Current major automotive industry trends, including Industry 4.0, electric vehicles, and autonomous driving, significantly impact component cleaning. Previously, component cleaning focused on surface particle removal, but future challenges will increasingly involve oil film or grease-form contamination.
Removing particles and chips from processed components remains important while introducing new requirements and techniques. Traditional mass production lines manufacturing nearly identical components with short cycles will be replaced by highly flexible manufacturing units involving broader cleaning tasks.
Increasingly sophisticated engine designs and transmission developments are driving demand for cleaning machines that can meet specific particle cleanliness standards. Additionally, new materials like lightweight metals are continuously being introduced and improved in various automotive processing techniques.
Autonomous driving will transform component cleanliness standards. Current assistance systems feature numerous optical sensors, particularly involving multiple precise cleaning stages in automotive supplier production processes. Autonomous driving implementation will require high fault safety with redundant safety systems. Components and elements must meet the highest cleanliness standards regarding particles and especially contamination films. Moreover, production processes must be completely traceable and auditable.
Removing film contamination, cleaning capillary structures, and preparing surfaces for welding, coating, and bonding will require increasingly complex processes. Appropriate chemicals, suitable cleaning methods, and customized drying functions must be used for each component type, with every process stage documented. Past cleaning models will face significant challenges.
For precision part cleanliness, reference can be made to the German Automotive Industry Association standards VDA 19.1 and VDA 19.2.