When people talk about Technical Cleanliness the first thing that often comes to mind is clean rooms. However, particulate contamination frequently starts a lot earlier – directly in the manufacturing process. Exactly that’s where a new web cleaning technology from Schreiner ProTech comes in that was installed this year.
The project was driven by increasing requirements in the automotive industry: In the battery housings and power electronics of electric vehicles it only takes one metal particle, smaller than a human hair, to cause a short circuit. Testing standards such as VDA 19.1 and 19.2 establish tight limits accordingly.
“We didn’t want to create even more clean rooms but to get to the root of the problem,” says Dr. Manuel Ulmer, Head of Technical Cleanliness at Schreiner Group. “The system operates directly in the active manufacturing process and removes particles exactly where they’re generated or stick to the web–completely without a subsequent cleaning step.” The development was preceded by extensive investigations: Some 600 samples of a wide variety of raw and manufacturing materials were analyzed by the inhouse R+D department to design the system for the relevant particulate sources.
Based on that, the web cleaning system has become part of a more comprehensive cleanliness concept: In the process center for pressure compensation seals Schreiner ProTech produces under ISO-7 clean room conditions. The PCS HighProtect products are made according to the requirements of VDA 19.1 and/or VDA 19.2 and ISO 16232. A dedicated analysis laboratory with extraction procedures, REM-EDX, and infrared spectroscopy complement the concept by an analysis and evaluation of particles and residues. “Because in the end,” says Ulmer, “it’s about including cleanliness as an integral component of the entire process philosophy right from the beginning.”