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Wheelabrator WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger

Product News Tuesday, April 10, 2007: Wheelabrator

Wheelabrator WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger Offers Speedy Stripping Process to Automotive Manufacturers

The Wheelabrator® WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger is an integral component of the paint stripping process for automobile manufacturers. The Georgetown, Kentucky, Toyota plant, where the Land Cruiser is made, approached Wheelabrator to duplicate a process they were utilizing at a factory in Japan. During the vehicle painting process, not only do the car components get painted, but the jigs and fixtures that hold the components up as it goes through the process also get painted. Kevin Lawler, Specialist Paint 1 Production Engineer for Toyota, states, “The process Wheelabrator developed for Toyota allows us to strip paint off these parts in three to five minutes. Ideally the jigs and fixtures are cleaned every five to 10 passes through the machine.

Previously this was a very time consuming process, which took 24 hours and involved a highly caustic method with a hazardous acidic material.” Toyota currently utilizes a Wheelabrator WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger and a non-traditional media to clean the paint off the jigs. Lawler continues, “At first we tried grit and shot. Then we switched to a media similar to one used in Japan. That is when the results really became evident.” Smaller parts are cleaned in a Wheelabrator 6-cubic foot Tumblast® machine.

The AM General - Hummer H2 Assembly Plant in Mishawaka, Indiana has also found success cleaning gigs with the WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger. Ross Richardson, the plant’s Lead Technical Support Engineer for Painting, states, “This process has resolved our paint problem by eliminating the rejects that were previously caused from paint flaking off the jigs and contaminating the paint. Now we are always clean and the paint is no longer contaminated.”

The Wheelabrator WS 4/210 Spinner Hanger offers the perfect solution for the cleaning and preparation of cavernous and odd shaped parts that do not adapt easily to batch machine processing. Spinner Hangers also work well for parts that are too delicate for a Tumblast and too small for Table Machines. Parts loaded onto the hanger arrangement are rotated during the blast cycle and blasted from multiple angles, resulting in cost effective, chemical free cleaning for a broad range of production requirements.

Available in a range of sizes with two to four blast wheels, Wheelabrator Spinner Hangers are pre-wired for easy installation and offer reduced floor space requirements.