Parts cleaning has a significant influence on the quality of subsequent manufacturing processes such as coating, bonding or welding. A cleaning process tailored to the cleaning task with suitable cleaning chemicals and appropriately designed plant technology can optimally fulfil the Cleanliness requirements of the subsequent processes.
Benchmark for the quality level of a cleaning process is the reliable achievement of the required parts cleanliness. This requires quality-assuring process management by monitoring and controlling the cleaning process and the relevant process parameters.
SITA provides support with mobile measuring devices and customised process solutions
- for surfactant control in cleaning and rinsing baths by measuring the dynamic surface tension
- for monitoring contamination in cleaning and rinsing baths using fluorescence measurement technology
- for inspecting the cleanliness of parts and surfaces using fluorescence measurement technology
- for controlling the wettability of parts and surfaces by measuring the contact angle
With our measuring and testing technology and its application-related technical modification, our customers realise process control to prevent errors by intervening in time to prevent deviations from the target values of the process parameters. Quality is generated instead of tested through systematic quality control. Parts cleanliness is ensured in a stable and efficient manner through controlled process quality. Customised solutions for quality-assuring and economical process control in industrial parts cleaning are developed in cooperation between the device users and SITA application engineers.
The SITA experts used their experience to shape the "Guidelines for quality-assuring process management in parts cleaning" agreed in the industry within the German Industrial Parts Cleaning Association (FiT). SITA also played a key role in the conception and development of the FiT guideline “Controlling filmic contamination”.
What are the challenges and opportunities for process solutions for the parts cleaning of the future?
The focus for a new level of quality assurance lies in innovative solutions for adaptive cleaning processes with tailored processing. This means customised process management, depending on the initial condition of the parts and the required cleaning result.
The basis for this are application-specific system solutions for chemistry, methods and technology that are customised to the parts production process chain. This requires purposeful and systematic cooperation between the user, i.e. the user of cleaning technology, and the suppliers of the industry, from specifying the cleaning task all the way to the individual solution for stable quality with economical production.
The tasks of SITA Messtechnik GmbH are to research and develop innovative, technical and economic solutions for monitoring and controlling process quality as a precondition for stable product quality.
We aim for practical and reliable sensor solutions for recording quality-relevant process data and for monitoring cleaning results as a basis for documenting and optimising process capability.