Water Based Washer Improves Efficiencies
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The water based automatic cleaning machine at Downingtown.
At Johnson Matthey’s Colour Technologies business at Downingtown, Pennsylvania, USA, the cleaning of large mixing vats or vessels has traditionally been done manually using solvent. This entailed personal exposure to solvent and was a potential source of ergonomic injury.
A project was set up to design an automatic cleaning machine using a water based solution. The machine had to be suitable for the mixing vessels, and the cleaning solution (water and soap) had to be compatible with the site’s various product compositions.
Through collaboration with our waste management supplier, production operators and managers at the site designed an automatic cleaning machine using a water based solution. Changes were also made to improve the amount of physical handling required and to reduce the cleaning time. Development of the new equipment required a thorough review of the spray engineering, together with the loading and unloading logistics of the new machine.
None of this was straightforward. A cleaning solution was developed and tested to be compatible with the products; it was critical to confirm that this solution would not leave any residue that would have adverse effects on the glass enamel pastes mixed and dispensed from the vats.
The machine has been in operation for almost a year. It has led to a reduction in the use of solvents and hazardous waste by 20,000 lb a year. The amount of hazardous waste for external collection has been reduced by 50%, helping to reduce our carbon footprint. Finally, the more efficient use of labour required by the machine means that we are saving some 300 man hours a year.