The cooling lubricants used processing centers being sprayed and atomized. The cooling lubricants fogs arising in this process represent a technical and physical risk. The risk can be turned off by the use of air filter equipment. These filters must regularly be improved and cleaned to guarantee the function ability.
Weidmüller Interface in Detmold is a worldwide active enterprise which produces components for the industrie automation, building automation, process automation and transport technology. A maintenance which guarantees sure working sequences is part of the modern production plants.
The lubricants fogs must be siphoned and cleaned by means of electrolysis in the processing centers in which the componets are punched for connection elements, row clamps etc.. The filter plants must be cleaned regularly to guarantee their function ability. By the end of 1998 cleaning of these filters of Weidmüller was very circumstantial . Martin Spies, responsibly for the maintenance of the stamping machines,looks back: "After the filter were removed, we brought it to a gas station and cleaned it with a high pressure cleaner. The cleaning effects was not in that way we wished, because the filter are built very compact and they have narrow places like very fine and narrow wires for the electrolysis." Primarily the middle area of the filters wasn't able to clean of grease and dust in the right way.
In addition, the transports to the gas station and also the real cleaning time were very effortful. Since January 1999 the filters have been cleaned by Weidmüller with a Clean-o-mat 80 SP-VA, a special washing machine of PERKUTE Maschinenbau, Rheine. Martin Spies sees some serious advantages in it: "A great use consists that we don't have the transportation to the gas station any more.
Through the considerably shorter times which we need for cleaning of the filters, we can replace the filters practical immediately, without great machine downtimes. The filters are in a permanent circulation because the cleaned filters are used directly for the next machine as a change filter." There therefore are hardly any waiting times. During the 8-minutes cleaning process in the Clean-o mat are filters improved or installed at wider processing centers. The quality of cleaning of the filters has primarily been increased fundamentally besides the considerable time-saver. The Clean-o-mat 80 SPV-VA of PERKUTE Maschinenbau has a liquid volume of 140 liters.
Bernd Menke, employee in the area of advice and sales at PERKUTE, declares the cleaning process more exactly: " These 140 liters of liquid be started with 3 % of an alkaline splashing cleaner on a watery basis at a pH value of about 11. The washing temperature, the temperature of the washing fleet behaves in the use case 65 ° C and the washing duration consists of 5 minutes cleaning process and 3 minutes drying process. This results in a complete time of 8 minutes in which the filters are cleaned." Cleaning and drying are carried out in a closed noble steel container. About a steam suction the arising clouds are taken down to the outside. After Martin Spiess made some practical experiences, about 20 filters of the processing centers can be cleaned in one filling in the Clean-o-mat. The dirt fleet is then disposed of professionally or processes in the company seperator system or in emulsion opening plants. Meanwile Weidmüller Detmold has discovered another field of application for the Clean-o-mat. The toolmakers and the tool maintenance have learned to appreciate the cleaning system as pleasant and effective helpers for their tools.