Finishing - July-August 2022

48 CLEANING
On the right plane
Guyson International, one of the UK's
leading manufacturers of industrial
finishing equipment, recently delivered a
KS450 ultrasonic cleaning tank and a Formula
1200 benchtop bead blast cabinet to RHW (R
H Wilson (Lakes) Ltd.) of Kirkby Stephen, a
leading timber importer and supplier, for
cleaning and maintaining their wood cutting
and planing tools.
The problem was how best to clean ‘helical
planer blocks’ to remove a build-up of pitch,
sap, resin and other wood-based materials.
These substances adhere to the cutting blades
and plane body, affecting their efficiency,
performance, and quality.
RHW's Managing Director Rodney Dalton
was invited to Guyson's Skipton 'Component
Finishing Centre', where they have a wide
array of finishing equipment set up for
customer trials and demonstrations, in order to
find the best solution.
Currently, maintenance staff spends
considerable amounts of time trying, with a
small manual spray washer, to clean these
planer blocks, but with limited success. Thus,
they usually get left and when the residue
hardens the job becomes even more difficult
and takes longer.
As with most maintenance tasks, blade
cleaning is easier when done regularly, before
the accumulation becomes too thick or baked
on by the heat. Regularly cleaning the planer
block will also help extend the cutting life and
improve performance. But the problem can be
made worse when the wrong type of cleaning
is used.
Harsh, mechanical cleaning by metal scraper
or wire brush can introduce thousands of
minute scratches to the surface of the blocks,
allowing ever more material to stick to the
blade and make the situation worse, whilst less
abrasive cleaning often involves hard manual
labour, scrubbing for prolonged periods with
nylon pads and common household cleaners.
Or there is the use of more aggressive sprayon
caustic solutions that may lead to corrosion
of the blade surface.
Guyson recommended trying one of their
industrial quality KS ultrasonic tanks. Safe and
effective cleaning is achieved using ultrasonics,
controlled heat, and a mildly alkaline detergent
solution. The highly effective precision cleaning
is performed without manual intervention,
allowing staff to conduct other tasks while the
cleaning is being performed. Within ten
minutes, the helical planer blocks were
removed from the demonstration unit and
were in pristine condition with no signs of
contamination. Mr Dalton was delighted and
ordered a mid-sized KS450 ultrasonic tank
there and then, stating "Now we can clean
them every day and this problem will never
occur again."
The KS ultrasonic tanks are available in a
range of six standard sizes with capacities up
to 248 litres, with larger sizes available upon
request. KS tanks allow users to pre-set the
exact time and temperature for cleaning,
ensuring consistent quality from batch to
batch. A simple membrane keypad controls all
functions. An LCD panel displays the
temperature and time set by the user, the
elapsed time since the cleaning process began,
and the status of the power supply, heater, and
ultrasonics. All units operate in temperatures
ranging from 20 to 80 degrees Centigrade,
enabling the optimum temperature to be
selected for a particular combination of
component material, cleaning solution, and
contaminant. Among the automatic safety
devices are sonics that do not operate if the
solution temperature exceeds 10°C above the
set temperature, and low-level protection to
prevent heater burn-out if the solution level
drops.
Whilst in conversation with Guyson's Sales
Manager in the demonstration room, the topic
turned to how their other wood cutting and
moulding tools are cleaned, as they produce
skirting’s, architrave, decking and bespoke
mouldings, and a Guyson Formula 1200
benchtop bead blast cabinet was also ordered
for general workshop reconditioning and metal
brightening; as some tools are steel, so can
oxidise. Guyson ‘Honite glass beads’ were
included with the cabinet so the oxide layer
can now be safely removed without damaging
the tooling.
Finishing - July/August 2022