Pero degreaser meets SED legislation & slashes solvent use at volume pressings manufacturer
Established 60 years ago, Clamason Industries is a highly service-orientated, independent UK manufacturer and assembler of precision pressings serving a broad spectrum of global customers from its manufacturing bases at Kingswinford (West Midlands) and Nitra (Slovakia). Current turnover is spread over half-a-dozen key market sectors – automotive engineering and medical together comprising two-thirds, with the remaining third consisting of home entertainments, building products, electrical accessories and disparate niche markets.
Clamason has a core competence of making technically complex metal parts in medium to high volumes on presses of 5 tonnes up to 250 tonnes. 90% of Clamason pressings are intricate and less than 2mm thick. Annual order quantities per part can range from 25,000 up to 200 million, although an average call-off would lie between 50,000 and 250,000 per year. The surfaces of all these stampings require solvent degreasing to remove lubricants deposited during the process.
“Historically, we’ve used an open-top trichloroethylene tank for our solvent degreasing,” explains Clamason’s quality manager, Paul Edwards. “However, the recently tightened Solvent Emissions Directive (SED) regulations set us thinking about sourcing a different cleaning method.”
The company examined aqueous and hydrocarbon alternatives, but assessments of performance put solvent degreasing systems top of the list.
“We are well aware of the features and benefits of solvent degreasing and so were not surprised when other processes failed to match its performance,” says Mr Edwards. “What is more, we discovered that closed-loop, low-emission solvent systems can be more environmentally friendly than aqueous units, which require high amounts of energy to heat the wash solution.”
The V2 Pero degreaser from UK distributor Kumi Solutions provided the answer to the company’s dilemma. V-Series solvent degreasing machines work with the entire system under negative pressure, where the “V” denotes vacuum.