Tank trucks play a crucial role in the transportation sector, accounting for approximately 18% of all freight trucks. Based on the mode of transport, tank trucks are mainly divided into two categories: railway tank trucks and road tank trucks. Road tank trucks are further subdivided according to their purpose into various types such as oil tank trucks, gas tank trucks, liquid tank trucks, powder tank trucks, cement mixing tank trucks, and fuel tank trucks. Liquid tank trucks are specifically used for transporting liquid goods such as chemicals. During loading, the cargo enters through the loading port on the top of the tank, and during unloading, it flows out through the discharge port or is sucked out from the top loading port.
When changing transported products or undergoing maintenance, liquid tank trucks must undergo internal replacement and cleaning. However, traditional fumigation cleaning methods rely on manual operation, which is not only physically demanding for workers, but also carries the risk of accidents due to the potential health hazards posed by toxic substances inside the tank, and is inefficient. To address this, QINSUN has independently developed and successfully implemented an automatic tank truck cleaning system. This system can flexibly meet the needs of steam fumigation and high-pressure water jet cleaning inside tank trucks according to actual conditions.
Especially for tank trucks transporting hazardous chemicals, their complex internal structure and the diverse range of chemicals they carry, which often possess flammable, explosive, toxic, or water-soluble properties, pose a significant risk of serious personal injury accidents such as poisoning, chemical burns, and asphyxiation during cleaning. Therefore, cleaning these tank trucks requires a high degree of professionalism, and strict adherence to relevant operating procedures is essential in the work area.
Working Principle
The tanker cleaning equipment achieves efficient, safe, and automated cleaning through a modular system. The core components and processes are as follows:
Cleaning System High-Pressure Water Jet Technology: A high-pressure water pump pressurizes water to hundreds of bar, forming a high-pressure water jet through a three-dimensional rotating nozzle. As the nozzle rotates inside the tank, the water jet trajectory covers a spherical area, achieving 360° thorough cleaning and removing residue from the tank walls.
Nozzle Design: The nozzles adopt an off-axis angle layout. The water flow recoil drives the rotor to rotate, while the longitudinal axis rotates simultaneously, ensuring the water jet reaches every corner of the tank, making it particularly suitable for the complex interior structure of tankers.
Circulation System Wastewater Recovery and Treatment: Wastewater after cleaning is simultaneously recovered through a vacuum suction device, and after sedimentation and filtration, flows into the wastewater treatment center. Some equipment uses recycled water technology to reduce water waste and meet environmental protection requirements.
Exhaust Gas Recovery: For chemical tankers, an exhaust gas recovery device is provided to avoid volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and reduce environmental pollution.
Control System
Intelligent Automation Control: The system achieves fully automated operation through a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and touchscreen, including parameter adjustments such as pressure regulation, positioning, and time control.
Safety Monitoring: The system integrates gas concentration monitoring and fault self-diagnosis functions to monitor the tank environment in real time, ensuring operational safety. For example, before cleaning an oil tanker, the system will ventilate and detect the concentration of flammable gases to prevent the risk of explosion.
Significant Benefits to Road Transportation in Multiple Aspects
Leap in Efficiency: Utilizing high-pressure water three-dimensional cleaning technology, the system provides a comprehensive 360° cleaning of the tanker's interior, ensuring thoroughness and uniformity of cleaning. Compared to traditional manual cleaning methods, the automated cleaning system significantly accelerates the cleaning process, effectively shortens cleaning time, and thus improves the turnover efficiency of road transport vehicles.
Dual Safety Protection: The system thoroughly removes various substances and dirt residues from the inside of the tanker, eliminating potential safety hazards caused by residues at the source. Simultaneously, the automated cleaning process greatly reduces manual intervention, lowering the risk of personnel entering the tanker and providing dual protection for road transportation safety.
Green, Environmentally Friendly, and Energy-Saving: During the cleaning operation, the system employs recycled water and wastewater treatment technology, effectively reducing water consumption and environmental pollution. Furthermore, the system is equipped with an exhaust gas recovery device to recover and purify the exhaust gas generated during the cleaning process, further mitigating negative environmental impacts.
Long-term cost optimization: Although the initial investment in automatic tanker cleaning systems is relatively high, from a long-term perspective, their efficient and automated cleaning mode can significantly reduce labor and time costs, improve cleaning efficiency and quality, and thus reduce the overall operating costs of road transportation.
Applications:
Tank truck cleaning equipment is customized to meet the needs of different industries and stringent safety and hygiene standards:
Chemical Industry:
Challenge: Tank trucks transporting corrosive chemical raw materials such as acids, alkalis, and solvents are prone to retaining highly corrosive substances on their inner walls. Incomplete cleaning can contaminate subsequent cargo and even corrode the tank itself.
Solution: High-pressure water jet cleaning, combined with corrosion-resistant nozzles and explosion-proof design, thoroughly removes residues. For example, when cleaning tank trucks transporting sulfuric acid, the system first performs a neutralization reaction before high-pressure water rinsing to ensure no residue remains.
Results: After cleaning, the system achieves 100% removal of loose rust inside the tank and over 96% removal of rust in the dense layer, with no recurrence of rust within 5-10 days, extending the tank truck's service life.
Food Industry: Challenge:
Tank trucks transporting edible oils, syrups, and other food products are prone to bacterial growth due to residues, requiring food-grade cleanliness standards.
Solution: Food-grade cleaning agents are used in conjunction with high-temperature, high-pressure water rinsing to ensure no chemical residues remain. For example, when cleaning milk transport tankers, the system first sterilizes with steam, then rinses with 80°C hot water, and finally dries them to prevent microbial contamination.
Result: After cleaning, the tank interior is dry and free of moisture, meeting HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) certification requirements and ensuring food safety.
Pharmaceutical Industry Challenge:
Tankers transporting pharmaceutical raw materials or preparations must meet GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification to avoid cross-contamination.
Solution: Employing a fully enclosed cleaning system equipped with aseptic filtration devices and a clean air circulation system. For example, when cleaning vaccine transport tankers, the system performs ozone sterilization after cleaning and tests for microbial indicators inside the tank to ensure a sterile environment.
Result: After cleaning, the tank reaches pharmaceutical-grade cleanliness standards, meeting the audit requirements of the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and EMA (European Medicines Agency).
Technological Advantages High Efficiency and Energy Saving: Cleaning time is reduced by more than 50% compared to traditional manual methods, and the cleaning cycle for a single tanker is reduced from 4-8 hours to within 2 hours, improving tanker turnover rate.
Safety and Environmental Protection: The entire process is conducted in a closed system, preventing wastewater splashing and exhaust gas emissions, thus reducing harm to the environment and personnel. For example, after adopting this system, a railway tank car cleaning station reduced wastewater discharge by 70% and VOC emissions by 90%.
Intelligent Management: Remote monitoring and data recording are achieved through IoT technology, supporting cleaning process optimization and equipment maintenance early warning. For example, the system can automatically generate cleaning reports for customer traceability and auditing.
Application Cases: Railway Tank Car Cleaning: After introducing an automated cleaning system, a railway bureau in China increased its daily cleaning capacity from 20 cars to 50 cars, reduced labor costs by 60%, and significantly improved the consistency of cleaning quality.
Road Tank Car Cleaning: After using high-pressure water jet cleaning equipment, a logistics company saw a 40% decrease in tank car failure rate and an 85% reduction in transportation accidents caused by residues.
With its innovative technical architecture, comprehensive safety mechanisms, and customized designs to meet the needs of various industries, the automated tank truck cleaning system has not only brought about a comprehensive upgrade in efficiency, safety, environmental protection, and cost control to the road transportation sector, but also validated its technological advantages and market value through intelligent management and real-world case studies. As the logistics industry increasingly demands efficient cleaning and green development, this system is expected to become a benchmark solution in the tank truck cleaning field, continuously driving the cleaning of transportation equipment towards automation, standardization, and sustainability, and injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of the industry.
