Cleaning an automobile manufacturing area

India is the sixth largest motor vehicle/car manufacturer in the world. India produces a record 20.4 million motor vehicles. The presence of multiple international automobile manufacturing companies and the increased awareness for international standards of quality have contributed to increased demand for best cleaning practices. Even areas like foundries or component production facilities are maintained well.

Outer Area Cleaning

This mainly involves sweeping and depending upon the area and dimensions of the roads, the size of the sweeping machines are decided. In automobile sector, a structured maintenance plan is very important. Regular sweeping of outer area reduces dirt on the shop floor as 60-70% of the dirt comes from outside. Loading of finished products and unloading of raw materials are sources of dust and dirt.

Dispatch Area

It is again mainly a sweeping area and the sweeping machines are decided on the dimensions of the area. Also the high pressure washers are used for the removal of the oil and dirt accumulation from the floor and to clean the finished vehicles.

Base Frame manufacturing. Weld Shop

Here, high pressure washers are used for removal of additives and coating after the applications from the base frame. At some places, the high suction vacuum cleaners are needed used for the removal of sand. Prior to welding, vacuuming is done on the parts to be welded. For cleaning the floor of this area sweeping machines are used.

Component manufacturing line / semi-assembly line

Nowadays even white epoxy floors are laid in production areas. In the automobile Industry, though majority of components get assembled outside, important components are assembled in-house. The manufacturing line requires heavy duty wet and dry vacuum cleaners for the removal of steel or Iron ore dust generated from grinding, drilling and milling.

Areas of the cleaning in the Automotive Industry are

1) Outer Area

a) Internal Roads and Surroundings

b) Dispatch Area

2) Shop Floor or component line

a) Base Frame manufacturing.

Weld Shop

b) Component manufacturing line

or semi-assembly line

3) Production line or internal Area

a) Paint Shop

b) Engine Line

c) Assembly Line

d) Finishing Line

4) Administrative Block or Office Area

5) Canteen

6) Maintenance department

For cleaning the Shop floor of this area, scrubber dryers are used with oil resistant squeeze. The size of the machine again depends upon the dimension and size of the area. If grinding application is on, then there must be proper suction system for the iron chips with coolant for air-conditioning.

Paint Shop

In the spray booths, spraying is done in centralized air flow area. The air is vacuumed through the girds. The grids are cleaned with high pressure washer (cold or hot and cold). As the air passes through the grids, the paint gets accumulated on them necessitating for further cleaning. To tackle this, most of the automobile companies burn the grid at 3000C or above. This is very critical work which companies do manually. If they use high pressure cleaner with 250 bars or above, they can easily get rid of the manual burning. Also, this is very fast and effective in maintaining the air flow and lowering rejections. The Dolly (hanger on which car main body rests) cleaning is tough job. Presently, it is mainly done by manual chipping process. Here very high pressure washers can be used.

Engine Line

The engine blocks are cleaned with vacuum cleaners. The machineries are also cleaned periodically with the heavy duty vacuum cleaners. Depending on the size of the area and dimensions, floor cleaning machines are deployed.

Assembly Line

Floor cleaning machines are decided on the basis of the size and dimension of the area. The machineries are cleaned with high power vacuum cleaners. Water showers a coming through underground water tank are used for leakage testing. High pressure washers are used for cleaning big water filters.

Finishing Line

Here the general cleaning is done with vacuum cleaners and the machineries are cleaned with high power vacuum cleaners.

Administrative Block or Office Area cleaning

Mostly outsourced, this includes general cleaning of floor, carpet if any and washrooms.

Canteen

Here again, the floors are cleaned with high pressure washers. Kitchen equipment need to be cleaned too.

Maintenance Department

In this generally hot and cold high pressure washers are used to clean and maintain the dyes.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Siddhartha Shankar
National Manager – Industrial Sales
Nilfisk Advance India Ltd

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