Cleaning Small Ammunition Casings After Heat Treatment
Background:
Cleaning small ammunition casings is imperative after heat treatment to remove chips and cutting oils in manufacturing to achieve optimal product safety and reliability. This company is a crucial ammunition manufacturer for the defense, aerospace, security, and outdoor sports industries, and they needed to clean 7.62mm brass shell casings.
Problem: How to Wash Ammunition Casings Effectively
The new customer used 70-year-old parts washers that no longer cleaned their parts efficiently or effectively. After heat treatment, they needed a new small ammunition cleaning system to wash the shell casings to more modern standards.
Better Engineering System/Solution: Cleaning Ammunition
The solution was a 5-stage D-24 Drum Washer with a 24-inch diameter drum that cleans shell casings after heat treatment.
The system outputs 40,000 shells per hour. Shells are put through the following five stages: acid pickling to remove the heat treatment scale, rinse, rinse, lube, and dry. Furthermore, all wetted parts of the system are stainless steel. The drum has “scoops” to bring the fluid into the drum (there are no pumps). Meanwhile, in the wet stages, the shells are fully immersed. The system processes 30-35 lbs. of shell casings per minute.
Better Engineering Washing System features include gas heat for the dryers, marine cleanout doors for each tank, a steam exhaust system, and an Allen Bradley Micrologix PLC and Panelview.
Please visit our Drum Washers page or contact us to learn more about cleaning applications and systems like this!
