Signal metering pumping cuts cost of dye dispensing to engine manufacturing plant

The use of fluorescent dye penetrant and UV lamp flaw detection is not new technology to ensure the integrity of engine block castings following manufacture. It is used at Ford Motor Company’s engine division at Dagenham, where the issue was that the dye is so sensitive that even a trace of it in the wrong place was causing costly and needless rectification. The solution to this was found by deploying the world’s most accurate dosing pump, taken from the Signal range as supplied by Gee.

It was a challenge posed by Ford to APT Systems of Canvey Island, a small company specialising in bespoke dispensing and vision validation systems for the automotive industry. "Previously, the dye was introduced - with the oil - through the cam at the top of the engine", explains Darren Bartlett of APTL. "The smallest splash-back or even minute traces of it on operators’ gloves could be passed from engine to engine.

At the heart of the APT solution is the deployment of what is claimed to be the world’s most accurate and intelligent dosing pump, the Signal S100. This is used to inject exactly the required 3ml, using a gun injector with a special dispensing nozzle, which enters the block through the dipstick aperture.

The solution was initially trialled as a trolley-mounted system, complete with a tank of fluorescent die, injector gun and a compact control cabinet housing the Signal pump and a PLC processor through which the system interfaces. Its success can be measured by the fact that the false diagnosis rate has now dropped to near zero.

Darren adds, "This trial was so successful that we are now working on a fully automated installation that will soon be permanently commissioned on the engine line, leaving the trolley-mounted version available as a back-up unit. The new version is even more sophisticated, with an automatic indexing system that will inject the dye through the M8 TDC pinhole in the engine block, directly into the sump.

The ability to inject exactly the required 3 millilitres of fluid is critical to the process and is attributed to the accuracy and intelligent controls on the Signal diaphragm dosing pump. This has an integral flow meter that interfaces directly with the pump, which is able to adjust the dose to maintain set point within a claimed accuracy of plus or minus three percent. Through an interface unit, the pump also confirms the actual volume of fluid that is injected on each cycle.

The APT solution provides a system through which, claims the company, false diagnosis has been reduced to near nil and, with it, has come the elimination of a great deal of needless remedial work caused by misdiagnosis.

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