Spring is In the Air!
The MCA president shares that there are new resources for cleaning standards and specifications on the association’s website.
SHERRY STEPP, MCA PRESIDENT
Time has sprung forward, and we are no longer driving to and from work in the dark. The month of March truly came in like a lion with harsh cold weather and seems to be leaving like a lamb, in some parts of the country, as trees and flowers bloom. Speaking of spring, many of you may take advantage of the longer days and gentle weather to do spring cleaning.
One of the benefits of being a part of a cleaning association is that if you have any questions or need direction regarding maintenance cleaning in your facility or cleaning your product, the MCA is the place to get the answers. However, when it comes to your house, your garage, or your car, you might want to ask family and friends.
We have recently accumulated a list of resources for cleaning standards as well as specifications and posted the links on the Industry Standards page of our website. These resources will help you get a head start on your cleaning. The additions complement our Technical Resources section, which is coming along with new technical papers and webinars being added regularly. If what you are looking for is not there, reach out to us, and we will connect you to someone that can help you get the answers you need. We are also working on a discussion forum, so keep checking back to see our progress. Happy Spring!
Upcoming Webinars
Fundamentals of Vapor Degreasing
March 29, 2022, 11 a.m. EDT
This overview of solvent vacuum degreasing technology provides a comparison to aqueous cleaning technology. Presenter will explain environmental advantages of the process as well as running costs, safety, EHS, solvents used, and more.
Member Profile
Brulin Company Profile
As a process chemical manufacturer, we start with our customers and partners, spending significant amounts of time in their environments listening and learning to understand their cleaning needs, problems and processes.
Contact: Jeff Beard, 317-797-1209, jbeard@brulin.com
Purpose: We aspire to deliver cleaning solutions to make lives easier and environments better.
About Us: Since 1935, the Brulin brand has been associated with quality, customer service and innovation. As a process chemical manufacturer, we start with our customers and partners, spending significant amounts of time in their environments listening and learning to understand their cleaning needs, problems and processes. During the listening and learning process, we ask a lot of questions to establish trust with our customers. And, subsequently, we collaborate to develop and manufacture product line solutions to solve their most challenging cleaning problems. We support customers in the space, aerospace, medical device, and other mobility markets, and we deliver our solutions to end-users and partners around the globe.
Our products/services:
- Manufacturer. As a process manufacturer, our product line consists of complex aqueous and solvent solutions to address our partners’ cleaning needs.
- R&D. We continue to invest significant resources to update our current product portfolio while simultaneously developing innovative offerings, as well.
- Quality Control. We maintain stringent quality standard (ISO 9001:2015) and exert extraordinary amounts of care in our manufacturing processes.
- Field Service and Tech Support. Our process specialists spend inordinate amounts of time in the field with our customers to diagnose their cleaning problems, troubleshoot, formulate solutions and most importantly, identify and implement efficiency plans to reduce consumption of cleaning chemistries.
Awards and Recognition
ISO 9001:2015
Equipment
The Function of a Vacuum Vapor Degreaser
Originally published by Production Machining.
Vacuum vapor degreasing is among the fastest growing parts cleaning technology because of all the benefits the process offers.
There are many advantages to implementing a vacuum vapor degreaser, including environmental safety, energy efficiency and flexibility.
A vacuum vapor degreaser extracts all the air out of the system and seals off the work chamber from ambient atmosphere, thus no operators are exposed to any fugitive emissions. The work is processed in a sealed chamber so no solvent is lost during processing.
Then, due to the vacuum, the boiling point of the solvent is lowered so it will boil and vaporize at a lower temperature. Therefore, less energy is used to heat the chemistry, which results in energy savings (smaller carbon footprint).
With the air removed (when the work chamber is filled with solvent and parts are immersed), the ultrasonics are more efficient in impinging on the parts due to no interference by air in the chemistry as with a typical open-top degreaser. Enhanced ultrasonics activity equals enhanced cleaning.
The flexibility of the vacuum units working with the sealed chamber design allows for the following cycles based on the selected recipe to fit specific parts:
- Pre-wash with flooding action to remove gross soils
- Immersion with ultrasonics
- High-pressure sprays to rinse parts
- Complete work rotation or gentle rocking motion to break surface tension — allows for better soil removal and solvent drainage when ready
- Final pure clean solvent rinse or use of a corrosion inhibitor if needed for ferrous metals
- The vacuum drying stage is pulled down in a lower vacuum, which extracts the solvent from the parts. This allows the work to be completely dry in most cases when a cycle is complete — no drag out of solvent inside parts or on outside surfaces.
The vacuum is still pulled when the cycle is complete until it is time to open the loading door. When the door is automatically opened for the operator to remove work there is very low ppm exposure to them or the ambient area. The typical modified alcohol allowable OEL level is 500 ppm per EPA. Field testing on these units yields approximately 5 to 50 ppm based on parts and work basket design.
Read this article to learn why it’s critical to choose the right solvent for a vacuum degreaser.
Kyzen Corp. | 615-831-0888 | kyzen.com
Processes
Improve Energy Savings and Efficiency with Vector Kinematics
Originally published by Production Machining and Products Finishing.
The rocking, rotational nozzle movement performed by vector kinematics spray cleaning technology combined with temperature and cleaning additives provides an effective, fast and economical parts cleaning process.
“There’s always room for improvement” is a mantra that Mafac, a German manufacturer of aqueous parts cleaning equipment, has taken to heart. The company recently upgraded its kinematic cleaning technology to a vector kinematics process, which it says creates an even more effective way to spray clean machined metal parts, especially those with blind holes and recesses that are often difficult to clean with other techniques. Because its vector kinematic process results in faster cleaning and drying times, the company, whose cleaning machines are distributed in the U.S. by Jayco Cleaning Technologies, says these cleaning systems can enhance cleaning effectiveness and save users up to 20% in energy usage.
Cleaning on the Move
Mafac believes that the more motion taking place within the cleaning process, the better. Therefore, its latest vector kinematics process includes even more movement for cleaning and drying components. In contrast to the process using a conventional nozzle system, the workpieces being cleaned with the vector kinematics method are not hit at a specific angle. Instead, the nozzle tube performs a rocking, rotational movement 35 degrees to either side, while the basket receptacle system rotates synchronously at an adapted speed.
“The best way to explain vector kinematics is to liken the principle of this motion to what one would see when trying to clean complex objects,” says Jay Nawani, CEO, Jayco Cleaning Technologies. “When brushing one’s teeth, it is always helpful to swivel your wrist instead of doing just one straight line motion. Also, when hand washing anything critical or complex with a brush, you would naturally get better cleaning results if you were to swivel or gently rock the cleaning brush when moving it across the area being cleaned.”
Similarly, Mafac’s technology is within a rotary basket machine where vector kinematics allows the cleaning spray nozzles to additionally swivel, providing its signature rocking motion.
Proper basket rotation is also a key part of the system. According to Nawani, there are several factors that must be taken into consideration when selecting the right basket and spray manifold rotation for a critical cleaning process. These include:
- Whether a part has blind holes or other deep machined features on multiple faces;
- Importance of machined surface finish;
- Machined parts that are bulk loaded in the basket;
- Number of parts in the basket;
- Size and weight of parts; and
- Importance of cleaning and drying processes.
Workpieces with complex geometries such as cross-drilled holes and undercuts, in particular, are said to benefit from the targeted turbulence of Mafac vector kinematics. The diagram below compares the areas of a part that are cleaned when using a conventional nozzle system as well as the vector kinematics process. The vector kinematics system process clearly reaches more regions than its conventional counterpart.
Although considered aqueous, the vector kinematics process sometimes uses small amounts of chemical cleaning agents, about 1% to 5%. But there are also applications where no chemicals are needed and only water is used. The type of chemistry used depends on the base metal of the part being cleaned, type of contamination and level of cleanliness required.
Programming Process
The machine’s Maviatic visual display software controller, developed by Mafac, calculates the movement of the basket rotation beforehand, making possible corotation and counterrotation with respect to the nozzle tube. This coordinated movement of the nozzle tube and basket can result, depending on the part geometry, in up to 60% more contact on the component surfaces, thus providing a significantly cleaner part that is more likely to satisfy stringent cleanliness specifications.
Prior to programming, the machine operator must create a cleaning process “recipe” that is needed to clean and dry the parts, according to Nawani. The recipe is put into the touchscreen controller using guided prompts. Typically, this involves selecting:
- Process temperatures. These temperatures range from about 120°F to 170°F. The average temperature is about 150°F.
- Wash process, including spray, turbulation and ultrasonics.
- The wash time and basket motion (basket rotation, swiveling motion) and spray header rotation.
- Rinse process, including spray, turbulation and ultrasonics.
- The rinse time and basket motion (basket rotation, swiveling motion) and spray header rotation.
- The drying process (compressed air blow-off, hot air dry or vacuum dry).
- The drying time and basket motion (basket rotation, swiveling motion) and spray header rotation.
Depending on the equipment configuration and options selected, the nozzle pressure can be fixed or variable, ranging from about 15 to 250 psi. In the case of variable pressure, even the operating pressure can be set as part of the cleaning process recipe, where the pressure is lower for more delicate parts and higher for tough-to-clean parts that have complex machined features.
Time Savings
Vector kinematics technology offers the combination of mechanical components, temperature, cleaning additives and time savings which, in turn, can provide an effective and economical parts cleaning process.
Because of the simultaneous nozzle tube rocking movement and the basket receptacle rotation, vector kinematics is said to deliver cleaner parts in a shorter amount of time or cleaner parts within the same specified time compared with processes that only use spray tubes or rotational spray tubes. In fact, the drying process also uses the vector kinematic system with the moving nozzles achieving a higher heat and material exchange.
The entire cleaning, rinsing and drying cycles are complete on an average of 10 minutes per batch, but this process time can land anywhere between seven and 20 minutes.
Jayco Cleaning Technologies | (513) 737-9600 | jaycoclean.com
