Increasing cleanliness requirements in the automotive industry demand not only cleaned parts, but also clean transport containers. With the help of a customised BUPI CLEANER Rhönrad cleaning system, APF Produktionsdienstleistungs GmbH, as a Tier1 supplier with the highest quality standards, meets even the most stringent residual dirt requirements.

The Stiwa Group company APF Produktionsdienstleistungs GmbH is a highly valued partner in the European automotive and window industry. The basis for cost-optimised and high-quality products is experience and know-how in the important production technologies of laser welding, injection moulding, punching and assembly.

Purity is not only created on the part

The demands on the quality of the products, which are manufactured with great vertical integration at the Gampern plant, are high. The demands on the cleanliness of the parts are also high. “A new large order from a German car manufacturer for transmission parts had a residual dirt requirement that could not be solved only by treating the parts themselves,” says Johannes Pichlmann, Quality and Production Planning at APF. “The cleanest parts are often contaminated by the repeatedly used transport containers. It was therefore obvious to clean these containers.” However, these have the most varied dimensions, their size ranging from handy boxes to big boxes the size of euro pallets.

All well-known suppliers of parts cleaning systems accepted the challenge and submitted corresponding offers. A thorough task and problem analysis by the manufacturer-independent cleaning professionals from MAP PAMMINGER led to the offer of a BUPI CLEANER^® double-bath honeycomb wheel cleaning system with customised feed automation. The continuous cleaning systems offered by the other candidates failed because of the struts and undercuts of the transport containers, behind which oil and dirt can deposit in a way that is difficult to reach.

Right solution flexibly adapted

In order to exclude the formation of dirt pockets, the parts must be rotated. For this dimension, a Rhön wheel system is best suited. In this system, the basket with the items to be cleaned is rotated vertically, while the cleaning liquid comes from nozzles on three sides.

The sliding door, which normally opens upwards, was not practical due to the lack of room height. This is where the flexibility of the entrepreneurial medium-sized manufacturer proved its worth, as it was able to very quickly realise a customised solution with a lateral opening of the sliding door. In order to optimise the utilisation of the system and to achieve a high throughput, a feed automation system was installed upstream. It allows the loading of one basket at a comfortable working height while the second basket is in the machine. “The system has been in operation since January 2011 and has been running smoothly for exactly that long,” says Johannes Pichlmann happily.