Order: cleaning engine components | Challenge: complex geometries and high cleanliness requirements | Implementation: cleaning line with 4-step cleaning process | Process: immersion cleaning
PURIMA develops sophisticated modular system for cleaning engine components.
For a major customer in the aviation industry, PURIMA, a long-standing expert in special machine construction in the field of industrial parts cleaning, developed a system for cleaning components from aircraft engines. After use in air traffic, the workpieces are contaminated to varying degrees by grease, engine and hydraulic oils, fuels or combustion residues and require complete cleaning in the course of maintenance work after they have been dismantled.
Due to their complex geometry and the simultaneously high cleanliness requirements of the industry, a major challenge was to develop a system that cleans the different workpieces reliably and time-efficiently. Finally, these must be seamlessly transferred back into the further maintenance process.
Building on the customer’s high cleaning specifications, PURIMA implemented a modular system that features a high degree of automation while offering options for manual inspection.
Precisely tailored system integration into existing maintenance logistics
The cleaning system was designed for the customer so that it can be placed in a separate room with very limited room height. After disassembly of the parts to be cleaned, they are transported directly to the plant and transferred to the cleaning process. Next to the cleaning room is a roller bearing inspection room for further inspection. The ball and taper or roller bearings to be cleaned vary in their outer diameter from 50 to 350 mm. Therefore, the transport baskets in which the parts pass through the cleaning line were designed in a size of 400 mm x 400 mm x 300 mm. The material to be cleaned can be transported into the system on rollable carts and then transported on after cleaning.
A sophisticated filtration system ensures that process media are reliably cleaned in the circuit.
In a transport basket, the workpieces to be cleaned are moved into the system on a trolley.
Four effective cleaning processes for different contaminants.
Before the cleaning process can begin, a transport basket is moved into the module plant on the roller carriage. There, the operator positions the carriage and basket in the specified position at the beginning of the cleaning line. The door can then be closed and the start button pressed, whereby the PLC control only starts the process if all doors have been locked beforehand. Now a 4-step cleaning process begins.
An automated gripper picks up the basket and transports it to the first cleaning tank, where immersion cleaning via ultrasound in warm alkaline solution takes place: The basket now oscillates in the solution with the lid closed. During extension, the components are sprayed with demineralized water via a spray ring.
After cleaning, the lid opens, the transport basket is picked up again by the gripper, moved to the second station and the lid closes.
Once there, the operator has the option of performing a manual visual inspection, opening a window if necessary, and using a spray device to rinse off any residue that is still visible.
The basket is then moved down to the second cleaning tank, where an immersion rinse in demineralized water at ambient temperature takes place. The demineralized water does not contain any salts, ions or minerals and therefore does not leave any residues on the sensitive surfaces of the workpieces.
The next cleaning step takes place in a basin with dewatering liquid by means of immersion cleaning. Here, the basket loaded with the workpieces is slowly moved into the solution so that phase formation can take place and residual water is effectively displaced.
The final cleaning step involves immersion treatment in a preservative solution at ambient temperature, which provides additional surface protection.
The gripper then places the transport basket back onto a second trolley, which is ideally placed in the cleaning process before it starts in the
unloading station was positioned. If there is no trolley, sensors automatically detect this and stop the set-down. Once the basket is placed on the trolley, the safety door can be opened and the items to be cleaned can be moved out of the system. All automated processes stop after opening.
A sophisticated filtration system effectively filters contaminated process media to high purification standards (> 10 μm) in a closed loop throughout the purification process. All vapors generated during the cleaning process are discharged upwards through the roof of the plant. A drip pan underneath the system provides additional protection against the escape of liquids.
All doors are safety controlled. Only when these are closed does the automated start Cleaning process.
On the cleaning line takes a gripper picks up the basket and transports him to the next station.
High cycle times and selected procedures ensure efficient processes.
With the help of the modular system, which combines a wide range of cleaning techniques, PURIMA has developed a solution that fully meets the customer’s requirements and expectations. Depending on the size of the parts to be cleaned, up to 50 workpieces can be cleaned simultaneously in one basket; 15 transport baskets can be cleaned per hour. Integration into the customer’s maintenance logistics has been seamlessly achieved.
The plant data can be viewed at any time via remote maintenance. A connection to a facility management system for emergencies, such as fires, is planned. Although the systematics of the plant were individually tailored to the customer, the universal basic concept can be easily adapted to similar applications.
After the lid of the cleaning basins is opened, the baskets are placed there. The further cleaning process in the solutions starts after closing the lid.
After the first station and before the start of the second cleaning stage, there is a possibility of visual control and manual additional cleaning.
