Month: July 2008

Automotive Parts Cleaning with Ultrasonics

When it comes to cleaning Automotive Parts, the Ultrasonic process does an exceptionally good job. Whether it is grease, dust, rust, carbon, or other dirts, in most cases, these can be removed quickly and easily without hours of hand scrubbing or use of harsh chemicals.

I wanted to share with you some pictures from recent jobs that we’ve done.

Most recently, I had a client visit and he brought with him an intake manifold from a Ford Mustang engine. He was specifically looking for a way to clean parts prior to powder coating them. Here are the “before” pictures:

Engine Part-Before

Engine Part-Before2

Here are photos of our client checking out the finished result:

Engine Part-Cleaning Engine Part-After-CU Engine Part-After-CU2

Depending on the type of dirt we are dealing with, and the make up of the parts to be cleaned, we may work with either a 40kHz frequency (our standard) or a 25kHz frequency to get more aggressive. The rule of thumb is that the lower the frequency, the larger the bubble that is being produced and the more powerful the implosion in the Cavitation process. We also have 4 different cleaning solutions that we utilize depending again on the dirt and the part.

Take a look at the following before and after photographs of other automotive parts we have cleaned with Ultrasonics:

Rims

ENGINE PART DIRTY ENGINE PART clean Engine Part-Before3 Engine Part-After2

A few of the parts you see above are piston heads and exhaust lifters from a motorcycle. There are also rims from a Nascar race car. We have similarly cleaned helicopter parts, boat parts, airplane parts and more. Next week we will be trying something new…lawnmower parts…so check back soon.

Federal Express Uses Morantz Ultrasonics to Clean Ball Bearings

Federal Express Bearings

One of the things I love about my work is that I am constantly learning new things. On a regular basis, I am sent parts of all types from all over the world to either test clean or come up with a protocol for how they should be cleaned. Who knew that so many bars, valves, molds, nozzles, and other intricate objects were involved with creating so many others items? (OK…maybe you did, but this was not something I was exposed to until later in life).

So, I’ve come to learn a tremendous amount about parts in my past 15 years at Morantz, but it’s still surprising how primitive the attempt at maintenance is for many of these items. For example…

Several years ago, we were contacted by Federal Express. They wanted to know if we cleaned ball bearings. Specifically, they had ball bearings on their conveyor belts that were seizing up because of dirt, and sometimes de-icing chemical, that was getting into the crevices and preventing the balls from spinning.  To rebuild the bearings, the cost was $30/each.

We did a trial cleaning and you could literally see the dirt streaming out of the small groove. When we gave Fed Ex a quote of $1.45 per bearing for cleaning, they were thrilled! The next thing we knew, we had 10,000 bearings at our facility to be cleaned (sent via Fed Ex, of course). Fortunately, our machines could easily accomodate 100 bearings at a time.

It only took about 10 minutes per load in our machines and we were able to complete the job in a day and a half. Again, Fed Ex was thrilled! In fact, when we returned the bearings to their distribution center, we were immediately given another 10,000 bearings! And this one facility had over 300,000 bearings that were contstantly being rotated in and out, and given to us for maintenance. Saying this was a great job is an understatement.

This was the beginning of a National contract that was ongoing throughout the country and utilized many of our clients. Everybody was a winner in this scenario.

Thanks, Fed Ex!