Self-service car wash

Have you ever encountered such a scene? When the foam spray arm of an automated carwash gets stuck in the roof position and suddenly fails, or the payment system frequently drops out during heavy rainfall, the entire carwash queue is forced to stop – not only does it drive the car owner crazy, but it also costs the operator thousands of dollars in lost revenue per hour. That’s why 7 out of 10 of the world’s top carwash manufacturers choose our industrial computer solutions. After all, under the environment of high-pressure water spray, chemical corrosion, and frequent vibration, the ordinary commercial equipment won’t even last 3 months.

Remember last year’s open-air washing station renovation project for an oil country in the Middle East? The industrial controllers there not only had to withstand 50°C heat, but also had to resist the erosion of salt-laden air. Guess how we did it? Using magnesium alloy unibody shell, the surface of the three anti-nano-coating treatment, and even the USB port with a waterproof rubber plug. What’s more, we designed dual CAN bus redundant channels in the motherboard, even if the servo motor of the car wash arm has a sudden current impact, the control signal is still transmitted stably, and the engineers at the scene said, “This machine is more capable than a camel”.

Take the visual localization of a car wash machine, the antennas or luggage racks of some models will always interfere with traditional sensors. Our solution is to install multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports to the industrial control machine, synchronously access the LiDAR and 3D camera data, and synthesize the vehicle outline in real time through edge computing. The most customer’s approval is that the equipment supports dual system cold standby – Windows runs the payment interface, Linux handles the control logic, either side of the crash can be switched within 0.5 seconds, the car wash process will not be interrupted at all.

Recently there is a classic case: a chain brand of tunnel-type car wash in North China, the original commercial motherboard control of high-pressure pumps, the results of the winter minus 15 ℃ often start failure. After replacing it with our wide-temperature industrial controller, it not only realizes -30℃ cold start, but also integrates the water quality monitoring module through Modbus TCP protocol. Now their system can automatically adjust the concentration of car wash liquid, saving 30% of consumable costs every year. The next time you see the car wash display messy, think about it – is it time to upgrade these industrial brains hidden in the control cabinet?