Spray-immersion cleaning system
When a component needs both: accessible outer surfaces and internal cavities. Both processes run in a hermetically sealed chamber; the batch rotates and swivels in all axes.
„We cannot get the burr off.“ — and the part still has its first machining step ahead of it.
Foundry and die casting
Casting flash, metal fines, baked-on contamination, core residues in cavities, residual contamination, repeatability — that is the task. The system is its result.
1 · The challenge
This is where the component is made — and with it everything that has to be removed later
That is the particularity of this industry: it stands at the beginning of the chain, not in the middle. A cast part that leaves the foundry with residues is not a foundry problem. It becomes one at the customer’s customer.
The burr is casting flash, not a milling burr
It does not form during machining at a defined edge, but at the parting line and at transitions — and it appears as metal fines, in the form of loose burr remnants that come off later. Where they fall is not decided by the design engineering.The contamination is baked on
From the casting process, residues remain on the component that adhere differently than oil or emulsion from machining. The most difficult case we know — and the only one for which we expressly clarify feasibility beforehand.The inside is not empty
Aluminum die-cast parts with cavities are made using cores. What remains in the component afterwards has to come out — from geometries that were built for exactly that: to be inaccessible.
What the problem sounds like at the customer
„We cannot get the burr off.“ · „The parts do not come out clean.“ · „The parts have spots.“ · „The residual contamination values are not within limits.“ · „The cleanliness requirement is not being met.“
In this industry the last sentence often does not come from the company’s own quality department but from the buyer. Anyone who casts for the automotive industry or machinery manufacturing inherits their cleanliness requirement — and has to meet it before the part leaves the building.
2 · Which components are involved
What is different about the cast part
Four features that exist only on the raw part — and that all arrive in the system design.
Aluminum die-cast partsCast partsComponents with washed-out salt cores
Casting flash and metal fines
Loose burr remnants that come off and travel inside the component.Baked-on residues
Adhere differently than oil and emulsion — the most difficult cleaning case.Cavities from core making
Accessible only if the medium is guided inside.Raw part state
The part is not yet machined — dimensional accuracy and surface are not yet final.
Washing out salt cores
We have built systems for washing out salt cores. That is not a cleaning step in the usual sense but a manufacturing step: the core has done its job as soon as the component has solidified — and afterwards it has to come completely out of the cavity. What remains is not contamination but a remnant of the tool.
There is no standard machine type for it. The system is created from the geometry of the cavity, not from a catalog.
Materials
Aluminum and aluminum die casting are the focus. We process steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, zinc die casting and plastics just as well — there is no limit at the material. Which material and which material state is present is one of the factors that determine the system design.
3 · Which requirements follow from that
Not only what your part needs — what your buyer demands
The required component cleanliness depends on the downstream manufacturing process. In the foundry that is usually machining — and behind it stands a further customer.
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.Freedom from burrs
That no loose remnant remains in the component.Suitability for the downstream process
Machining, coating, assembly at the buyer.Repeatability
That not one good part but every part reaches the result.
Two results have to be verified, not one: residual burr — is the burr gone? And residual contamination — is the part clean? Both verifications run through one contact, but not both through the same hand: the residual contamination analysis is carried out by an independent, accredited test laboratory, not by us. That is intentional — our release depends on that figure, and it should not come from us.
4 · Which solutions answer this
The medium has to get into the cavity
Where spraying fails at the spray shadow, immersion and flooding lead to the result. Only now, after component and requirement are fixed, is the machine type discussed.
4.1 · Cleaning
Immersion cleaning system
When the workpiece or bulk parts have to be fully immersed in the medium so that it reliably reaches all areas.
Chamber cleaning system
Changing range of parts, several process steps in one closed chamber. For bulk parts usually as flood washing inside the chamber.
Continuous and rotary indexing cleaning systems
Where high production volumes arise in short cycles and the range of parts is fixed at the planning stage.
We add ultrasonic cleaning where immersion and flooding processes are used. With baked-on contamination, talk to us early: we clarify feasibility before you plan — not afterwards.
4.2 · Deburring — casting flash and metal fines
The high-pressure water jet removes burrs and at the same time carries them out of the component. With cast parts that is exactly the point: a detached piece of metal fines that stays lying in the cavity has only moved the problem.
For the removal of metal fines we use the term fines deburring — it runs on integrated robot systems, even with complicated geometry and high residual contamination requirements. We design the pressure to the task, not from a catalog.
4.3 · The right medium is part of the system design
Especially with aluminum and with baked-on residues, the process chemistry has a say in the result — and equally in corrosion protection and passivation. We do not develop or produce cleaning chemicals of our own. But the selection of suitable process media is part of the project engineering: we select them, coordinate them with established chemical manufacturers for your process and integrate them into the system.
And underneath it all: there is no fixed rule „component X → machine Y“. Part geometry, type of contamination, residual contamination requirement, production volume, cycle time, production concept, degree of automation, workpiece fixture, future expandability and cost-effectiveness decide together.
5 · Why the two belong together
With cast parts the two tasks do not arise one after the other, but within each other
Casting flash is a form deviation as long as it sits — and residual contamination as soon as it comes off.
Anyone who orders the two separately has an interface exactly where the problem arises. 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.
6 · Where we advise against it
Before the quotation, not at acceptance
Unrealistically low residual contamination requirements
Where a requirement is technically not achievable, we decline it beforehand.Baked-on contamination
Not a reason for exclusion, but the only case in which we expressly want to check feasibility beforehand.Defined chamfers or radii
The water jet does not produce them. It removes the burr, it does not shape the edge.Very firmly adhering or massive burrs
Cannot be removed cost-effectively with the water jet — here the answer lies in the design or in the manufacturing process.
And spraying creates spray shadow. With complex geometries and many blind holes, immersion and flooding deliver the better results.
7 · Where we stand in foundry and die casting
Direct customers, not just suppliers reached indirectly
Foundries and die casting operations commission us directly. Our customers also include forging operations.
Already realized
Industrial Parts CleaningHigh-Precision Water Jet Deburring
That is not a coincidence of sales but the consequence of the components. Gearbox, pump and engine housings as well as valve blocks are made predominantly of aluminum and aluminum die casting — so they originate here, before they are installed in automotive and machinery manufacturing. Where these parts are cast, casting flash and metal fines form. That is where the process stands.
The same component, two angles: what originates here as a raw part reappears on our automotive industry page as a component to be processed — seen from the other side of the supply chain.
8 · Scope of supply
Vertical integration, acceptance and digital system lifecycle
Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions from foundry and die casting
How are cast and die-cast components cleaned?
With processes that get into the cavity. Where spraying fails at the spray shadow, immersion and flooding lead to the result — for cast parts with channels and cavities, the spray-immersion cleaning system is the obvious machine type, because both run in one sealed chamber and the batch rotates and swivels while they do. Typical is the combination with deburring: casting flash and metal fines sit in the same hard-to-reach places as the contamination — a detached piece of metal fines that stays lying in the cavity has only moved the problem.
Applications
Tasks from this industry
2 worked-out tasks are assigned to foundry and die casting. 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.
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.
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