Ultrasonic cleaning keeps Honda on track
July 1st 2008
In the competitive world of Formula One, engine
component cleanliness is taken very seriously. At
Honda Racing Developments, for example, a Kerry
Microsolve Co-solvent unit is responsible for
precision cleaning F1 engine components
The Kerry Microsolve co-solvent fourstage
cleaning system from Guyson
International has two ultrasonic,
heated cleaning stages equipped with
continuous filtration. In the first
stage a boiling
mixture of hydrofluoroether
solvent
and a
hydrocarbon
solvating agent
removes gross
contamination
from machined
components. Large
quantities of soils
and general
contamination can be taken
up by the solvating
agent, making the
process suitable for high
volume cleaning with
minimal tank
maintenance.
In the second stage
pure HFE solvent
removes any
residues from
components .
Both tanks
have ultrasonic
transducers attached
to the underside.
These are powered by three P500 module
generators with automatic tuning,
operating at 38kHz. Tanks have electric
heating with electronic temperature
controls.
Rinsing takes place in the vapour
generated from the boiling mixture in the
area above the immersion tanks. Drying
takes place in the 'freeboard' refrigerated
zone above the vapour level. The reflux
cooling system, vapour break and a deep
freeboard zone all help to minimise solvent
loss by acting as an invisible cold barrier
where the hot HFE vapour rising to the
freeboard area condenses onto
refrigerated condensing coils and is fed
back into the stage 2 tank as pure HFE.
This in turn forces dissolved residues in
stage 2 to flow back to the stage 1 tank.
An Autotrans Mk4 Major work transfer
system ensures consistent quality,
increases throughput and aids cost
reductions by controlling the speed of
component basket movement through the
vapour zone, reducing solvent drag-out
caused by disturbance of the vapour
blanket. The Autotrans is integrated with
two 1m long powered feed and exit
conveyors and has a load capacity of up
to 80kg per basket.
The unit is controlled by a touchsensitive
programming keyboard which
can hold a variety of password protected
pre-programmed cleaning sequences. More articles from Guyson International Ltd: | 
