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“The parts don’t come out clean.”

Industrial Parts Cleaning

Behind it there is rarely a broken system — usually a task that has changed. What ITR bases the design of a parts cleaning system on, which cleaning methods and machine types there are, and when we advise against one.
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AI-generated visualization — not a photograph of a delivered system

1 · The challenge

No call starts with a machine

This is how most conversations begin — and none of these sentences describes a system. They describe a result that is not right.
“There is too much oil on them.” · “The parts have spots.” · “The residual contamination values are off.” · “The cleanliness requirement is not being met.”

The old system is rarely broken. Usually the task has changed and the system has stayed the same — triggered by a new vehicle project, a new component, a new manufacturing process, a new production line or new quality requirements. Whether the parts are called workpieces, components or machine parts changes nothing — the question is always the same: what has to come off, and what has to be verified?

One trigger falls outside that series: the reconditioning of used components — remanufacturing. Anyone who remanufactures mechanical components is not cleaning a freshly manufactured part but one that has run: the residues then come from operation, not from production. We design parts cleaning systems for that as well.

  • What has to be removed

    Oil, emulsion, chips, dust, burrs, residual contamination. Degreasing is part of that task; a degreasing system is not a machine type of its own. Baked-on contamination is the most difficult case — anyone who has it should say so early.

  • Where it becomes technically difficult

    Complex geometries, many blind holes, many through-holes. The problem is not the amount of contamination but the place the process medium has to reach.

  • What has to be verified

    Residual contamination values, technical cleanliness, suitability for adhesive bonding, production capacity, cycle time. Often the goal is not the cleaning but the step that follows it.
A workpiece carrier with two prism fixtures runs on a chain conveyor into the dark loading opening of a parts cleaning system
Workpiece carriers run into the loading opening. How the component is held, and where the process medium reaches as a result, is part of what decides the outcome.
Multi-chamber cleaning line running the length of the hall: treatment chambers in a row with maintenance hatches, above them piping and side channel blowers, in front of them filter housings, pumps and the control cabinet
How many stages a system gets follows from the task — not from a modular kit. What has to be removed and what has to be verified comes first; the number of chambers comes last.
Technical cleanliness and residual contamination

2 · Engineering considerations

There is no fixed rule “component X → machine Y”

Before any machine type is discussed, four areas are clarified. Only once they are settled is a decision made about cleaning methods, filtration, drying and water treatment — not on the basis of a single characteristic.

  • A · The component

    Geometry and its complexity, size, blind holes, through-holes, material, bulk parts or individual part.

  • B · The contamination

    Type, amount and the required residual contamination values.

  • C · The production

    Cycle time, production volume, drying requirement — and whether deburring is needed as well.

  • D · Water and process media

    Chemistry specifications, passivation, water quality, water treatment, circuits and recovery.

Water is a design area of its own, not an accessory

Which water quality is needed is not decided by the system but by your production. Municipal water, softened water or deionized water (DI water) — the choice follows the residual contamination requirement, the component, the material, the downstream process and process reliability. Whether parts are bonded, coated or painted after cleaning changes the requirement fundamentally. Where needed, we design the complete water treatment and integrate it — osmosis, evaporators, treatment systems. There is no standard equipment package; the selection follows the system design.

The workpiece fixture sits on the same level. It is part not only of the system design but of the choice of cleaning method itself: whether spraying is enough or the part has to be immersed also depends on how the component is held.

When we advise against it

  • 01

    No solvent systems

    That is not a question of capacity utilization but a portfolio decision.
  • 02

    Unrealistically low residual contamination requirements

    The most common reason why a task cannot be solved as stated. We say so before the quotation, not after acceptance.
  • 03

    Baked-on contamination

    The technically most difficult case — whether it is feasible is decided by the assessment of the current state, not by a sales brochure.

Technically, we do not reject projects across the board. If we decline, it is more likely a matter of capacity or cost-effectiveness — and then we tell you exactly that.

3 · The solution concept

The basic process is the same in almost every system

What differs between systems is not the sequence but how the process medium reaches the component and how the component travels through the system.
  1. 01CleaningSpraying, immersion or flooding — individually or combined.
  2. 02RinsingSeparate tanks prevent intermixing.
  3. 03DryingRecirculating air or infrared drying.
  4. 04Second rinsing or dryingje nach AuslegungDepending on the requirement.
  5. 05Air blow-off or vacuum dryingje nach AuslegungFor high drying requirements.

The cleaning methods

The more complex the geometry and the more bores and blind holes, the more likely immersion and flooding rather than spraying. Spraying creates spray shadows — not every surface can be reached. Ultrasonic cleaning and vacuum drying are options, not cleaning methods: an option supplements a method, it does not replace it.

Flood washing

Areas that are hard to reach — the process medium is guided over and around the workpiece at high volume.

Lance technology

Many bores and through-holes — targeted rather than across the surface.

Drying

Recirculating air, infrared, vacuum — designed depending on the project.

If burrs are involved as well, water jet deburring is the better solution. Air blow pre-cleans within the machining sequence — Air-Blow Systems

The machine types

ZK

Chamber cleaning systems

Flexibility — changing components, small to medium production volumes, cycle times on the order of several minutes per cycle.

ZD

Continuous cleaning systems

Throughput — high production volumes with a defined range of parts, continuous flow, cycle times on the order of seconds.

RT

Rotary indexing cleaning systems

Cycle rate with a defined production process — loading and unloading run in parallel with processing, the auxiliary time drops out of the cycle.

CABS

Air-Blow Systems

Pre-cleaning at the machine tool — no substitute for precision cleaning.

Two distinctions that are often confused

Continuous cleaning systemZD

Where the short cycle comes from
Continuous flow in the line
Prerequisite
Similar parts
Movement of the workpiece
Passes through the system

Rotary indexing cleaning systemRT

Where the short cycle comes from
Loading and unloading run in parallel with processing
Prerequisite
Defined production process
Movement of the workpiece
Moves from process station to process station
This comparison is orientation, not a configurator. The decision for a machine type never comes from a single criterion but from the interplay of part geometry, contamination, residual contamination requirement, production volume, cycle time, workpiece fixture, degree of automation and expandability. Come to us with your component.

Immersion

When
The workpiece has to go completely into the process medium
Bulk parts
Possible

Flooding

When
The process medium is guided over and around the workpiece at high volume
Bulk parts
Possible
Bulk parts are not a distinguishing feature — both processes can take them. The overview is orientation, not a configurator: the machine type is the result of the system design, not its starting point.

4 · Typical applications

What the decision hinges on in the individual case

Six tasks of the kind that come up every day — and what tips the scales in each of them. It is not the component that decides but the place the process medium has to reach.

What tips the scales in a case is on its own page: the design factors, the possible system concepts and the cleaning methods in detail.

Cylinder head

The spray jet hits what it sees — and what it does not see only becomes visible in the residual contamination verification.

Gearbox housing

The deburring requirement for a gearbox housing is regularly a cleanliness requirement, and it is inspected as one.

Hydraulic manifold

A hydraulic manifold is not only installed, it carries flow — what stays in the channel stays in the system.

Valve block

Blind holes and branching channels are exactly the places a spray jet does not reach: it hits what it sees.

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.

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.

None of these assignments is a rule. Depending on production volume, cycle time, residual contamination requirement and material flow, the same component can be better placed in a different system — there is no rule “component X, machine Y”. What you see here is the consideration, not its result.

All components and applicationsThe cleaning methods in detailTechnical cleanliness and residual contamination

5 · The result

The project workflow is the actual deliverable

The longest phase is design engineering — precisely because it is not completed in-house but coordinated with you stage by stage.
  1. 1

    Technical clarification and assessment of the current state

    We look at the task — component, contamination, required cleanliness.

    Ihre Beteiligung: Provide the component, the drawing and the cleanliness specification.

  2. 2

    Quotation and order

    Cleaning method, machine type and degree of automation are weighed against each other.
  3. 3

    Design engineering with continuous releasetragend

    Every design stage is coordinated with you and released by you. A special-purpose system comes about through continuous technical exchange.
  4. 4

    Manufacturing and internal factory acceptance test (FAT)tragend

    Only when the values are right does the system leave our factory.
  5. 5

    Assembly, commissioning, site acceptance test (SAT) at your premisestragend

    After that we accompany production — depending on the project, over days or weeks.

    Ihre Beteiligung: Site acceptance test on site, with your components.

Cylinder head in the workpiece fixture inside the opened chamber cleaning system, above it the nozzle bar with a row of individually placed nozzles
Component in the workpiece fixture, above it the nozzle bar. In the end it is not a picture that counts but a measured value.
Mesh basket on a driven roller conveyor in front of the opened chamber of a parts cleaning system, on the right the drives and orange terminal boxes of the loading station
The loading station in front of the chamber. How loading is done is also under review at the site acceptance test — with your components, at your cycle rate.

Where cleaning borders on our other services

  • 01

    Deburring

    “Deburring required?” is one of the design factors of every parts cleaning system. If cleaning alone is not enough, water jet deburring is examined.
  • 02

    Automation

    We supply every machine type with automated loading and unloading: robots, handling technology, material flow and conveying. Cell, workpiece fixture, control system and safety technology come from a single source.
  • 03

    If you already have a system

    We also modernize systems from other manufacturers — the focus is on control system retrofits and expansion, not on swapping components. Every retrofit starts with an on-site assessment of the current state, before the quotation.
High-Precision Water Jet DeburringAutomation & Robotics

Industries

Already realized

AutomotiveFoundryDie castingMachinery manufacturingAerospaceFood industryPlastics processingMedical devicesElectronicsPharmaceutical industryEnergy sector

The list names industries in which systems of ours are installed. It is not a boundary: wherever components with defined cleanliness requirements are manufactured, we design for them — what counts is the component, not the economic sector.

Automotive industryFoundry and die castingMachinery manufacturingAerospaceFood industry

Scope of supply

Stainless steel build, closed circuit

Water recovery, energy efficiency and environmental compatibility are the areas we have worked on concretely in recent years — cascade rinsing systems, vapor condenser, return of the condensate into the process.
Vertical integrationDigital system lifecycleTechnical terms in the glossary

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions about parts cleaning

What is industrial parts cleaning?

Industrial parts cleaning removes process-related contamination from workpieces — oil, emulsion, chips, dust, burrs, residual contamination. It never stands on its own: how clean a part has to be is determined by the step that follows. If parts are bonded, coated or painted after cleaning, that changes the requirement fundamentally.

What is an industrial parts cleaning system?

A machine that cleans, rinses and dries components in defined steps. For us it is never the starting point but the result of a system design: we develop customer-specific special-purpose systems, not catalog machines. What the system has to be able to do follows from the component, the contamination, the production and the cleanliness requirement.

Which parts cleaning system is suitable for my component?

That cannot be assigned in advance. There is no fixed rule “component X → machine Y”. Four areas decide together: the component, the contamination, the production and the process media. These factors influence one another — which is why the machine type is the result of the system design, not its starting point.

What types of parts cleaning systems are there?

We carry seven machine types: the chamber cleaning system, the continuous cleaning system, the rotary indexing cleaning system, the immersion cleaning system, the APOLLO spray-immersion cleaning system, the CABS Air-Blow System and the special-purpose system. Each has exactly one decisive argument — flexibility, throughput, cycle rate, complete immersion, combination, pre-cleaning, or the task that none of the other six fits. The overview is orientation, not a configurator.

How does an industrial parts cleaning system work?

The basic process is the same in almost every system: cleaning, rinsing, drying. Depending on the project, extended by a second rinsing, a second drying, air blow-off or vacuum drying. What differs between systems is not the sequence — but how the process medium reaches the component and how the component travels through the system.

Which types of contamination are removed?

Oil, emulsion, chips, dust, burrs and residual contamination. Baked-on contamination is the technically most difficult case — anyone who has it should say so early, then we clarify feasibility before you plan. If burrs are involved as well, water jet deburring is usually the better solution than cleaning alone.

What makes a cleaning task technically difficult?

The geometry, not the amount of contamination. Complex geometries, many blind holes, many through-holes — the problem is the place the process medium has to reach. The more branched the component, the more likely immersion or flooding rather than spraying.

Can different components be cleaned in one system?

Yes, with the appropriate system design — through different programs and workpiece fixtures. That is the argument of the chamber cleaning system: changing components at small to medium production volumes. The wider the range of parts, the more important the fixture becomes, because it is part of what decides whether the process medium reaches everywhere.

How long does a cleaning process take?

The process time is designed project by project — from the component, the contamination, the cleaning method and the required cleanliness. The orders of magnitude differ clearly by machine type: several minutes per cycle for the chamber cleaning system, cycle times on the order of seconds for the continuous cleaning system. There is no generally valid figure.

How is cleaning quality ensured?

Through two acceptance tests and design engineering that is released as it goes. Before shipment comes the internal factory acceptance test (FAT): only when the values are right does the system leave our factory. After assembly comes the site acceptance test (SAT) on your premises, with your components. Before that, every design stage is released by you — the quality comes about in the project, not in the inspection at the end.

Does ITR build solvent systems as well?

No, we do not build solvent systems. That is not a question of capacity utilization but a portfolio decision — a deliberate determination of what we build and what we do not. Technically, we otherwise do not reject projects across the board: if we decline, it is more likely a matter of capacity or cost-effectiveness, and then we tell you exactly that.

When is a cleaning task not solvable?

The most common reason is unrealistically low residual contamination requirements — we say so before the quotation, not after acceptance. The technically most difficult case is baked-on contamination; whether it is feasible is decided by the assessment of the current state, not by a sales brochure.

Which details speed up a reliable answer?

Seven details are almost always missing from an inquiry: chemistry specifications, type and amount of the contamination, data sheets for the process media, material flow, cycle time, residual contamination requirement and complete part data. None of them is a condition — but each one shortens the path.

Are systems from other manufacturers modernized as well?

Yes. The focal points are complete modernization, control system retrofits, conversions of existing systems and expansions — control cabinet manufacturing and programming come from in-house. Every retrofit starts with an on-site assessment of the current state, before the quotation.

Which industries do you build parts cleaning systems for?

Already realized: automotive, foundry, die casting, machinery manufacturing, aerospace, food industry, plastics processing, medical devices, electronics, pharmaceutical industry and energy sector. The list is not a boundary: wherever components with defined cleanliness requirements are manufactured, we design for them — what counts is the component, not the economic sector.

Direct contact

AddressITR GmbH powered by Zippel
Hauptstraße 31
93186 Pettendorf
Pettendorf bei Regensburg
Phone+49 (0) 9409-777 3598
Fax +49 (0) 9409-777 3607
Emailinfo@itr-anlagenbau.com