filter the liquid used on tis process trough accurate filter membranes , to catch the solids on the membranes. Normally the membranes are of  a minimum of 5 micron , and the must commons 20 microns.

Weighting the membranes before and after the filtration operation you obtain the dirty residues in milligrams per part.

In some cleanliness tests the reference is a weight by kilogram of the part , or milligrams by cm2 of the part.

In the Automotive Industry some components like  in the engine have a  specific limit part by part ( i.e. crankshaft 5 mgs. camshaft 2mgs , cylinder head 20 mgs. , cylinder block 50 mgs….) that every Company specify in their “cleanliness admitted levels” list.

For years this has been the system to control the acceptance levels of “dirt” in a part before to be assembled , i.e. in the car engine.

Car Companies have verified that in a complete assembly of mechanical parts , like in a car engine , the life of the engine is associated to the cleanliness of the parts . More clean are the parts , less particles are circulating trough the assembly ,  less bearing failures , longer oil life , and longer engine life.

But is this “cleanliness test” the panacea? The answer is NOT.

Why? Because there are other aspects to be considered.

The procedure of the cleanliness test has to be made in a professional, methodical and accurate way . The way how the part to be checked is removed from the manufacturing line , how is protected till the lab , how is manipulated by the operator , how the manual test is made , and how the residues collection and filters pads are weighted could produce a lot of “noise” in the test obtaining different values on consecutive parts. 

So the first thing is to consider the test as statistical tendency , and to accumulate a minimum number of consecutive tests before to rise the flag of “dirty parts”.

Another aspect is the presence of burrs in the parts to be checked ,mainly in aluminum parts.

This was a negligee aspect in the past for certain car manufacturers when they were not too exigent on the cleanliness levels , but when they become more demanding , then the evidence was clear . If the parts to be checked have burrs outside or inside , during the cleanliness check operation , the operator can carry away this burrs with the hands , or the brushes or ultrasonic at the same time than the dirty residues and giving  higher residues level.

That’s give the unacceptability  of the parts for the assembly or the unacceptability  of the washing machine process . But the washing machines could not remove burrs only could remove detached residues.

It was necessary to take care of the burrs . First to avoid the burrs appearance when possible with a better design of the parts. Second with a better cutting tool design on the machining operations . Third , with a better control of the tools life in the same machines . Four introducing the deburring operations where it was no possible to avoid the appearance of burrs.

This was one of the reasons for the introduction of the deburring operations ( brush deburr , thermal deburr, mechanical deburr … ) on the machine lines and the utilisation of the high pressure wash on the cleaning machines. 

The washing machines can not remove the burrs of the parts , but if you add the utilisation of high pressure wash , then you can wash and deburr at the same time , giving you finally cleaner parts. Then during the cleanliness test the risk to detach burrs on the process is minimised and at the same time the functionality of the part is improved avoiding the risk of burrs detach and seize up the assembly.

Is then the milligram cleanliness test a reliable test? : Yes and no

If you take a cylinder head after the cleanliness test theoretically the part is totally clean and it would have to be “zero milligrams” of residues inside , but …if you repeat the complete cleanliness test with the same clean part you will see that still there are particles , some milligrams are obtained. The same if you repeat the test again…

Why? the complexity of the part with water jackets pockets , oil conduits , intersections and the difficulty of the manual cleanliness process can no warranty that the part is totally clean after one cleanliness test .

The only way is to have a methodic system for the extraction of the part from the machine line, a methodic manual cleanliness test ( importance of the operator training and repetitivity of the process), a good lab equipement, work chamber …

Composing your results in a graph and observing the tendency and deviations of the medium level , is the only way to take advantage of the cleanliness test on your day-to-day washing machine operation.

In next days we will talk of  “microns” , there are also white lies .

Now today I bring you a Tube transfer washer. Who is the supplier?

Continuing the enigmas of my last post , here joint you can see a picture of a very estrange machine:

Is a “Tube transfer wash machine” for cylinder block before assembly.

All the internal pipes , wash boxes , blow off boxes , blow off manifolds were 100% accessible because the upper half part of the machine was totally open.

The machine had a section of a tube with half upper tube automatically revolving under the bottom tube. That gave a total accessibility to the machine interior. The movement was motorized.

Tha aluminium cylinder block and bed plate disassembled were washed in a pallet before the final assembly of the engine.

Hoping that you will discover the supplier of this estrange machine I await your  mails

On my last Blog I talk about the “propeller wash” and the “high pressure air”cleaning like old technologies that have a comeback to the market trough Zippel wash manufacturer.

Looking to my files I found also an old catalogue that I hope it could be funny to have a look.

The rotary transfer machines or rotary indexing machines that are today on the market are the  result of the technical evolution of pass machines or the answer to a customer request but you can not forget the machines that were in the market years ago.

Today we will play a game with some of you . Look to this pictures and mail me : Who is the manufacturer of these machines made years ago?.

Yes , is a rotary indexing machines , that at the same time that the part is advancing with the table there is a second rotation axis . It remember you some today machines? yes ,but it is a technology applied 30 years ago.

The rotary drive system was an indexing arm and the rotation was trough gears similar to some present devices with an encapsulated oil box.

I await your suggestions about the supplier. I found also  another interesting machine but I keep it for the next post.

Apparently you have only to buy a robot and put in a box to have your robotic cell washer .

As I wrote before, the robot is an important part of the cell but not the only. There is a tendency to use the ABB robot , but despite that in general ,the technical problems in the robots in wet conditions are not 100% solved I ‘ll not be surprised that in the following months other robot suppliers will entry this market.  ABB is also building and selling their own robotic cell washers .

In the exhibition the Canadian Valiant ( TMS in Europe) showed a big picture of his last robotic cell washer.

The cell has two load/unload stations , with general wash , high pressure wash-debur, and blow-off. The ancillary equipment is formed for the drag conveyor , bag filters , high pressure pump heat exchanger and exhaust.

As you see the cell is similar to the Dürr Ecoclean robot Cell washer :

The price is now an important point on the customers decision and all the manufacturers of the robotic cell washers are pretty close on price.

Inda-Markert , Elwema, Arau , MTM ,Dürr Ecoclean ,Valiant , ICOM …they will have  to carry added value to their robotic cell to convince the customers.

The advantage of the robotic cells for the customer could be more than for the suppliers and some suppliers would have they future difficult when loosing sales because the client will not need new machines for a new part but only a new software…