Washing & Cleaning

As part of our portfolio of production finishing services, at Obertec Limited we offer several parts washing and cleaning processes to remove particulate, organic films, non-volatile residues such as oil and grease, or any type of other surface contamination. Our service professionals work closely with you to choose cleaning methods and chemistries that maximize cleaning performance while minimizing impact to the environment.
 
Our production facilities are equipped with multiple cleaning technologies, including immersion tanks, vibratory bowls, spray washers, vapour degreasers, and more. Robotic transfer capabilities, bulk conveying systems, and computer controls allow us to handle high volume production at fast throughput rates, while our smaller, hand operated equipment allows us to manage smaller volumes or more sensitive components. We offer numerous cleaning chemistries including alkaline cleaners, acidic burnishing compounds, all-purpose solutions, rust inhibitors, and powdered cleaning and abrasive agents to meet all your finishing needs. We also accept customer-supplied non-toxic cleaning agents for specialty applications.

A parts washer is a piece of equipment used to remove contaminants or debris, such as dirt, grime, carbon, oil, grease, metal chips, cutting fluids, mold release agents, ink, paint, and corrosion from workpieces.Parts washers are used in new manufacturing and remanufacturing processes; they are designed to clean, degrease and dry bulk loads of small or large parts in preparation for assembly, inspection, surface treatment, packaging and distribution. Parts washers may be as simple as a stand-alone basket immersion washer, or they may be as complex as a five-step deburring, aqueous tumbling, rinsing, drying and paint coating machine. Parts washers are essential in maintenance, repair and remanufacturing operations as well, from cleaning fasteners, nuts, bolts and screws to diesel engine blocks and related parts, rail bearings, wind turbine gears boxes and automotive assemblies.

A parts washer is distinctly different from a pressure washer in that parts washers typically clean parts automatically in an enclosed cabinet, while pressure washers typically have a single spray jet mounted at the end of a manually operated wand. Modern industrial technology makes it possible to combine many parts of the finishing process into one. As an integrated part of the manufacturing process, automatic parts washers are able to load, wash, rinse, dry and unload parts based on a preset computer-controlled program and the help of a conveyor belt to save time, money and man-power and ensure a quality product; innovations are being made to ensure parts washers are water and energy saving.

Traditionally, chemical solvents have been used to strip parts of grease and dirt during the cleaning process, but recent environmental concerns and regulations have encouraged the innovation of natural, non-chemically based solvents. Ultrasonic cleaning is the latest technology in environmentally safe precision surface cleaning.

Parts washers were originally developed for use in automotive transmission and engine repair shops as a way to improve the function of simple soak tanks. Soak tanks are vats filled with a mixture of water and detergent, which take hours to “soften” the built-up road grime, fluids, tars and oils enough to be manually rinsed off prior to disassembly and repair.

Since the late 60’s,many methods of parts cleaning have been developed with improved levels of safety and lessened environmental impact. Stoddard solvent, gasoline, diesel fuel, and kerosene were commonly used to clean and degrease parts. Then, chlorinated solvents in vapour degreasers became an industry standard. During the 1980s environmental and safety issues led to the banning of chlorinated solvents for parts cleaning. Aqueous-based cleaning systems took on new prominence that led to many improvements, in the systems and the processes. In 1971, Gary Minkin developed an aqueous based parts washer for degreasing automobile parts. The Minkin breakthrough used the force of hydraulic impact pressure to significantly improve the cleaning power of the aqueous parts washer.
 
We understand that parts cleaning must be done quickly to meet approaching production deadlines, and offer 1-5 day turnarounds with rush services available to meet critical time constraints. Our processes provide the consistent high quality your valuable part deserves.

Contact us today to for a quote on your next project.