TPT July 2008

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15 J uly 2008
Industry News
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Technology/Electronics and Medical
Technology. The company’s core business
is machine tools for flexible sheet metal
processing, punching and forming, laser
processing and bending.
In the field of industrial lasers and laser
systems, the company is a technological
leader on the world market. With about 50
subsidiaries and branch offices, the Group
is represented in almost every European
country, in North and South America as well
as in Asia.
With more than 7,800 employees,
production locations can be found in
Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland,
Czech Republic, Poland, China, Taiwan,
Mexico and the USA.
Trumpf Group – Germany
Fax: +49 7156 303 6115
Email:
Website:
Cleaning – the underrated
factor in production
An exhibition to examine the crucial area
of parts cleaning during production will
take place from 28-30 October 2008 at the
Stuttgart Exhibition Centre, Germany.
Parts2clean will enable visitors and
exhibitors to address the considerable
quality and cost optimisation potential that
can be gained from the parts cleaning
process. This is often an underrated area of
the production process.
On average, 27.5 per cent of the production
time required for manufacturing a cylinder
head for a 4-cylinder diesel engine goes to
cleaning, and manufacturing costs amount
to 6.6 per cent. Thus the cleanliness of
components is not only a quality feature, it
also plays an essential role as a factor in
the value added chain.
The proportion of production time and
costs for cleaning is considerable for
many components. Cleaning time comes
in at roughly 10 per cent for an auto body
frame component made of steel, and the
expenditures amount to about 5 per cent of
total manufacturing costs. This figure can
be as high as 25 per cent for ball bearings
(statistics supplied by the Market and Trend
Analysis division of the Fraunhofer Alliance
for Cleaning Technology).
Production cleaning issues affect a vast range
of industries – especially the automotive
industry. Parts2clean will promote systems
and equipment for individual parts cleaning
and functional surface cleaning, as well as for
batch processes, even in the cleanroom. The
criteria for selecting the ideal cleaning process
include the spectrum of parts, contamination,
the material or combination of materials, part
geometry and cleanliness requirements.
The most suitable processes are wet-chemical
cleaning, blasting, plasma or laser cleaning
and shock-wave cleaning. The use of modern
automation and handling systems such as
robots allows for quick adjustment to varying
components and changing requirements
within the cleaning process.
The inspection of component surfaces for
cleanliness is also a significant factor for
quality-oriented manufacturing. Quality
assurance and analysis systems for
inspecting surface cleanliness will also be
topics addressed by the exhibition.
fairXperts GmbH – Germany
Fax: +49 7025 8434 20
Email:
Website: