Continuous cleaning system
High production volumes in the line with a defined range of parts, cycles in the order of 20 to 30 seconds. We set the cycle time via the machine length.
„The residual contamination values are not within limits.“
Automotive industry
Complex internal geometries, cross-drilled holes, residual contamination, technical cleanliness, cycle times in seconds, process reliability, verification requirement — that is the task. The system is its result.
1 · The challenge
Three requirements that apply at the same time
Each on its own can be handled. Together they define the solution space — and they do so before a system is even discussed.
The component is branched inside
Engine blocks, cylinder heads, gearbox and pump housings, valve blocks and hydraulic manifolds share the same feature: internal channels with cross-drilled holes and bore intersections. Whatever sits there — chips, oil, emulsion, a burr — sits in a place that cannot easily be reached.The line runs at cycle times in seconds
Cleaning here is not a process of its own but a step between two others. It has to follow the cycle of the line, not the other way round.The result has to be verified
It is not enough for the part to look clean. What is required are residual contamination values, technical cleanliness and — depending on the downstream process — suitability for the next manufacturing step.
What the problem sounds like at the customer
„The parts do not come out clean.“ · „There is too much oil on them.“ · „The parts have spots.“ · „We cannot get the burr off.“ · „The residual contamination values are not within limits.“ · „The cleanliness requirement is not being met.“
Two of these sentences describe the same thing. A burr that remains comes loose later and travels to where the component does its work — into oil and hydraulic channels, to valves, into pumps and gearboxes. A detached burr in the channel is not a form deviation but residual contamination. Anyone who treats the burr as a deburring topic and the residual contamination value as a cleaning topic separates two sides of the same task.
Where the inquiry comes from
Most often from a new vehicle project. Besides that: a new component, a new manufacturing process, a new production line, new quality requirements. What all five have in common is that the problem is not the old system but the new task — in this industry not an exception, but the normal state of affairs.
2 · Which components are involved
Structured by functional group in the vehicle
Not by sector of the economy. The reason is practical: that is how our customers’ manufacturing is organized — an engine factory has different components, different cycles and different contacts than a gearbox factory. And the task follows from the component, not from the industry.
2.1 · Engine components
Cylinder headEngine blockCrankshaft
Engine blocks and cylinder heads are the most demanding cleaning parts of the industry — not because of their size, but because of their internal structure. Coolant and oil channels, blind holes, through-holes and threads run through the entire component. A spray jet hits the outer surface; it does not reach the end of a deep bore.
Lance technology follows from that: instead of only hitting the component from outside, a lance moves specifically into bores and through-holes. On engine blocks it is the rule, not the exception — and it is the reason why the workpiece fixture here has a share in the result: the lance has to find the bore, and it has to find it in the same place on every part.
Crankshafts run on special-purpose systems with us. They are long, sensitive to imbalance and have a geometry with main bearing, crankpin bearing and oil bores for which we design the system specifically.
2.2 · Gearbox and drivetrain components
Gearbox housingDrivetrain components
Gearbox housings are among the components we encounter most often — in both core areas. They are branched inside, made predominantly of aluminum or aluminum die casting, and during drilling, milling and thread cutting the burrs form exactly where no mechanical tool can reach: in internal channels and at the intersections of cross-drilled holes.
What is at stake here is not appearance. A burr that comes loose in operation travels with the oil through the housing. That is why the deburring requirement on gearbox housings is regularly a cleanliness requirement — and is tested as one.
2.3 · Control, hydraulic and auxiliary units
Valve blocksHydraulic manifoldsPump housingsTurbocharger housingsSteering housingsControl components
This group is the most difficult geometrically. Valve blocks and hydraulic manifolds are at their core nothing more than a block of material with a channel system inside — cross bores and cross-drilled holes that intersect several times. A burr forms at every bore intersection, and no tool reaches any of them.
Pump, turbocharger and steering housings follow the same logic: components carrying flow, whose function depends on the cleanliness of the channel.
2.4 · Commercial vehicles
Commercial vehicle manufacturers are a customer group of their own, not a subset of passenger car production. The functional groups are the same — engine, gearbox, drivetrain. The system design is not.
Larger components
Different system dimensions, different chamber and zone sizes.Higher weight
Different handling: payload, workpiece fixture, loading.Partly different materials
Different process design — medium, pressure and temperature follow the material.Different contamination
Different chemistry, different exposure time, different choice of process.
Four differences that all arrive at the same place: in the system design. That is why we calculate a commercial vehicle component separately instead of transferring an existing system design.
What all these components have in common
They are branched inside, and they are made predominantly of aluminum or aluminum die casting. That is not a preference for a material but the reality of modern housing production — and it explains why cleaning and deburring touch each other so often in this industry. Aluminum machines easily and breaks out in a ductile way as it does. Afterwards the burr does not sit on the outer edge but in the channel.
The material is still not a limit. We process steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, zinc die casting and plastics just as well. Which material is present is one of the factors that determine the system design — not one that rules us out.
3 · Which requirements follow from that
The required cleanliness depends on what comes next
It is not the cleaning that decides what a clean part is, but the downstream manufacturing process — bonding, welding, coating, painting or assembly. Anyone preparing a bonding surface needs a different result than someone handing a part over to assembly.
Residual contamination values
The permissible amount and size of particles in the component.Technical cleanliness
The verification of it — where required, per VDA 19 / ISO 16232.Suitability for the downstream process
Bonding, welding, coating, painting, assembly.Cycle time
The line in which the system stands sets it.Repeatability
That not one good part but every part reaches the result.Production capacity
Production volume and availability over the shift.
The downstream process is the point that is underestimated most often. It has a say in the water quality — city water, softened water or deionized water (DI water) are not a question of equipment here but a consequence of what happens to the component next. That is why we design the water treatment as part of the system, not as an accessory.
Traceability down to the individual component is possible depending on the project: via barcode or DataMatrix recognition, the processing program can be selected per part and the result written back per part.
4 · Which solutions answer this
Only now the system
Component and requirement are fixed — the concept follows from them. For cleaning, the simplest point of orientation is the cycle time, not the component.
4.1 · Cleaning — the machine type follows the cycle
Rotary indexing cleaning system
Defined series process with short cycles. Loading and unloading run parallel to processing; the non-productive time drops out of the cycle.
Chamber cleaning system
Changing range of parts, small to medium production volumes, several minutes per cycle permissible. For engine blocks with lance technology.
Immersion and spray-immersion cleaning systems
When the component has to be fully immersed so that the medium reliably reaches all areas.
Air-Blow System
Pre-cleaning between machining steps to carry out loose chips. No substitute for industrial fine cleaning.
Baked-on contamination is the most difficult case. Where it occurs, we clarify feasibility early — before you plan.
4.2 · Deburring — when cleaning alone is not enough
Whether additional deburring is needed is one of the parameters we clarify in every cleaning system design anyway. If the answer is yes, the path leads to high-pressure water jet deburring: it reaches the bores and internal channels that mechanical tools cannot. We design the pressure to the task, not from a catalog.
4.3 · Automating — when it pays off
Loading and unloading, linking, buffering, palletizing: we deliver all machine types with automated loading and unloading, with robot, handling or conveying technology from our own design engineering.
And we deliver automation even when no cleaning or deburring system of ours is involved. In the automotive industry we have carried out pure automation projects — robots, roller conveyors, chain conveyors and material flow solutions, without a process system of our own in the line. That is the difference between a system builder who loads his machine and one who masters material flow and conveying.
And underneath it all: there is no fixed rule „component X → machine Y“. Which machine type is the right one is decided by part geometry, type of contamination, residual contamination requirement, production volume, cycle time, production concept, degree of automation, workpiece fixture, future expandability and cost-effectiveness together. We calculate every system by that, not from a catalog.
5 · Why the two belong together
The same workpiece, two processes
In this industry both tasks arise on the same component — and often in the same process step.
Engine blocks and gearbox housings stand in both areas. The same part that has to be cleaned is the part on which the burr sits in the channel. That is not a coincidence of responsibilities but a property of the process: the same high-pressure jet that removes the burr flushes it out of the component — otherwise it would stay lying in the channel.
Where the technical cleanliness goes beyond what the deburring process delivers on the side, we add a complete parts cleaning system downstream — designed for the same component, by the same design engineers. That is the practical reason why both come from one source with us: otherwise the interface between deburring and cleaning would lie exactly where the problem sits.
6 · Where we advise against it
A system that promises everything has not seen the component
Four cases in which we object before the quotation — not at acceptance.
Unrealistically low residual contamination requirements
Where a requirement is technically not achievable, we say so beforehand.Defined chamfers or radii
The water jet removes the burr, it does not shape the edge. Anyone with a defined chamfer in the requirements specification needs a different process.Very firmly adhering or massive burrs
They cannot be removed cost-effectively with the water jet.Automation that does not pay off
With low production volumes, frequently changing products or high changeover effort we recommend none — even when it would be technically possible.
Plus one process-related limitation you should know: spraying creates spray shadow. Not every surface can be reached. With complex geometries and many blind holes, immersion and flooding deliver the better results.
7 · When the next vehicle project comes
With every model change the range of parts changes
The most frequent reason customers come back to us after years is a new component. In this industry that is not an exception but the rhythm of the business — which is why we design systems for it from the start, as far as technically possible and economically sensible.
Often the existing system can continue to be used. Our retrofit focus lies on control system retrofits, conversions and extensions — not on component replacement. That also applies to systems from other manufacturers.
Every retrofit starts with an on-site survey: measuring the system, recording missing drawings, documenting the as-is state. Before the quotation, not after.
8 · Where we stand in the automotive industry
The only industry with all three areas of work
That is why this page carries the complete chain — deburring, cleaning, automation — and not just an excerpt.
Already realized
Industrial Parts CleaningHigh-Precision Water Jet DeburringAutomation & Robotics
Our customers include manufacturers of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, gearboxes and drivetrains as well as automotive suppliers — among them foundries, die casting and forging operations that produce for these manufacturers. That is not a coincidence of sales but the consequence of the components: wherever internally branched aluminum housings are produced in series, burrs form in internal channels and residual contamination in bores.
The same components from a different angle: the housings and blocks originate as cast and die-cast parts — and the same control components are encountered in electronics production.
9 · Scope of supply
Vertical integration, acceptance and digital system lifecycle
We verify the result before the system leaves our factory — and a second time after installation at your site.
Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions from the automotive industry
How are automotive components cleaned?
Like all others — by the task, not by the industry. Typical are engine, gearbox and housing parts, predominantly of aluminum or aluminum die casting: branched inside, with cross-drilled holes, blind holes and internal channels. Which machine type fits is decided first by the cycle time, not by the component. How clean the part has to be is decided by the downstream process — bonding, welding, coating, painting or assembly; where technical cleanliness is required, per VDA 19 / ISO 16232.
Applications
Tasks from this industry
7 worked-out tasks are assigned to the automotive industry. What tips the balance in each of them is on its own page.
Every case lists the design factors, the possible system concepts and the processes in detail — here is only what it is about.
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 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.
Also assigned to this industry: CrankshaftDefined part temperatureLarge and heavy parts
The assignment classifies — it claims no project. And it decides nothing about the system: which concept a task needs arises from the interplay of the design factors, not from the industry.
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