Cylinder head
The spray jet hits what it sees — and what it does not see only becomes visible in the residual contamination verification.
Your component does not yet say which system it needs — the question is what that is decided by.
Components & Applications
1 · The selection framework
What decides the system concept?
Four questions, sixteen factors. They are considered together, not ticked off one after another — and none of them decides on its own.
What kind of component is it?
- Part geometryGeometry, size and material come at the beginning — as does whether an individual part is processed or a batch of bulk parts. The more complex the geometry, the sooner immersion and flooding come into question instead of spraying.
- Internal geometryBlind holes, through-holes and internal channels with cross-drilled holes help decide the method: spraying creates a spray shadow, not every surface can be reached. Many bores speak for lance technology — targeted instead of across the whole surface.
- Workpiece fixtureThe parts carrier is not an accessory but an essential part of the system concept. Its design engineering helps determine where spray shadow arises and whether the nozzles reach the component — especially with residual contamination requirements it is a decisive factor.
- Part orientationHow the component lies in the system helps decide whether the cleaning medium drains off again and how much effort the subsequent drying takes. The position is set via the workpiece fixture.
What has to come off, and how clean does it have to be?
- Type of contaminationOil, emulsion, dust, chips or burr behave differently in the process — and the amount counts as much as the type.
- Residual contamination requirementWhat has to be verified stands at the beginning of the system design, not at its end. The required residual contamination values act on the method, the filtration, the drying and the workpiece fixture at the same time.
- Deburring requirementWhether deburring is additionally required is decided in the same technical clarification: where a burr is involved as well, water jet deburring is usually the better solution.
How is it produced?
- Production volumeBatch operation or mass production: small to medium production volumes speak rather for a chamber cleaning system, high production volumes rather for a continuous cleaning system.
- Cycle timeIt is the order of magnitude that decides, not the number of seconds: if several minutes per cycle are permissible, the chamber cleaning system comes into question; if production demands cycles in the order of seconds, rather continuous or rotary indexing.
- Production concept and material flowDoes the system run as a stand-alone station in batch operation or as a continuous link in a production line? That determines whether the process steps take place in a closed chamber or the component flows continuously through the system.
- Degree of automationAll machine types can be loaded and unloaded automatically — via robots, handling or material flow and conveying. Which degree of automation makes sense, we determine together with the other factors.
What happens before and after?
- Water and process mediaWater is a design area in its own right, not an accessory: chemistry specifications, passivation, water quality, treatment, circuits and recovery belong to the system design. If required, we design the complete water treatment and integrate it.
- DryingHow dry the component has to leave the system determines the effort at the end of the process chain — recirculated air, infrared drying, air blow-off or vacuum drying, designed to suit the project.
- Downstream processWhether adhesive bonding, coating or painting follows the cleaning changes the requirement fundamentally — right down to the question of which water quality is needed. We therefore look not at the system, but at your production.
- Future expandabilityAlready during design engineering it is taken into account that production requirements can change. As far as technically possible and economically sensible, we design systems so that they can later be adapted to new components or expanded.
- Cost-effectivenessIt stands on an equal footing with “technically optimal”: not the most expensive solution is built, but the fitting one.
There is no fixed assignment “component X = machine Y”. The optimal system solution arises from the specific technical and economic requirements of the project.
2 · The tasks
Where your component stands
Ordered by task, not by system type — the assignment arises at the end, not at the beginning. Multiple assignment is the rule here: the groups are entry points, not categories.
Components with complex internal geometry
Gearbox housing
The burr sits in the internal channel of the gearbox housing — where no mechanical tool can reach.
Hydraulic manifold
A hydraulic manifold is not only installed, it carries flow — what stays in the channel stays in the system.
Valve block
The burr root sits at the bore intersection of two bores — no tool gets there, not because it would be too big, but because no path leads to it.
Cross-drilled holes and blind holes
Blind holes and cross-drilled holes are exactly the places a spray jet does not reach: it hits what it sees.
Crankshaft
A crankshaft is long, sensitive to imbalance and has hard-to-reach bores — and that is exactly where oil, cooling lubricant and chips from machining sit.
Components from casting and die casting
Aluminum die-cast part
Contamination on an aluminum die-cast part adheres differently than a cooling lubricant — and what has to come out of the cavity sits in a geometry that was built for exactly that: to be inaccessible.
Components with heavy burrs
Casting flash and metal fines do not sit on one edge but spread out — and later they come loose by themselves.
Components with a verification requirement
High technical cleanliness
It is not cleanliness itself that is difficult, but its verification: a component that is clean, but not demonstrably clean, cannot be used in a manufacturing operation with a verification requirement.
Requirements from the downstream process
Defined part temperature
The component is clean and dry — and still not ready for handover: a part that is too warm is of no use for a leak test.
Requirements from production and process
Large and heavy parts
Size and weight are not a surcharge on an existing system design: they act on system dimensions, payload, workpiece fixture and loading at the same time.
Multiple part variants
Not one component is to run on the system, but several variants — and the decisive question is not how many, but what they have in common.
Multi-stage cleaning process
Cleaning, rinsing, drying is not enough for every cleanliness requirement — and every additional stage costs cycle time, space and a media circuit of its own.
These are tasks as well
Not every one needs a page of its own. These three are set out elsewhere — here is where.
High production volume
The question is not how many different components run, but how many parts per unit of time have to pass through the system.
Automated parts handling
Gripping, transferring, loading and unloading can be automated — whether it pays off is decided by the calculation, not by the technology.
Adapting an existing system
Not every new task needs a new system — the question is whether adapting the existing one pays off technically and economically.
These three, too, lead to no particular machine type. They are constraints of the system design, not an assignment.
3 · Which solution could fit?
Chamber or continuous — the machine type follows the production, not the component
The same cleaning task can often be solved in both machine types. The question is therefore not which one cleans better, but which one fits the production: chamber and continuous cleaning systems do not differ in the cleaning result, but in how the component passes through the system. Everything else follows from that. Whoever runs changing parts in small production runs pays for flexibility with cycle time — that is not a disadvantage, but its price. Whoever supplies a production line with parts of the same kind pays for throughput with range of parts.
Chamber cleaning systemZK
- The decisive argument
- Flexibility
- Range of parts
- Changing, also more complex workpieces
- Production volume
- Small to medium
- Cycle
- Several minutes per cycle are permissible
- Material flow
- Batch — the process steps run in a closed chamber
Continuous cleaning systemZD
- The decisive argument
- Throughput
- Range of parts
- Typically identical or similar components
- Production volume
- High
- Cycle
- Range of seconds, continuous
- Material flow
- Continuous, integrated into the production line
The specific selection is made on the basis of the complete technical and economic requirements.
Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions about the selection
Chamber cleaning system or continuous cleaning system — what decides that?
Not the component, but the production: both machine types often clean the same task equally well, they differ in how the component passes through the system. Flexibility speaks for the chamber cleaning system — changing, also more complex workpieces, small to medium production volumes, and cycles in the order of several minutes per cycle are permissible. Throughput speaks for the continuous cleaning system — high production volumes of typically identical components, cycles in the range of seconds, continuous flow in a production line. It is rarely unambiguous: engine blocks, for example, can be cleaned in a chamber cleaning system with lance technology just as well as in a continuous cleaning system. The decision for a configuration is therefore never made on the basis of a single criterion — part geometry, production volume, cycle time, production concept, degree of automation, residual contamination requirement and future expandability we consider together.
Is there an assignment from component to system type?
No. There is no fixed rule “component X → machine Y” — the same cleaning task can often be solved in several machine types, and the same component can run in different concepts depending on the production. Engine blocks, for example, can be cleaned in a chamber cleaning system with lance technology just as well as in a continuous cleaning system. Only when component, contamination, residual contamination requirement, production and water and media management are clarified is a decision made on method, filtration, drying and water treatment. The optimal system solution arises from the specific technical and economic requirements of the project.
Direct contact
AddressITR GmbH powered by Zippel
Hauptstraße 31
93186 Pettendorf
Pettendorf bei Regensburg
Hauptstraße 31
93186 Pettendorf
Pettendorf bei Regensburg
Phone+49 (0) 9409-777 3598
Fax +49 (0) 9409-777 3607
Fax +49 (0) 9409-777 3607
Technically responsible for this page: Günther Zippel — International Sales & Technical Consulting