PRODUCTS & EQUIPMENT
Turbex cleaning machine also deburs
A batch of copper header legs about to be deoiled and deswarfed
machine at HC Coils, Gosport.
systems worldwide for a diverse range of uses in supermarkets, commercial buildings and hospitals, food manufacturing and storage facilities, and induction furnace and plastic moulding machine manufacture. Fast turnaround and production of bespoke new and replacement heat exchangers, as well as standard units, are hallmarks of the company’s service competition.
W
hen heating and cooling equipment manufacturer, HC Coils, started
producing copper tubular components in-house, the company needed an industrial washing machine to remove coolant residue and swarf deposited during sawing, and to for CNC bending.
Failure to achieve a high level of cleanliness would have resulted in unacceptable joint porosity when subsequently brazing the tubes in a heating or cooling block.
In addition, unpleasant smoke would have been generated in the working environment, contravening health and safety regulations. To clean the components thoroughly, the company bought a Turbex 2100 aqueous cleaning machine that uses a slowly rotating basket to maximise exposure of the components to jets of hot water. Not only does the automatic batch washing remove all soils to the required standard, but the action of the tubes gently tumbling against each other was also found to remove small burrs created by
sawing. Joining the tubes to the blocks is consequently even more consistent and there is no risk of operators touching sharp edges during assembly.
HC Coils is a privately owned company started in 1984 by Managing Director, Paul Galloway and his father, William. At its 4,000 sq m factory on the Fareham Reach Business Park in Gosport, heat exchangers and associated products for heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, process cooling and heat recovery.
In 2011, HC Coils decided to produce return bends and header legs in Gosport from various sizes of copper tube in order to save the cost of buying them in from Italy. In so doing, practically all manufacturing was brought in-house and under direct management control. Even CNC sheet metal punching and powder coating are carried out on site. Only motors, switches and wire are purchased from external suppliers. Mike Theed, in charge of production at HC Coils, commented, “We wanted to avoid solvent-based cleaning due to the legal restrictions on its use. “After researching aqueous cleaning machine suppliers on the internet, we shortlisted four potential suppliers. Turbex was our eventual choice due to successful trials on
Close-up of the basket containing approximately 350 tubular components for cleaning. The rotational speed of 2 rpm causes a tumbling action that also removes burrs from sawing.
8 IMT December 2013/January 2014
out once per week.
www.internationalmetaltube.com
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