A company's fluid testing group recently designed a customized lubrication cleaning machine for a customer manufacturer of aluminum castings. Aluminum casting producers need to clean and dry aluminum plates after laser cutting, a critical process because subsequent welding requires that the plate surfaces be clean and dry. Initially, the plates were cleaned manually with a high pressure washer and dried with a compressed air gun, but this was labor intensive and ineffective, as the plates were often dirty and often rusted when dried incompletely.

Bevane's solution was to use a complete set of cleaning, flushing and drying manifolds. The first manifold is equipped with 13 high-pressure nozzles spraying circulating water at a pressure of 172 bar. The cleaning manifold is followed by a manifold with seven nozzles, which flushes the plates at a pressure of 55 bar. Finally the sheets are dried by passing them through the center of two air knives with a length of 914 mm, powered by a 10 HP blower.

Bevane's new two-in-one cleaning and drying system has resulted in significant improvements in product quality and throughput for the customer, with a 5% reduction in rejects and a 20% reduction in product rework. In addition, the use of high pressure nozzles and air knives has dramatically reduced operating costs - water usage has been dramatically reduced. Production has increased dramatically since the introduction of the new misting system, and laborers previously engaged in cleaning and drying have been reassigned to other duties. The company is saving approximately $3,000 per month, and the payback on the new misting system is less than three months.