Measured Tunnel and Equipment

[AppleExpress]

Hey gents,
So i used today and actually went through and measured my tunnel, something i havent done since taking over as the manager here. ive been told since the day i started that i have a 90ft tunnel...that is incorrect. i measured door to door and my tunnel length is 70ft. i took measurements of the placement of all my equipment and i want to see what you all think, where i should make changes and so on. i should note this is a front wheel pull system.

0ft- start of the conveyor at the edgewhere roller comes up.
10ft-first arch which coats vehicle in a low ph soap.
11ft-CTA 1&2 for wheel cleaner
14ft-location where vehicle touches first set of wraps
20-27ft-front to back mitter as well as poodle brush.also soap arch before and after mitter
27.6ft- Triple foam application
33ft-location where vehicle touches second set of wraps
39ft-omni high pressure system arch
42-47.6ft- side to side mitter
51.6ft-start of spotfree rinse/drying agent/clearcoat/sealerwax
52ft-start of tire shine applicator
60ft-end of tire shine applicator
60ft-end of conveyor where roller drops
61ft- single arch housing 5 blowers, i believe have 10"wheels angled inward toward wash tunnel.

let me know what you think...i myself see key issues, but i want everyones opinion before i can really start putting a plan together on fixing things.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Don't know what this means "61ft- single arch housing 5 blowers, i believe have 10"wheels angled inward toward wash tunnel."

10" wheels?

I don't know that you need to do anything major.

10 ft is a little short on drip space but not much you can do. Drip space is as much a factor of time as distance, so line speed plays an important role.

If you are not super busy run the line slow enough. If this hurts production than perhaps a Flash Dry Blower is warranted.

 

[robert roman]

“….. my tunnel length is 70ft.... i want to see what you all think, where i should make changes and so on…… this is a front wheel pull. ….i can really start putting a plan together on fixing things.”

A plan begins with goals and objectives; what needs “fixing” and how will this be achieved.

When people design a carwash system, they begin with property length and width planning.

Using guidelines I can guess one length of the lot is at least 160’ to fit a 70’ tunnel. Likewise, the lot is probably larger than 1/2 acre.

70’ tunnel implies a peak hour capacity of 70 cars. On average, sites that reach 70 customers an hour wash about 75,000 cars.

So, it is imperative to know the expected demand for services.

If your sales volume is 50,000, the peak hour is probably 48 cars – implying a minimum 50’ conveyor length or mini-tunnel range 50’ to 60’.

So, changing to a rear-wheel push might make sense. Less demand equal less equipment but same quality and lower operating expenses.

If your site is higher volume, say, 70,000 and may/can go higher, the problem is different.

Here, guidelines and basic conveyor logic dictate a matching process - clean, rinse/wax and dry and two-step chemistry - high PH followed by low PH.

If you want to wash more cars an hour or improve quality, switching from soft cloth to foam brushes can help because foam spins faster, more horsepower equal more work accomplished.

So, what needs fixing?

 

[Earl Weiss]

“…..

If you want to wash more cars an hour or improve quality, switching from soft cloth to foam brushes can help because foam spins faster, more horsepower equal more work accomplished.

I'd like to hear from others vis a vis thoughts on comparative cleaning effectiveness of foam vs cloth. Rotational speeds etc.

 

[AppleExpress]

Earl- what i meant was that at 61ft (very end of the conveyor, i have a single arch that has 5 blowers mounted to it. if you watch the video link located in the "Surface Tension" thread that Diamondskin added, you will see my companies other carwash. here they have i believe it is 8 blowers spaced out over a 10ft area. in regards to the 10" wheels, i was reffering to the propellers of the blowers. i know most blowers have either 10 or 12 inch wheels depending on design.

Robert- The biggest issue that i am trying to resolve in my tunnel is dry cars. unless i crank up my drying agent to nearly 100mil per car, you really cant tell that its even been applied. im just wasting product. so i am trying to find areas where i can either tighten equipment up, while still getting a good wash or remove equipment so i can increase drip space.

 

[AppleExpress]

currently im washing around 20 cars per hour. on average i am open 81 hours per week, 7 days a week.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Possibly think about using triple foam that has a conditioner/polish in it such as
http://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-4649-triple-foam-polish-blue.aspx
If you have overlapping rinse patterns see if you can possibly reduce the amount of water you're applying to rinse the car by either reducing tip size or increasing tip size and plug up some nozzles so that there is not an overlapping of the water spray at impact on the car.
At 20 cars per hour you can slow your chain down alittle at a time until you see results that won't cause a bottle neck at your entry point.
As Earl suggested install a flash dryer immediately after your final rinse/drying agent arch.
I have one from AVW that oscillates and it works great.

 

[AppleExpress]

unfortunately i cant change my conveyor speed at the moment... due to a lack of thought when this carwash was built, the apprently saw fit to install the powerpacks for the conveyor inside the wash bay, just past the omni's. so after 5 years of water abuse, all the speed controls are rusted in place. even my maintanence techs wont touch it. so im in the process of getting new ones and having them moved to a better location away from moisture... thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[Washmee]

unfortunately i cant change my conveyor speed at the moment... due to a lack of thought when this carwash was built, the apprently saw fit to install the powerpacks for the conveyor inside the wash bay, just past the omni's. so after 5 years of water abuse, all the speed controls are rusted in place. even my maintanence techs wont touch it. so im in the process of getting new ones and having them moved to a better location away from moisture... thanks for the advice everyone.

So how fast does it run now? Take a stop watch and time how fast a roller covers 10 feet. At the volumes you described you should be no faster than 15 seconds per 10 feet.

 

[AppleExpress]

washmee- Currently the conveyor is running at 17 seconds per 10FT. i have no way of adjusting this currently. once i get new powerpacks i plan to slow the system down. Today one of the company owners stopped in because we had our master link snap on our chain, so my wash is currently down. He's given me the go ahead to get quotes on replacing everything in the system that needs to be replaced. So hopefully over the next month i will be able to get everything resolved....im hoping.

 

[robert roman]

“….biggest issue ….trying to resolve…..is dry cars. ……drying agent…..cant tell that its even been applied. ……trying to find areas……either tighten equipment up….remove equipment so i can increase drip space.”

You can’t get a dry car until you get a clean car. Identify the root cause.

For example, reclaim product water too grey (i.e. emulsified oil) can cause a wet car. Evidence of this would be grimy looking bay walls and cloth brushes.

Again, staging of PH is essential for good drying. If you are not high PH followed by low PH, this may cause a wet car.

Since flash-dry technique shows drip space is not absolutely necessary in a tunnel, increasing drip space is probably the last place I would start to look as a solution.

Excess water falls off cars by gravity, then force of wind.

If the equipment is producing a clean surface, the drying agent will impart hydrophobic effect, sheeting and beading occurs.

If not, work backwards. Is flooding occurring – too much rinse water applied before drying agent?

Again, there are so many possible factors you have to be there to see it.