CLEANING & DEGREASING CHOOSING THE AQUEOUS ROUTE
Lawrence Bradbury, director of
engineering at Selwood, says: “Even though
we were impressed with the original Turbex
machines, which had given two decades of
good service, before replacing them we
looked around at cleaning equipment on the
market to see what was available. We took a
batch of dirty castings to the Turbex
technical centre, where staff carried out a
demonstration in a similar AC-1.7. The parts
came out perfectly clean in a cycle time of
just under 10 minutes, so we took the
decision there and then to invest in this type
of equipment.”
As part of the deal, Turbex also supplied
a second washing machine, a CL-800, for
which the two old aqueous rotating drum
machines were part-exchanged. This
equipment is used for processing smaller
items that go into Selwood’s products, such
as air pump components.
The story is similar at Birmingham-based
volume parts manufacturer Falcon
Engineering Productions, which has invested
in a Solo 400 aqueous parts washing
machine from MecWash (https://is.gd/tutero)
following several recommendations from
machine tool manufacturers.
TIME-CONSUMING & MESSY
Before investing in the MecWash Solo,
Falcon used paraf n-based cleaning to
remove swarf and grease from the parts it
manufactured, but decided to change from
this method as it was time-consuming and
quite messy. The company sought advice
from a number of machine tool builders and
MecWash was the name that kept being
mentioned, as managing director Laurence
Foster con rms: “We spoke to a number of
our contacts and they all recommended
MecWash as the go-to company for cleaning
and degreasing machines.
“In terms of why we chose the Solo 400,
selection came down to its compact
footprint and high performance wash
capabilities, and we have been extremely
impressed with the results,” he adds.
“The Solo achieves far higher standards of
cleanliness than our previous method.”
The Solo has been developed to satisfy
the needs of inter-stage, in-cell and, in some
cases, nal machined
component cleaning
to high standards,
making it a suitable
recommendation for
Falcon as a number
of the parts it
machines undergo
secondary surface
treatments, such as
heat treatment.
Safe Solvents aims
to disrupt acqueous
degreasing –
see box below
MecWash offers the Solo in three sizes
up to a wash chamber measuring 600 by
600 by 800 mm, all offer rotational washing,
mist rinsing and hot air drying.
The company’s managing director, John
Pattison, says: “The Solo is one of our most
popular machines. It far outperforms
traditional dunk washers, as well as rotary
basket and tunnel washers, in terms of both
cleanliness and effective drying.”
Falcon also installed an Aqua-Save Junior
waste wash water recycling system to
minimise the volume of water used and
reduce coolant wastage, as well as disposal
costs.
Latest cleaning & degreasing news & products in brief
Safe Solvents, an environmental technology business intent on
disrupting the parts-washing industry, has successfully completed a
£1.36 million late-seed capital raise – exceeding its target by 36%.
The company is aiming to reinvent parts
washing by introducing a game-changing
Ecoclean has
aqueous degreasing technology.
introduced a
‘Ambimization’, as the technology is known,
service app
works at ambient temperatures and
eliminates the need for hazardous
hydrocarbon-based solvents, heated
detergents and caustic degreasers to be
stored and handled onsite. The funds raised
will allow the company to develop its
operating infrastructure. This strategy will lay
the groundwork for planned scale-up activity in mid-2020, and
continue the drive towards Safe Solvents’ ve year goal of securing
8% of the UK market. https://is.gd/izexiv
Guyson International (https://is.gd/yapahe) has introduced an
extensive range of benchtop ultrasonic cleaning baths, replacing
its previous ‘Kerry’ branded Pulsatron KC and MKC ultrasonic
units, which after many years of service have been phased out.
Available in seven stainless steel tank sizes, from two to 45 litres,
all models in the latest range feature a large and easy-to-use LCD
display, dedicated heater control, drain valve (apart from the
smallest version GUK-2) and a stainless steel basket and lid.
Vixen Surface Treatments (https://is.gd/gonigo),
which turns 30 in 2020, is expanding its premises
in the lead up to the big milestone. The company,
which was founded in 1990, specialises in wet
blasting, dry blasting, degreasing and washing
equipment. With steady progress already made,
the building expansion will cater to a greater
workload of bespoke machinery and even quicker
turnarounds for customers. The build is set to
nish early this year.
An app from Ecoclean (for iOS and Android) makes it easy to
contact the service team. The two-way real-time connection via chat
function – and video telephony with live image transmission –
allows problems to be solved quickly and ef ciently. The app
automatically forwards service requests to the service staff at the
responsible Ecoclean branch. Various menu options are available
for contacting the service team, such as ‘report malfunction’,
‘spare parts inquiry’ and ‘technical support’. This pre-selection
helps to ensure that the request is routed to the appropriate
member of the relevant service team. https://is.gd/qufohe
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets February 2020 41
/tutero)
/izexiv
/yapahe)
/gonigo)
/qufohe
/www.machinery.co.uk