Airknife technology sees huge productivity
increase at Denso
Denso is a leading manufacturer of automotive and non-automotive
components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and
the replacement market. Mohammad Sarwar, Assistant Manager,
Machinery & Engineering, at Denso Manufacturing UK Ltd
explains.
‘Here at Telford, we manufacture air-conditioning systems
and heaters supplying the bulk of UK & European automotive
OEMs, although globally Denso products ranging from a spark
plug to robotics are used in the build of the majority of
cars produced today.
Our first introduction to ACI Drying Systems was on an application
for a pressing’s conveyor in 1998.
Area 1:
In the automated 24/7 pressing section four presses with multi-change
tooling produce aluminium heater coil/evaporator connector
pressing’s which are dropped into an underground conveyor
system that links all the presses and feeds a single hopper.
Two blowers and a single 1 metre airknife positioned on the
underside of the conveyor outlet point, blow off any ‘sticking’
pressing’s remaining on the belt and prevent the jamming
of the conveyor, so eliminating costly downtime.
Area 2:
The second application was on a contract to produce condensers,
where to meet the quality and corrosion resistance specification
the product had to be chromated. The 15-stage operation includes
treatment, rinse, air blow, oven drying, curing & cooling.
At first it was taking up to 10-12 minutes to dry the units
but where time-to-market is critical we needed to see a vast
improvement. As a result, we changed from compressed air nozzle
blowers to airknives in order to overcome the problem.’
Although we are only achieving a cycle time of 20 seconds,
the savings more than outweigh the investment.’
‘By working with our clients and suppliers in a true
partnership, we succeed in directly responding to customer’s
needs with products that pay strict attention to environmental,
comfort and safety demands. One thing is certain here at Telford
- on any drying application we will investigate the possibility
of using ACI airknife technology in the knowledge that it
will improve cycle times.’ concluded Mohammad Sarwar.
