Water jackets cleaning

One of the more difficult areas to clean in the cylinder heads and cylinder blocks of the automobile engines is the water jackets,Why?

1) The internal volumes of the water jackets are complex and very often with narrow passages. By one side the cylinder head designers wants to have a minimum water jacket volume in order that the engine can rise in temperature rapidly to have the optimum engine performance. By other side is important to refrigerate all the areas of the cylinder head , mainly around the combustion chambers , but the number of valves per cylinder create narrow passages inside the water jackets.

2) On the machining of the aluminium alloys the cutting speed are more and more elevate and create longs chips . The cycles times on the machines are more and more shorts and there is not too much time to break the chips.On the transfer lines it was easier to do than in the present CNC flexible lines.

3)As consequence of the cutting speeds and short cycle times the chips are very often pushed inside the water jackets by the final milling tools.

4) The consequence of long spring chips inside small pockets and narrow passages  is chips trapped inside the water jackets.

The cylinder head is more sensitive to this problem but some cylinder block too. Here joint you can see what you can find inside a cylinder head water jacket:

       There is a clear test : If we cut a supposed clean cylinder head in slices it will allows us to see if there are some chips trapped inside the water jacket. I’ll say that the majority of clean cylinder heads have chips inside.

Is dangerous for the engine run? Well, first you have to assembly your engine (cylinder head , cylinder block , camshafts, crankshaft..). During the automatic assemply this remaining chips can fall down of the parts and goes to the assembly machine or between the parts to be assembled blocking the operation and stopping the machine and the line.

Second if you assembly your engine with no problem but the chip remain inside , is possible than during the engine run with the vibrations and , temperature changes , the chips goes out of the water chamber and arrives to the water pump causing the failure of the water pump , heating the engine and stopping the car engine.

Another added problem is the remaining sand balls remaining inside the water jackets coming from the cast process:

 

 

 

Since many years this water jacket problem has been the major nightmare for the equipment suppliers and for the automotive industry .

The process to remove the remaining sand inside the water jackets  is called “desandind” and will be considered in a further post . today we will concentrate only in the chips removal :

Some suppliers were using a contact jet at 20/30 bars to flush inside the water jackets( ICOM, Hafroy). Or” injection flood” ( Dürr) injecting 10/15 bars jet against the waster jacket on immersion of the part . Or the “Aqua cannon”(Valiant) with a medium pressure short discharge inside the part pulsing the water inside. 

Or the High pressure ( 200 bars) target injection trough the part openings (Agullo).

Or a mixture of systems like Sugino .

In any case the problem is a difficult problem and needs test with real parts to achieve an acceptable process. Of course the automobile client is also an important part. If the cleanliness test to control the cleanliness of the cylinder head is a manual flushing of a solvent trough the part( and water jacket ) is probably than the flushing (normally at 1 to 3 bars) will not be able to remove the blocked chips inside the water jackets and the test can give a result of accepted clean part when it has trapped chips inside the water jackets.

Some cleanliness tests in the automobile have added operations to the cleanliness test procedure to verify these water jackets. One is the manual hammer percussion by the operator of the cylinder head in a certain position in order to detach the chips balls inside . I remember than years ago in an european engine manufacturer the company Hafroy supplied one transfer machine that had a pneumatic hammer in one of the Ferris wheel wash stations to reproduce the operator cleanliness test operation and try to remove this balls. I remember that the line operators call the machine the “Bell” ( a “dong” each 30 secs was not appreciated by the operators around the line).

Another system is the manual checking of the water jackets with a small  endoscope . This system is of course the more efficient but some times you can not reach all the internal areas. Only cutting the cylinder head you can really check it.

To reduce the chips and traps inside the water jackets is necessary a close work between the cylinder head designers ,cylinder head  machining engineers and the “cleaning” engineers to avoid narrow passages inside the water jackets design , to avoid big and spring chips during the machining, to have high coolant volume during the machining , or cover plates during machining . If you diminish the size of the chips , if you avoid the spring chips , if you avoid narrow passages and traps inside the water jacket , if you have more than one opening of the cylinder head water chambers you will have more opportunities to remove the inside trapped chips.

Maybe one of the Automobile manufacturers that pay more attention to the water jackets has been Fiat . In their wash process specification the request several water jacket wash operations in each of the washers of the cylinder head line. More water jacket wash operation you have with the part in different positions and injecting the water by different areas to create different flows inside the water jackets allows them to have more opportunities to remove the chips. Of course this redundant system is expensive and the present tendency in the Automotive industry is to reduce the number of washers in the lines.

In any case the miracles are impossible and if you really check inside your cylinder head water jackets(or cylinder block water jackets) you have to pay attention to the whole manufacturing process including the more effective wash processes to remove the trapped chips and to have a really clean part.

 

A good system is to collect and classify all the chips shape produced in the machining line , operation by operation .  

And then looking to the chip type remaining inside the W.J. you can identify in which machining operation the chip is produced and penetrates in the W.J. Working with the machining process engineers it comes very often the possibility to reduce the size of the chip or to eliminate the quantity remaining in the parts

 

The automobile cleanliness tests procedures are also an interesting point to be examined in a further post. They are the reason why some time one washing machines that is a good machine for an automotive manufacturer but fails in another manufacturer.

Crisis, bloody 30%

Today I want to talk of this new alteration of the market : the Economy and Financial Crisis.

The 10Th January  I read on news papers: “Ssangyon Motor(Korean cars company) collapsed , they stops their payments due to 30% drop on sales and will reduce work forces and costs for 30%”.

On the following days I see : 2008 car sales in USA drop 30 to 40% ; GM -48,8 % , Ford -40,6% , Chrysler -55% , Toyota -34,45% , Honda -30,7%,Nissan -29,7%,Daimler AG -35,5% , Porsche -36%…

The outlook for 2009 is also pesimistic with -30% sales.

In summary I hope that this bloody number “30%” is becoming  more and more familiar in our day to day life.

We have lost in 2008 30% of our homes value , 30% or our wealth , we are 30% poorer , we will reduce our expences by 30% . We will reduce our holidays by 30% …

Your clients have lost 30% of their sales , they are planing to reduce 30% their work forces and expenses , they will drop at least 30% their buys to suppliers.

They will ask for 30% reduction in the machines price to cover a 30% reduction in investments.

The suppliers will reduce by 30% their work forces to reduce costs. The Banks are reducing 30% the credits to the companies , and asking for 30% more coverage for new credits.

This pressure will have the consequence that 30% of the suppliers of the automotive industry ( and also wash-deburr suppliers) will probably disappear in the next months.

All that will come also with a certain “nationalism” on investments to keep working the country,despite the promises to respect  the free market of the politics .

When an American company will make a new invest , the American suppliers will be in advantage against an European or Japanese supplier. When a German company will make a new investment , the German suppliers will be in advantage against the French,Italian, English or other suppliers.

When an English company will make a new investment the English suppliers will be in advantage against a German ,French,Italian …supplier (despite the second advantage of the currency with a low pound against the euro. The Sterling lost 30% against the euro in 18 months)

I remember that in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s there was also economic crisis producing a reduction in the number of wash-deburr suppliers , but they were “local crisis” focused on one or two countries . Now in this global world , where the suppliers have been pushed  to be also global , the crisis is global and the consequences will be harder.

The clients and the banks will give tough days to the suppliers companies .  Which companies will disappear? Maybe taking in consideration the way that the German Banks have been always involved in their industry and their past experiences , the German Banks will better support the local industry than in France or Italy the other Banks will do .

The reduction of work forces in the wash-deburr manufacturers directly influenced by this economic and financial crisis , and the reduction of the number of suppliers , will fire a lot of knowledge  and experience out of these companies.

The wash-deburr manufacturers work is not a mathematical or ruled work .Is based on the experience of their engineers and fitters . Its a pity to lose all that and the companies making the personnel reductions would have to protect this knowledge , and think that after any storm it comes the calm , and in two or three years if they are still  alive they will need them.

Is also important to consider that in any case the small companies can have also their opportunities against the big companies in this crisis. The flexibility , innovation , quick reaction , relations , financial wellness , and cold blood will continue to be an asset today to defeat this bloody “30%” figure.

Good luck¡

Parts2clean Stuttgart .High Pressure wash/deburr

I remember when AGULLO supplied the first high production (220p/h) washing machine with high pressure water for wash/debur of cylinder heads in the Automotive industry in Europe . It was early in the 1980’s and the High pressure pumps power were for 600Kw. In this time not many companies in the world were able to supply high production machines and the addition of the high pressure was not frequent.

The high pressure installation engineering was a challenge. Not only the high pressure pump supplier didn’t have experience in the 5.500 hour/year continuous running of the pumps but other circumstances were added : working with recirculated water (filtration engineering) , keeping the water at controlled temperature (cooling engineering), keeping the overall noise of the installation (then at 85 dB )(noise insulation engineering), HP safety valves and HP distribution valves reliability , materials used on the HP jets and lances (mechanical engineering) , materials resistance to the HP impact for the fixtures and clamps, vapour exhaust ,vibrations transmission all along the machine,chemical detergents compatibility,flexible hose life…a lot of engineering and innovation.

For many years the AGULLO experience in the high pressure was on the top . Now , 25 years later there is a lot of companies that they say can offer high pressure wash installations.The HP pumps and accessories suppliers have more experience and the technology is better known but , is really so easy , are they selling with knowledgement of high pressure technique’s?… I don’t thing so.

Who are now the companies in the edge?

In the Parts2clean exhibition in Stuttgart I visited SUGINO , as I wrote in my before post who has a lot of experience in Japan on this Installations mainly in low production.

 In Europe we can find one small specialist: Piller in Baden-Wurttenberg(Germany) who has several HP deburr machines types with manual load or robot load ,like the CNC “Vector Jet”cabinets and dominates the deburring range of 400 to 800 bars with water or oil. Their experience comes mainly from the small mechanical components deburr at low production.They had difficulties to supply the complete process of wash,deburr.blow off , dry in one installation but step by step they are finding sollutions to do it using several machines. In Germany is considered as the main experienced supplier. Their clients are mainly germans. As particularity I can highlight that Piller  uses a CNC gantry robot on the roof of the machine moving the HP jet , keeping the part clamped on the table that can have additional CNC axis.

 

 

Another company present in the exhibition is also the german INDA-Markert of the SCHMID group. Indawas an small company with local activity in the high pressure that met Markert with experience in the German automotive market (Mercedes)and transfer washing machines. Both together are now presenting also CNC cabinets for HP operations with HP automatic tool exchange , or rotary transfers, or in line transfers. Out of Germany there are not too active ( out of Hyunday or Kia projects). They were also presenting a robot for deburring gearboxes , with automatic HP tools changer( rotary lances , V-jet , pin point jet..).

 

Of course we can not forget Dürr Ecoclean as global high pressure supplier despite his presence in the Parts2clean exhibition with only one machine for the general market ,the Cmax that I will talk about in a another post. They have the experience and globality that some others don’t have.

Another big specialist that becomes more global is the Canadian Valiant . This company was for years the competitor of AGULLO , and Centry Spray(after Ingersoll) ,and now for Dürr Ecoclean in America.

Valiant is present at the exhibition trough the Austrian TMS company ( body handling) hat now is part of the Valiant group and that will take the responsibility of the Valiant washers/deburr for Europe. The last 5 years of Valiant in USA have been successful , passing for the transfer in line , Ferris wheel supplier to be a complete partnerfor the Automotive industry ,supplying turn key installations with the handling, robot integration,washers(high pressure or robotics),deburr , leak test ,and special assembling machines and AGV transport . Their Aachen Engineering adventure is now forgotten and they seems determined to attack the European market from their new base in Austria. Is the only manufacturer that can compete with Dür Ecoclean as “global” supplier.