EP0571394B1 - Degreasing device for mass-produced items - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a degreasing device for mass-produced items with a drum which can be rotated and driven about a vertical axis and has an upper loading aperture. The invention is designed to improve the degreasing process in such a way that it not only takes less time but entails lower material costs. This is achieved in that the casing (15) of the drum (14) is perforated (16), the drum (14) is surrounded by a stationary catching ring (25) having a peripheral groove (26) projecting inwards at the bottom and fitted with an outflow (28) and the drum (14) has a central aperture (18) in the base which can be closed by a raisable cover (19).

Description

The invention relates to a degreasing device for mass parts with a drum which can be rotated and driven about a vertical axis and which has a loading opening at the top for loading.

Bulk parts, in particular metallic bulk parts, are greased with expensive drawing oils for pretreatment, especially for mechanical deformation, in order to enable easy sliding in the mold. After the pretreatment, this oil must be removed again in order to clean the parts and for further use or aftertreatment, e.g. in the form of a lacquer. This degreasing has hitherto occurred in such a way that the parts are washed in a drum with a degreasing agent such as cold cleaner or cleaner on a basic basis. After cleaning, a mixture of oil and degreasing agent is formed, which has to be disposed of in a costly manner. The oil and degreasing agent used are practically lost to the user. Furthermore, the parts in baskets, sacks or the like must be introduced into the drum in prototypes and unloaded again after the degreasing process. This degreasing process is then followed by a drying process. The entire degreasing is therefore quite cumbersome and time-consuming, so that both the labor costs and the material costs are correspondingly high.

The object of the invention is therefore the degreasing process to improve in such a way that it is not only shorter, but is also reduced in material costs.

This object is achieved by the invention by means of the features listed in the characterizing part of claim 1.

The advantages achieved by the invention are, in particular, that the oil can be thrown off the mass parts and directed to the outside by the perforated casing of the drum by a centrifugal process. The high proportion of the oil extracted in this way from the parts is surprising. By introducing degreasing agent into the running drum, this also penetrates the parts lying against the casing of the drum due to the centrifugal force and cleans them of the residual oil still adhering. Due to the arrangement of a stationary catch ring with drain, the oil can be collected and reused. The oil can thus be returned to the manufacturing process immediately. The degreasing agent enriched with the oil is collected separately and can be reused several times until the oil content has reached a predetermined upper limit. The disposal of the degreasing agent has thus been reduced to a fraction of the previous one. The spinning off of the oil is not only much more intensive than the previously used immersion process, but in connection with the rinsing with degreasing agent it forms two treatment phases that run automatically one after the other, so that the workload is considerably reduced, which means a significant cost saving. The same applies to the at least partial direct reuse of the oil, which is associated with high costs. The metered addition of degreasing agent finally reduces its amount and thus reduces the amount of disposal to relieve the environment, while at the same time further costs are saved. Filtering removes the swarf from the oil as well as from the degreasing agent. Of course, even after the drying phase, preservation of the parts can be achieved by spraying or injecting a preservative in order to protect their surface from corrosion.

Further features are the subject of dependent claims.

Fig. 1

eine teilweise geschnittene Ansicht der Entfettungsvorrichtung;

Fig. 2

eine teilweise geschnittene Seitenansicht der Entfettungsvorrichtung.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawing and will be described in more detail below.
Show it:

Fig. 1

a partially sectioned view of the degreasing device;

Fig. 2

a partially sectioned side view of the degreasing device.

The degreasing device for mass parts, in particular made of metallic material, according to. 1 and 2 from a base frame 1, on which a preferably closed, consisting of profiles and wall parts machine housing 2 is built. Horizontal support elements 3 are attached to the profiles, which support a bearing ring 4 centrally. A bearing tube 5 projects through this and is rigidly connected to the bearing ring 4. In the bearing tube 5, a hollow shaft 6 is rotatably mounted on the inside in an upper bearing 7 and a lower bearing 8. At the lower end of the hollow shaft 6 protruding from the bearing tube 5, a drive wheel 9 and a brake wheel 10 are rotatably mounted. The upper end of the hollow shaft 6 carries a drive head 11, to which a plurality of radial support arms 12 are fastened, which are arranged on the outside of the bottom 13 of a drum 14 in the shape of a truncated cone and on the outside upwards. The bottom 13 of the drum 14 is full-surface, whereas the cylindrical casing 15 is provided with a perforation 16. The upper end of the casing 15 is shaped into an inwardly projecting collar 17 which surrounds the loading opening 52. In the bottom 13, a circular opening 18 is provided centrally, which can be closed by a correspondingly adapted cover 19. The latter is supported by an axis 20 projecting through the hollow shaft 6, which projects out of the hollow shaft 6 at the bottom and extends to just above the base frame 1. A horizontal arm 21 is located just below the axis 20 and is attached to the piston rod of an actuating cylinder 22. The latter is arranged on the support elements 3.

The drive wheel 9 is via a V-belt 23 or the like. with a motor 24 which is attached to the machine housing 2. In contrast, the brake wheel 10 is wrapped in a brake band 34, which can be pulled against the brake wheel 10 by an actuating cylinder 35 in order to brake the drum 14.

Coaxial to the drum 14 extends over the height of the casing 15, a catch ring 25 fastened to the machine housing 2, which has an inner circumferential groove 26 at the lower end and a horizontal and also inward bevel 27 at the upper end. The trough 26 is expediently placed somewhat obliquely in a manner not shown and is equipped at the lowest point with a drain 28 leading to the outside. Below the drum 14, a catch jacket 29 is provided coaxially to the latter, the height of which corresponds to that of the jacket 15 of the drum 14 and which can be moved upwards into the annular distance between the drum 14 and the catch ring 25. An inwardly angled edge 30 is provided on the upper edge of the tether 29. At the lower edge there is an inward drainage channel 31, which is also arranged obliquely and has a drainage opening 32 at the lowest point. The latter is in the raised end position shown in phantom in FIG. 1 in connection with a drain pipe 33 leading to the outside.

The inner edge of the trough 31 is connected to an unloading ring 36, which in turn carries at its lower end a chute 37 sloping to one side. This includes with a collar 38, the bearing tube 5 so that it can be moved up and down along this. The outer end of the chute 37 ends at or in the vicinity of the machine housing 2, so that parts falling out get into a container or the like. A lifting cylinder 39 fastened to the bearing ring 4, which is supported on the slide 37 via a holder 40, is used to lift the slide 37 and thus also the unloading ring 36 and the catch casing 29.

A filling funnel 41 arranged above the drum 14 serves to fill the parts, the lower opening of which can be closed by a slide 42. An actuating cylinder mounted on the machine housing 2 serves to actuate the slide 42 43. The parts to be treated enter a channel 44 which can be closed by a flap 45 on the funnel side. The hopper 41 is expediently designed as a scale or connected to it, so that portions of the same size or which can be preset are always filled.

A compensation device can also be assigned to the part consisting of the catch jacket 29, the unloading ring 36 and the chute 37 in order to balance the weight. This consists of a cable 46, which is guided over rollers 47 mounted on the upper end of the machine housing 2 and is connected both to the catch jacket 29 and to an externally suspended counterweight 48.

A container 49, which is equipped with a pump 50, is set up next to or in the vicinity of the machine housing 2. Its pressure side is connected to a pipeline 51, which ends above the loading opening 52 and is directed into the interior of the drum 14.

A pipe 53 directed into the interior of the drum 14 could also be provided in order to lead hot air into the drum 14 from a heating device in order to shorten the drying process. In order to generate or strengthen the air passage, the support arms 12 for the drum 14 can be designed in the shape of a blade, so that a draft of air downwards is created by the propeller effect. The machine housing 2 should therefore be designed to be essentially tight, so that the air mixed with degreasing agents can be discharged with little loss. If necessary, a suction fan can be provided for this. A separator can also be arranged before the outlet into the environment in order to separate air and degreasing agent and to use the degreasing agent thus obtained for further use or to release only unpolluted air to the environment. The parts can also be dried without heating, i.e. with cold. or room air is carried out, which is only thrown outwards due to the centrifugal force.

Finally, the drying phase can be followed by a preservation phase during which a preservative is injected into the drum 14 in the manner described above or sprayed to protect the surface of the parts until the next treatment or production phase.

The degreasing device works as follows:
As soon as the predetermined amount of parts is in the hopper 41 after opening the flap 45, the flap 45 is closed and the slide 42 is pulled into the open position. The parts fall into the drum 14, which can stand still or expediently rotate at a moderate speed, so that the parts lie against the casing 15 essentially uniformly. Then it is switched to maximum speed. As a result of the high centrifugal forces, a substantial part of the oil, up to 90%, is detached from the parts at this speed and flung outwards onto the catch ring 25. At this it flows downwards and through the drain 28 to the outside, where it is collected, expediently after filtering to remove foreign bodies, in a container provided exclusively for the oil. Since the oil obtained in this first phase does not contain any foreign additives, it can be reused immediately.

In the following second treatment phase, the catching jacket 29 is raised to the upper end position. With this stroke movement generated by the actuating cylinder 39, the unloading ring 36 and the chute 37 also move upward, as indicated by dash-dotted lines in FIGS. 1 and 2. Now the pump 50 is started and degreasing agent is sprayed or sprayed through the pipeline 51 from above into the still rotating drum 14. The liquid jet is laid out in such a way that the entire height of the parts abutting the casing 15 is detected. As a result of the centrifugal force, the degreasing agent penetrates the jacket of parts lying against the jacket 15, dissolves the oil still present and flows through the perforation 16 against the collecting jacket 29. The mixture of oil and degreasing agent then flows downward and is collected in the drainage channel 31 to flow out through the drain opening 32 and the drain pipe 33. There it is collected in a separate container for disposal or to be reused. This makes the degreasing agent very durable. It is also conceivable to connect the drain pipe 33 to the container 49 so that the degreasing agent is pumped around in a circulation process until a fixed oil content is found. The extracted degreasing agent is of course filtered out to remove foreign objects such as chips. The oil-enriched degreasing agent is pumped out, and the container 49, possibly after cleaning, is filled with pure degreasing agent.

This second treatment phase can be carried out in a single section or in several sections. After such a section has timed out, the speed is reduced or the drum 14 is stopped, so that the parts collapse onto the drum base 13. Then the speed is increased again and cleaner degreasing agent is injected or sprayed in from another container. If the mixture in the first container 49 is sufficiently enriched with oil, the mixture is pumped out and replaced by pure one. The second container 49 then takes the place of the first and the previous one takes the place of the last. In this way, degreasing can be carried out continuously, with a high degree of cleaning being achieved.

This second phase is expediently followed by a third phase in which the parts are dried by cold or room air or hot air.

After the third phase has been completed, the fourth phase is unloading. For this purpose, the catch jacket 29 moves into the lower end position, in which the exit opening of the chute 37 is opposite an opening 54 in the machine housing 2. Then the actuating cylinder 22 is activated and by means of the arm 21 the axis 20 is pushed upwards, so that the cover 19 is lifted out of the opening 18, as shown in FIG. 2. The speed of the drum 14 is reduced so that the parts fall out of the drum 14 and through the unloading ring 36 onto the slide 37, where they slide outwards into a container placed there. Because certain subsets Containers with different weight levels can be automatically put together. After unloading, the starting position is acc. Fig. 1 taken again and the next degreasing process begins again in the manner described.

A simplified version of the degreasing device is also conceivable. There is no catch jacket 29 in this case, and the unloading ring 36 can also be omitted. The slide 37 is fixed in its lower end position, the unloading position. After the parts have been filled in, the rotary movement of the drum 14 is switched on in the manner described in the course of the first treatment phase and the ejected oil is collected in a container. In the now following second treatment phase, degreasing agent is injected, which also comes with the dissolved oil into the catch ring 25 and flows out through the drain to be collected in a separate container. Here, too, a single section can be carried out, but several sections can also be moved in succession, the outflowing mixture being collected separately. The drying and unloading in the third and fourth treatment phases then takes place in the manner described above. Continuous operation is also possible in this embodiment.

The operating sequence of the degreasing device can be controlled by hand. However, an automatic control is expedient, so that a process that is independent of human hands is ensured. The degreasing device can thus be used in a production line, and depending on the type and design of the parts, a suitable program can also be preprogrammed, which can then be called up at the appropriate time. This functional sequence also saves on transportation, space requirements for possible temporary storage and also on operating personnel. If necessary, a packaging device can also be installed downstream, so that the parts are packed in portions and expediently provided with an address ready for dispatch from the production line.

If the parts are not processed or reused for a long time, the surface can be protected from corrosion by spraying in a preservative. This preservation phase is then followed by the discharge phase.

Claims (16)

1. Process for degreasing mass-produced items, characterized by an initial treatment phase in which a single centrifugal action spins out a part of the adhering oil which is collected, and a second treatment phase, during which cleaning takes place by adding a degreasing agent, whereby the oil and degreasing agent are collected separately from the pure oil.
2. Process as defined in claim 1, characterized by the cleaning phase being followed by a drying phase with rotating drum.
3. Process as defined in claim 1 and 2, characterized by cold/room or hot air being used to dry the parts.
4. Process as defined in claims 1 to 3, characterized by the drying phase being followed by a surface treatment phase where a preservation means is sprayed in or injected.
5. Device for degreasing mass-produced items by means of the process as defined in claims 1 to 4, using a driveable drum rotating around its vertical axis (14), with a perforation (16) in its casing (15) and an opening (52) for loading in the top and an unloading opening at the bottom which can be closed using a removable cover, the drum (14) being surrounded by a stationary catch ring (25) which has a circumferential channel (26) at the bottom with a drain, characterized by the device being fitted with an axially rotating catch jacket between the drum (14) and the catch ring (25), whereby the catch jacket (29) is mounted on bearings and movable over the complete height of the drum (14) and fitted with a drain channel projecting inwards, the drain opening (32) of which is connected with a stationary drain pipe (33) in the raised end position of the catch jacket (29)
6. Degreasing device as defined by claim 5, characterized by a discharge ring being located beneath the drum (14) and coaxially to this, and at its lower end being connected with an outward leading chute (37), and preferably being permanently connected with the catch jacket.
7. Degreasing device as defined by claims 5 and 6, characterized by the drum (14) being mounted rigidly by supporting arms (12) on a hollow shaft (6) rotationally mounted in a bearing pipe (5), at the bottom of which the drive unit (9, 23, 24) is connected, and that an axially adjustable axle is driven through the hollow shaft (20), to the top of which the removable drum cover (19) is attached and to which a lifting unit (21, 22) is connected.
8. Degreasing device as defined by claims 5 to 7, characterized by not only the drive wheel (9) of the drive unit being connected to the bottom end of the hollow shaft (6) but also the brake wheel (10) of a brake unit (10, 34, 35).
9. Degreasing device as defined by claim 5, characterized by a filling funnel (41) being located above the loading opening (52) of the drum (14) which can be closed at the bottom by a slide valve (42) and which is in the form of weighing scales for dosing purposes or is connected to such.
10. Degreasing device as defined in claims 5 to 9, characterized by an external tank (49) with a pump (50) and that connected on the pressure side of the pump (50), there is a pipeline (51) which is directed above the loading opening (52) and ends next to the filling funnel (41) pointing into the drum (14).
11. Degreasing device as defined in claim 10, characterized by there being a heating unit in the tank (49).
12. Degreasing device as defined in claims 5 to 8, characterized by there being a positioning cylinder (39) fastened to the casing-side bearing ring (4) of the bearing pipe (5) in order to raise the catch jacket (29), the discharge ring (36) and the chute (37).
13. Degreasing device as defined in claims 5 and 6, characterized by compensating weights (48) being connected to the catch jacket (29) via tow lines (46) which are fed over top-mounted pulleys (47).
14. Degreasing device as defined by claims 5 and 7, characterized by the supporting arms (12) bearing the drum (14) being of propeller design.
15. Degreasing device as defined by claim 5, characterized by it being fitted with air heating, the heating air pipe (53) of which is directed into the loading opening (52).
16. Degreasing device as defined by claims 5 to 15, characterized by it being fitted with a mainly closed outer casing to which an extraction device is connected, to which a separator is preferably connected for separating air and degreasing agents.

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