Carbon Removal System

One of the most difficult soils to remove from metal parts in an automated process has to be carbon. By nature it is very hard and has an affinity to remain closely adhered to metal surfaces. This usually requires operators to resort to very harsh chemistries (not environmentally sound or beneficial to the health and safety of the workers!) to strip the carbon from the parts. Often we find that companies choose to hire workers to man scrub brushes to abrade the soil off the parts. Again, not a very productive activity when every labor dollar counts!

Having previously provided a group with systems utilizing unique cleaning technologies to degrease and wash less difficult to clean parts, ACT engineers were asked to develop a lean processing system to that would deliver carbon-free parts for a vital aerospace component. The problem was such that the operators had given up on following the established hand-scrub procedure for lack of time and patience. The situation was potentially dangerous

ACT investigated the application of modern aqueous cleaning techniques to process the parts in its lab over a three-week period. The parts were subjected to several regimens of chemical cleaning, directed spray, immersion, soaking, and even solvent cleaning.

The parts were successfully cleaned (removal of 99+% of the soil) with a combination of technologies applied in sequence, including Dynamic Flow, heat, modern chemistries, and ultrasonics specifically inserted into the cycle at timed intervals. The part shown below is typical of the results now achieved at the shop in less than 30-minutes of processing in our system.

 

A three stage system was designed and engineered by ACT to fit into the lean overhaul scheme of the shop and the limited space available. The system processes work racks measuring 20” x 20”, and delivers the precision cleaning to remove the carbon without risk to the parts or the workers. Once cleaned, the parts are rinsed and dried automatically.

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