HS Marston Aerospace Ltd is renowned for its heat exchangers in the commercial and military market. As part of Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technology, the company manufactures a wide array of heat exchangers including plate and fin, laminated, shell and tube, as well as cold walls, cold plates and cooling panels.
Cleaning of heat exchanger components is a quality-critical process step. “The complex geometries make it difficult to get these parts clean and dry which is necessary for the subsequent brazing. Here, even very tiny residue can cause failures which can lead to
leakage”, explained Andy Lees, Site Lead, Operations. Cleaning is also key to protecting the furnace since residual oils left on parts will be burnt in the chamber and this could cause long term damage. Today, at its site in Wolverhampton, UK, HS Marston runs three closed machines on the modified alcohol grade DOWCLENE™* 1601 for the cleaning of different component parts. The oldest machine was installed in 2011. Since then – thanks to the high stability of DOWCLENE™* 1601 – not one single bath exchange has taken place. Due to the processing steps involved such as brazing, assembling and machining, the parts typically go through 3 rounds of cleaning during the entire manufacturing process.
