Clean, Polished Springs Achieving Minimal Surface Pollution on Metal Parts
Due to growing demand, CGR, a specialist in spring parts in the automotive industry, was on the lookout for a company that could clean springs while limiting residual surface pollution as much as possible.
As these springs serve as a link in the master cylinders that amplify a vehicle’s braking force, the allowable surface ‘pollution’ was of a gravimetric tolerance of 4 mg for 10 parts. CGR already has a complex cleaning process at their disposal, but they had reached their maximum capacity and could no longer accommodate the increase in volume.
Familiar with Delta Neo’s various parts cleaning and polishing capabilities using a tribofinishing process, CGR’s project manager turned to Delta Neo and our know-how.
Of course, 80% of Delta Neo’s metal parts undergo a final tribofinishing stage to produce rounded ends, to polish or brighten the surfaces of the parts or simply to clean them. Still, CGR’s request was a highly specific one due to the low gravimetric tolerance they required.
Together with the production and logistics teams, a complete process for cleaning the springs was initially developed on an experimental basis. A series of tests were necessary to establish the optimal ‘recipe’, meaning the type and exact quantity of detergent to be used as well as how long each step should take – from loading the machines with ‘dirty’ products to unloading the ‘clean’ products – to achieve a satisfactory result without damaging the parts.
After the client had approved this process, the next step was to convert it into an industrial operation for supplying the client with springs in large quantities. Not having a ‘clean room’ type of facility in the metal sector, Delta Neo proceeded to reorganise zones and defined a rigorous flow management system to prevent cross-contamination between ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ products and containers (bins). These parts were when separated from all the other metal part production in order to avoid any risk of pollution to the cleaned springs.
Through a practical combination of these existing capabilities and our various processes, Delta Neo succeeded in quickly setting up an efficient process and organisation capable of meeting our client’s quality and lead time requirements.