Tunnel Washing Systems

Tunnel washing systems are also called conveyor belt washing machine, inline cleaners, pass-through cleaners, and conveyor cleaners.

To meet customers’ cleaning requirements, GTK engineers designed and manufactured this automated industrial equipment for highly efficient, continuous, and batch cleaning of fasteners (such as screws, bolts, nuts, washers, etc.). Its key design concept is that workpieces undergo continuous inline cleaning during the process, completing a series of automated procedures including cleaning, rinsing, and drying, which is suitable for the needs of large-scale production.

Why Do Fasteners Have Cleaning Requirements?

Fastener manufacturers: Before delivery, it is necessary to clean and remove residual drawing oil, cutting fluid, quenching oil, metal powder, etc. generated during cold heading, thread rolling, heat treatment and other processes.

Automobile and auto parts industry: Clean fasteners used on the assembly lines of engines, gearboxes and other components to ensure assembly cleanliness.

Pre-treatment before surface finishing: Thorough cleaning prior to surface treatments such as electroplating, galvanizing, phosphating, blackening, etc., is a key step to ensure coating adhesion and quality.

Design Highlights:

The loading and unloading process is automated, with two feeding methods designed:

Automatic flipping feeding: Operators place fasteners into the feeding hopper, then start with one click to lift the hopper to the feeding position. The hopper then automatically flips at a constant speed, and the position and speed of the flipping mechanism are controlled automatically during the process to ensure the uniformity of feeding.

Inclined conveyor feeding: After fastener processing is completed, the fasteners line up to the cleaning machine’s conveyor belt and enter the cleaning process.

An oil-water separator is mounted on the cleaning fluid tank: with the filter inlet remaining aligned with the cleaning fluid surface at all times. This design enables rapid extraction of the top liquid layer (floating oil) and precise separation of the absorbed oil and water.

Oil and water separator: The surface oil removal rate exceeds 98%, while the water content in the separated oil is less than 2%: The separator features easy installation, no consumables, and fully automated, unattended operation.

An buffer zone is installed between the degreasing cleaning and rinsing processes: After degreasing, fasteners enter the buffer zone, where high-pressure air knives remove the cleaning agent adhering to the components to prevent cross contamination. The dripping cleaning fluid flows back to the cleaning tank before rinsing, ensuring long-term use of the cleaning fluid and reducing equipment operating costs.

Key process steps：

Equipment Parameters

The cleaning process design can be specifically tailored to your product dimensions and production capacity requirements. If you have any special detailed needs, please contact us, and we will provide you with a customized design plan free of charge.