WALSH MANUFACTURING
Walsh is a Clevland Ohio based company specializing in customized parts washing systems for the last 50 years. All Walsh part washers are built on a customer to customer basis. Before any design takes place, they listen to your needs and then determine the type of washer your operation will require, then design and fabricate exactly what you need, from a small, single-stage unit to a large, complex system.
"Our diverse experience, knowledge and engineering skills allow us to solve problems for a variety of industries. We can develop innovative equipment solutions that can help increase production, reduce maintenance problems and improve an operation's work performance."
WASHING SYSTEMS
Parts washers fall into many categories such as degreasing, metal finishing, parts cleaning, metal washing, industrial washing machines. Walsh has designed and built washers for hundreds of applications including:
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Tubular steel parts, both inside and outside applying pressure and vacuum to clean and dry the tubes
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Engine blocks, manifolds, and transmission housings utilizing cabinet machine washers
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Piston ring manufacturers, both rotary drum and cabinet style washers
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Spark plug manufacturers, both rotary drum and belt style washers
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Stamping industry press parts and central units
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Automotive spindles and wheel assembly hubs
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Water and fuel pumps
Walsh is very system-oriented. Washers are designed and built entirely within our own facility with standard premium components to meet the requirements of our customers. 40 plus years of experience and hundreds of Walsh designs will produce just the right system for customer’s needs.
Parts Washers are designed with the key application and functionality attributes which include:
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Walsh “walking beam” style washers used to clean and position parts in various zones without solution transfer from tank to tank
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Walsh “chain on edge” style washers as well as incorporation “power and free” conveyors and parts pallets
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Various fuel types for heating such as natural gas, propane, electric immersion, steam, and hot water
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High-pressure cleaning to remove loose chips or heavy lubricants
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Single to multi-stage ranges to clean, rust inhibit, or phosphate
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Automatic loading and unloading equipment
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Conveyor style parts washing systems for moving parts through a cleaning process
Walsh can also provide components or rebuild to retrofit existing equipment such as marine style clean outdoors, auto-fill systems, new heating coils, or updated electrical equipment. Electrical systems including the equipment wiring are designed and built to the highest standards of the leading manufacturers. The utilization of relay logic as well as PLC controls and operator-friendly systems, whichever is the most economical and practical.
MONORAIL WASHERS
Monorail style parts cleaning systems are normally associated with a continuous process including cleaning, metal preparation, and painting. The systems can consist of a multitude of stages. The parts transfer through the system is by hanging from hooks or fixtures which are suspended from an overhead chain system. The monorail system can be a single in-line or a closed-loop by which the parts are loaded and unloaded in the same area by one or more operators. The rail can be configured to be at one height for loading and unloading and a different height as parts travel through the washer.
The interior housing on a monorail parts cleaning system is similar to those in a belt-driven parts cleaner. Spray nozzles are attached to headers which allow pressurized cleaning solution to reach the parts on all sides. The upper housing rests on the process tanks which have an extension on one side for mounting of pumps and filters. The housings are designed and built with multiple access panels to provide easy maintenance and service access. Expanded metal is often used over the tanks to prevent parts from falling into the tanks. In larger installations, it is common to incorporate metal grating allowing operators to walk safely inside the tunnel (depending on the size of the tunnel).
The customized nature of each build allows a monorail style parts washer to fit around a customer’s existing rail system or your system can be designed to incorporate its own exclusive rail system complete with all supports, hangers, hooks, and fixtures.
ROTARY WASHERS
Rotary Drum style washers are one of the most commonly utilized systems for cleaning of non-critical parts. Rotary drum style are available as a single stage or multiple stages including drying. The drum is designed to process parts on a volumetric basis. Drums can be continuous flow or “Batch” style. In continuous design, there are various stages of solid and perforated zones. Each stage consists of both the solid (soak) and perforated (rinse/drain) areas.
Combination units consist of multiples of these zones. The rotary washer design enables the separation of the various zones and minimizes cross-contamination of solutions. In a “Batch” rotary, the parts are held in the process portion of the drum for each of the functions.
The drum is rotated in a reverse mode with the parts and solutions. The solutions are returned to their proper reservoir and the drum is filled with the next stage of cleaning. Once the parts have gone through the complete cycle, which may also include drying, the drum is reversed and the parts are discharged through a helix portion of the drum. The “Batch” style may also add a slight “Deburring” function to the parts due to the part on part action.
DIP WASHERS
A dip style parts cleaning system consists of an open tank or series of open tanks into which parts are immersed. Dip parts washers customized designs most frequently feature a multiple tank configuration. Multiple tank parts washing can be limited to simply a small wash and rinse set-up or may be constructed to carry parts through as many stages and tanks as required for a more exacting cleaning and metal preparation process. There are many ways of presenting the parts to the dip tanks. One method is having an elevating device mounted outside the tank(s) with a platform attached which can be lowered and raised into the tank(s). The vertical motion can be designed to perform an agitation which will assist in cleaning the parts.
Another method uses rotational barrels into which the parts are placed. An overhead rail system, either powered or manual, transfers the barrel from station to station. The size of the immersion tank for dip washers is unlimited. We have designed systems for small delicate parts to large 10’ x 10’ panels. The tanks can be equipped with pumps and filters to circulate the solutions. The heating of the tanks can be accomplished using electric, gas or steam.
We can provide a complete part cleaning package including the tanks, the material handling system and even the operators’ platforms for easy access to the process. The tanks can be open or equipped with self-closing lids with safety measures to prevent operator injury. Exhaust systems, if required, are part of the overall system design.
BELT WASHERS
The conveyor style parts washing system is one of the most common types for moving parts through a cleaning process, and we have been perfecting it since 1962.
The “belt” can come in a variety of styles including a continuous flat wire, a woven mesh, a non-metallic composition and even a set of roller chains with fixtures. The flow can be continuous, indexing or intermittent. These washers can range from a single wet stage into large multi-stage units that can utilize a drying stage as well.
When we design our washers, we pay particular attention to cross-contamination from one zone to another with shed sheets, zone dividers, and even intermediate blow-off zones if required. We also include adequate drain zones and reverse flow to assure the cleanest possible parts while extending the life of your cleaner and minimizing wastewater.
DIP WASHERS
A cabinet style parts washer can come in many varieties and configurations. The term cabinet typically refers to a machine with a single point of entry and exit. Walsh manufactures cabinets with turn tables, drawers and fixtures. The cabinet, based on its design can be one which will handle a multitude of different size and shapes of parts. A cabinet style washer may have a single stage (wash only) or multiple stages (wash, rinse, dry, etc.) The clam-shell style parts washer is one of the most common cabinet style and usually the most inexpensive washer. It has a turn table mounted in a tank with a hinged lid. The parts are placed on the table and while the table is rotating, parts are subject to sprays from the top, bottom and sides. Larger machines have a vertical door and can have the turn table in the interior or on the door for overhead crane access.
Cabinet washers can contain various material handling components inside the housing. This enables a part or family of parts to be orientated to achieve the best exposure to the sprays and thus more specific cleaning. We have designed cabinet machines which have rotational arms onto which parts are placed for more exact cleaning.
Cabinet machines can be equipped with an external load / unload track designed with a cart or fixture onto which your parts are pre-loaded prior to the cleaning operation. An option would be to have a door on the opposite side of the housing for the parts to exit after being processed through the cleaning cycle.
INDUSTRIES SERVED
FASTENER INDUSTRY
We built our first parts washer in 1964 for a large fastener company to replace the washer that accompanied their new bolt maker they purchased. The customer asked us to design a smaller, more efficient unit. Upon installation of the new washer, the manufacturer of the bolt maker liked our design so much that they recommended us too many of their other customers. In addition to parts washers, we have become an integral supplier to the fastener industry with our innovative furnace feeding systems, packaging equipment, feed hoppers, and much more.
STAMPING INDUSTRY
We design our parts washers around each customer. We pay close attention to the particular parts you want washed and develop the best, most economical way to clean those parts using efficient burners, recirculation of the drying heat and intermediate blow-off between zones, minimizing solution carry-over.
We have been helping our stamping customers maintain a competitive advantage by designing and building sub-assembly systems. Some of the systems we have built are used to assemble wheel lug nuts, radiator components, door hinges and much more.
DIE CASTING INDUSTRY
The Die Casting and Powdered Metals industry have very specific cleaning requirements. The parts range in both size and intricacy, with often times many cavities and blind holes must be cleaned. Our equipment utilizes both the “walking beam” and the “power and free” method of parts transfer to assure the most accurate positioning of the parts for cleaning, inspection, and reliability.
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
We have worked directly with the automotive companies as well as with their tier one and tier two suppliers to clean parts ranging all the way from small spark plugs to large engine blocks. We have dozens of our washers in automotive companies throughout the world. In addition to new washers, we have rebuilt many washers to conform to current specifications relative to production, safety and conservation.
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