Clean sweep for smooth maintenance

LONG SERVICE lives and high mileage leave high levels of contamination on bogies, wheelsets, wheel bearings and motors of the trains. These substantial contaminations, oil and rust often pose great challenges for the service providers who clean these parts. In addition, the railway parts are often real heavyweights that many cleaning systems cannot handle.

A fast and economical cleaning solution was found for a maintenance plant of an Austrian railway company. The maintenance plant decided to purchase two cleaning systems from the German manufacturer BvL Oberflächentechnik in Emsbüren. BvL specialises in the development of cleaning systems in different sizes for maximum cleanliness requirements. The company offers a variety of solutions for cleaning components as part of maintenance and quality testing for transport companies. The cleaning requirements and the local conditions were clarified during intensive exchanges between the representatives of the purchaser, the manufacturer and the Austrian sales partner Glogar Umwelttechnik. After conducting extensive washing trials at the BvL Technology Centre, a decision was made in favour of the Pacific spray system for cleaning large parts and the Niagara spray flood system for cleaning bearings

Large parts system

Once the electronic system control has been individually programmed and the electric lifting gates are closed, the bogies, whellsets and frames are cleaned in the treatment chamber by an integrated spraying device with an oscillating special nozzle system with wide spray nozzles. Two powerful circulation pumps supply the wide spray nozzles with water. After this intensive treatment, the parts are rinsed in the same chamber by a separate spraying system. The high washing temperatures up to 75°C ensure energy efficient drying of the cleaned parts using intrinsic heat.

Fine sand on the bearings is removed without residue, to help prevent premature wear. The bearings are attached to special parts baskets and cleaned in a washing chamber. Intensive cleaning is achieved with a special nozzle system with flat spray nozzles while the parts basket rotates around its horizontal axis and by completely flooding the cleaning chamber.

The condition of the washing and rinsing water is of great importance for reliable, constant cleanliness of the cleaned parts. To achieve this, the medium is transported on a belt filter to remove any solids. Tank rinsing in the pressure line of the washing and rinsing pump and a ring line above the tank floor swirl up these solids in both tanks as a preparatory measure. A plate phase separator additionally provides oil separation. All BvL systems are equipped with a sensor system as a standard (Libelle Fluid Control) to permanently measure the contamination level of the cleaning fluid by measuring light absorption. This allows the user to immediately identify when a bath change is required.

Environmentally friendly

After filtering, the wastewater is reintroduced into the system, saving as much energy and water as possible in addition to ensuring a long bath life. The additional flexible insulation material on the pipes, filters and tank covers increases the output of thermal energy. In addition to reducing energy costs, the BvL systems meet environmental protection requirements. This safeguards the investment in the future.

With the BvL Pacific and Niagara systems, the Austrian maintenance plant receives a cleaning solution that meets all its requirements: Both systems achieve very good cleaning results, the fully automatic function makes handling user-friendly. Because of the positioning of the large-parts system in a pit, the system can be feeding easy and offers easy maintenance access. 100% availability of the systems, as well as linking all washing cycles to other data interfaces, also plays an important role.

https://www.bvl-group.de/