Cleaning of roll slitting knives and rubber spacers
Roll slitting is widely used in the aluminium industry where large thin rolls are cut into narrow strips for a number of applications in various industries, including: heat exchangers, automotive applications, packaging and printing.
To maintain high precision of the end product and maximise tool life it is critical to maintain the cleanliness of the slitting knives which are contaminated during the process with aluminium residues and lubricants. Regular cleaning provides improved dimensional precision and finish on the resultant aluminium strip, longer cutting tool life and longer intervals between sharpening.
Kemet and their strategic partners, Finnsonic and NGL, offer the perfect process solution. The slitting knife cassettes are loaded into wash baskets and processed with an ultrasonic clean in a high alkaline chemical followed by two immersion rinses. The first of these, in tap water, can be enhanced with jet turbulation, while the second, in demineralised water plus a corrosion inhibitor, can be aided with bubble agitation. On exiting the second rinse cassettes are subjected to an air blast before being finished in a hot air dryer.
Case Study:
Contamination: Aluminium residues, lubricants
Process solution: Ultrasonic cleaning followed by immersion rinsing and hot air drying. Process control and material handling can be manual or automatic depending on capacity requirement.
Benefits:
Regular cleaning with FinnSonic solution provides:
- Improved dimensional precision and finish on strip.
- Longer cutting tool life.
- Longer interval between sharpening.
Background:
Roll slitting is widely used within aluminium conversion industry when converting large rolls into thinner strips. The strips may be used for various applications including
- Heat exchangers
- Automotive applications
- Packaging
- Printing
The cleanliness of the slitting knives is critical for maintaining high precision of end product as well as maximal tool life.
Scope of delivery
- Tank unit with 4 treatment tanks
- Filter units and demi water supply
- Double station hot air dryer
- Automatic basket transporter MBT100
- Closed loop conveyor system
Capacity
- Basket dimensions 630 x 320 x 320h mm
- Max load 50 kg
- 3 – 4 baskets/ hour
Process
Stage 1 - (Cleaning) High alkaline chemical, ultrasonic, storage tank, filtration Stage 2 - (Pre rinsing) Tap water, jet turbulation, filtration Stage 3 - (Rinsing) Demi water + corrosion inhibitor, air bubble agitation, cascade Stage 4 - (Final rinsing) Demi water + corrosion inhibitor, air blast on exit Stage 5 - (Drying) Circulated hot air Function description Slitting knife cassettes are manually loaded into wash baskets with help of a balancer. Baskets are processed automatically according to chosen wash program. A closed loop conveyor system returns washed baskets back to the handling area, where cleaned cassettes are removed from basket.
