Case Study: JATCO [Nissan Motors]
Summary: Cleaning water for use in gear washing.
Customer: JATCO
Japan
Application(s): Wash Systems
Industry(s): Water Metalwork Automotive
Notes
ATCO, part of the Nissan Motors group, manufacture power trains for Nissan and Mitsubishi vehicles at their plant in Kyoto, Japan. During the manufacturing operation the gears go through a wash process where water is supplied via a well in the factory.
As part of process performance and quality control, a target for water cleanliness was set for this operation at below NAS class 8. The water from the well has an average cleanliness of NAS class 10, outside the acceptable cleanliness levels.
Initially JATCO installed a high speed centrifugal separator in order to achieve the NAS -8 target but only managed to get an average cleanliness to NAS-8.4. Still outside the set target. This was exasperated by the fact that after every weekend additional water had to be added from the well, and so reducing the cleanliness levels further.
In an attempt to solve their problem, and reach the required NAS cleanliness levels, JATCO contacted Magnom’s™ Japanese distributor – Techno Support Ltd. Managing Director of Techno Support, Aki Fukada, immediately saw the potential benefits the Magnom™ technology could bring to JATCO and proposed a 4 week trial of a Magnom™ Clear 20 Unit.
The unit was installed directly after the well output line and the cleanliness of the system was then monitored.
The results achieved were quite remarkable, with the Magnom™ producing a cleanliness level of NAS – 7.6
Samples direct from Magnom™ output.
Samples were then taken directly after the Magnom™ output where an average cleanliness of NAS- 7.4 was recorded. This indicated to the team at JATCO that the pipe work after the Magnom™ unit was also effecting cleanliness levels. As a result all new stainless steel pipe work has been fitted.
So impressed were the JATCO quality control team in the performance of Magnom™ that they have decided to apply it to all 7 of their washing lines and are looking at other suitable applications for the Magnom™ within the plant including gear shaping and broaching lines.