Happy New Year!
The MCA president of the board of directors gives a sneak-peek into 2022 to tell you what to expect from the new association.
SHERRY STEPP, PRESIDENT, MANUFACTURING CLEANING ASSOCIATION
Happy New Year! As 2022 arrives and pushes 2021 out of the way, I have had a chance to reflect on the past two years and the changes we have endured. 2020 saw unprecedented challenges that touched every person, business, and industry in some way. We changed the way we did things daily, while some of those changes were temporary, some will stay with us forever. The virtual training, meetings and happy hours of 2019 still linger even though 2020 saw us fight back to in-person encounters as much as the dreaded pandemic would allow. I am hopeful that 2022 will be our chance to continue back to normalcy while keeping the good lessons learned.
One of the “good lessons” was that cleanliness is critically important to our health and well-being. And as everyone in this industry knows, cleanliness is absolutely key to the proper function and dependability of the products we make and use in our everyday lives. As we strive at MCA to determine “How clean is clean,” we are working together to educate and inform our membership about the latest technology, innovations and processes to make us all successful.
Your MCA board and I are extremely excited about what we have to offer in 2022. We are continuing our informative and popular webinar series, growing and expanding our technical content (available to members on manufacturingcleaining.org) and gearing up to see everyone in person this fall at IMTS to share our knowledge, and network with friends and colleagues.
Upcoming Webinars
Critical Cleaning of Cannibas
Feb. 22, 2022, 11 a.m. EDT
The potency, purity and quality, essential characteristics of any drug, rely on critically clean surfaces.
Member Profile
Hubbard-Hall
From airplanes to automobiles, fasteners to faucets, connectors to car parts, 713 SIC codes call Hubbard Hall for chemistry. With 556 proprietary products, Hubbard-Hall offers manufacturers a full line of chemistry – cleaning (solvent and aqueous), metal finishing and wastewater treatment.
Contact: Mike Valenti
Mission Statement
Hubbard-Hall helps manufacturers reduce cost, complexity and chemical consumption through process efficiencies and product innovations.
About Us
Founded in 1849, Hubbard-Hall is the oldest independent chemical distributor in the United States. Now in its 6th generation of family leadership under CEO & Chairman Molly Kellogg, the company is committed to building a sustainable business for the next generation and a culture that fosters collaboration and continuous improvement.
Our Team: Our people. Your problem solvers.
Hubbard-Hall has expertise that you can trust. 32% of Hubbard-Hall associates are in tech support or sales. This means that you get faster field response. And those other people? They ensure your orders are manufactured correctly, delivered on time, and act as a continuous support for internal and external customers.
Our Products/Services
From airplanes to automobiles, fasteners to faucets, connectors to car parts – 713 SIC codes call us for chemistry. With 556 proprietary products, Hubbard-Hall offers manufacturers a full line of chemistry – cleaning (solvent and aqueous), metal finishing and wastewater treatment.
Awards and Recognition
Hubbard-Hall holds certification for ISO 9001:2015, Responsible Distribution as certified by the NACD and as a Women-Owned Small Business. The company has also been recognized as a CT Top Workplace 6 times.
Testimonials
- “…it’s an absolute pleasure to know there are still chemical suppliers who value their customers enough to workday in and day out to earn their customer’s complete trust.” Steve Leonetti, Vice President, IMC
- “Hubbard-Hall stayed focused on finding us a solution. I was impressed with their determination and communication to our team.” – Tech Manager
- “Hubbard-Hall gave us a very viable recommendation that improved our cleaning efficiency, reduced the possibility of rejects and resulted in a better product.” Tech Manager, Metal Finishing Company
- “Not only did we meet those hurdles, but we began performing at a level that let me sleep a lot better at night,” the SMP VP says. “Now, together, we continue to work on the next important hurdle, honing changes in upstream processes and wastewater treatment to improve overall cost/gal.” In addition to meeting goals, SMP finds itself with a new, trusted partner. “If they were to tell me to paint the wastewater building purple because it would help with water treatment – I would,” joked a very happy VP.
- “I asked Hubbard-Hall to fix the problem and help us gain trust back with our customers. Metal Guard® 560 worked exactly as they said, and the flash rust issue was resolved.” Sr. Technical Product Manager
- “Hubbard-Hall has been great to work with… anytime we have needed technical help— like when we got a new stainless alloy to process – their people are open to test it for us.” Nancy Zapata-Acosta, CEO, Control Electropolishing
Equipment
General Guidelines for Maintaining Alkaline Cleaning Tanks
Aqueous cleaning tanks that must last several weeks, months, or more than a full year require careful monitoring to avoid mishap during their extended time frame.
Measurement
Dealing with Failed Cleanliness Limits
Markus Rossler, vice president, Glaeser Inc., offers guidelines for ensuring parts cleaning standards.
MARKUS ROSSLER, VICE PRESIDENT, GLAESER INC.
(Article originally published in Production Machining and Products Finishing.)
Manufacturers of parts and components for various industries face increasing requirements to prove their products are within given limits for particle contamination. Limits might be expressed in particle size, count or gravimetry; stated separately for metallic, nonmetallic and fibrous particles; and may be even more detailed for hardness, conductivity, shape, magnetic properties and more.
Guidelines for inspection methods may vary from industry to industry, but all require suitable extraction and evaluation methods to ensure that results are comparable and that possible improvement actions are traceable.
Typically, once results are repeatedly within the limits, manufacturers can trust that the production processes are adequately set up to achieve the requirements. However, once limits are exceeded, manufacturers might face issues during the production part approval process (PPAP) or requirements by clients for process improvement. While, in many cases, the source or reason for excessive debris is obvious, in others it may be difficult to determine the contamination origins and to select the best method to prevent it.
Here are some guidelines to understand and determine the impact of contamination issues and how to resolve them:
- Ensure inspection results are correct. Unsuitable or unclean inspection equipment may influence the results.
- Experienced and committed lab inspectors are required to ensure the inspections are handled and processed properly.
- This includes the handling and transport of the components from the place of collection in your process. It should eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination.
- Use additional inspections to rule out that the previous result was not exceptional.
- Consider at which stage in the process the components are collected. Typically, components are inspected once they are completely processed and before they are shipped to the next assembly step, either within the manufacturing facilities or at a client’s location.
- Particles may also derive from damaged packaging or cross-contamination from handling.
- If the sources is not obvious, a material analysis of the detected particles can help to indicate the source (for example, components are not individually packaged and the transportation movements are generating particles caused by friction).
- If the products are within the limits before leaving your facilities
but out of limits at incoming inspections at the next process step, then the storage, packaging, handling and transportation has to be observed.
- Before observing the process chain, ensure that components and assembly parts introduced into the process already show the required level of cleanliness. If they do not, the cleaning/washing of the introduced parts needs to be improved. It is essential to observe this — not only for products of your own production but also for any supply part used in an assembly.
- Once it is certain that all parts introduced to an assembly step are clean, you may need to investigate the production/assembly steps. Potential contamination factors are environment, assembly equipment, assembly processes, the worker who performs assembly steps and the logistics.
- Environmental impacts are different, depending on your limits. While some products allow a conventional production, others require the establishment of cleanliness zones, cleanliness rooms or even clean-room operations.
- Assembly facilities need to be clean to avoid cross contamination and recontamination, which requires cleaning schedules and rules.
- Assembly processes may have to be chosen to avoid the generation of particles or, if this cannot be avoided, to allow the immediate removal of the generated particles to avoid carrying the contamination forward.
- Workers need to be trained to understand cleanliness impact, avoid double tasking in different cleanliness levels and use only clean tools, gloves, equipment and surfaces. Reworked parts need to be reintroduced into the process only when in clean condition.
- Logistics cover all aspects from transportation methods, storage, packaging, protection of the parts during breaks and process interruptions, location and handling.
It is essential to break down the processes in steps and inspect components in between those assembly steps to understand which process step requires improvement. If there are several options for improvement, consider implementing only one option at a time so you can measure results in order to understand its impact and avoid unnecessary actions and costs.
Another approach to locate the source of contamination is to perform extended material analysis (for example, by SEM/EDX) and trace where in the process those particles might be introduced. Depending on the type and complexity of the processes and products, this might be the faster option.
The basic key to success is to learn to see your processes “through the goggles of cleanliness.” Training and assessments of your processes by trained experts might help you to understand your situation and speed up improvement processes.
