It not only increases the efficiency of the parts but also helps to reduce the rejection rates

In the last few years quality awareness has gone up considerably due to several reasons including globalisation, competition, collaborations and the drive to achieve six sigma quality and also the drive to get QS/TS accreditation in almost all the industry set ups.

The manufacturing processes in an industry will result in number of contaminants, which should be cleaned to ameliorate the quality and performance of the products. This will not only increase the efficiency of the parts but will also help to reduce the rejection rates.

These contaminants like loose burr, carbon, cutting oils, pressing oils, grease, lapping plates, etc., are to be removed and the product has to be free of all these contaminants before it is put to further use.

Since the mutable business scenario demands that the products should be of the highest quality; the products therefore should be meticulously cleaned so that they meet the highest standards and are of maximal efficiency and performance.

Thus cleaning becomes a very significant process of all manufacturing and servicing industries because it ensures the following benefits:

• It increases the component efficiency and performance 
• It increases the working life of the component 
• It improves the quality of component 
• It lowers the rejection rates 
• It helps in reducing warranty claims, and 
• It helps to make final product increasingly environment friendly.

Why Aqueous Cleaning?

The prevalent accelerated methods of manufacturing demand consistently clean components at intermediate stages of production and final assembly. The correct selection of the method, equipment, process and chemicals for cleaning becomes a vital aspect because the overall quality of the product will depend on them.

The cleaning processes can be divided into two types: 

• Solvent cleaning, and 
• Aqueous based cleaning. 

Some of the major advantages are illustrated as follows:

• Running Costs: The aqueous cleaning systems incur low running costs. Solvents are usually more expensive per litre than the detergents. The aqueous solutions are cheaper to operate.
• Flexibility of the System: It can be used as dip type or the spray type, hence, giving the option to the users about the choice of systems. 
• Flexibility of the Cleaning Solutions: One of the major advantages of aqueous cleaners is that the users can add a number of chemicals thus, altering the properties of the solutions.
• Easier Waste Management: Since the aqueous solutions are water based and they present relatively low risk for the health of the users and the operator, it thus becomes an easy process to dispose of the waste.
• Environment Friendly: The aqueous solutions are safe for operations and are having a major advantage over solvents as they present low risk to the health of the user and operator. Moreover, they do not pose any enigma to the environment too.

Based on the cleaning process in use aqueous cleaning are divided into two types:

• Dip type, and 
• Spray type

Dip Type of Aqueous Cleaning: In this type of cleaning, the components are submerged into large tanks which constraint heated aqueous solutions. The cleaning action is a result of prolonged contact between the heated aqueous solution and the component to be cleaned.

Spray Type of Aqueous Cleaning: The spray type method involves the principle of cleaning using pressure jets. Aqueous solution is sprayed over the component body under high pressure. These high-pressure spray jets remove the contamination from the body of the component. The heated aqueous solution under high pressure is known to achieve better cleaning results than any other existing methods of cleaning.

Advantages of Spray Cleaning (over Dip Type)

The spray type of aqueous cleaning ensures that all types of contaminants get removed from the surface of component efficiently. It is possible to clean contaminants, which are closely bonded to the surface of the component. Major advantages are:

• The danger of spillage is high in case of dip type of system, which can cause the cleaning area to become dirty and unfit for work. In the case of spray type of systems the risk of spillage is negligible. 
• As in the dip type, the same solution is used for a number of component batches; there is a risk of contamination adhering again on surface of already cleaned components. An example of this case can be those components where oil has to be removed from the surface. 
• In the case of dip type subsequent cleaning cycles an oil layer to be formed on the later cycles because the oil again sticks to the surface of the already cleaned components when they are removed from the cleaning tanks. This does not happen in a spray type of a system because the recycled solutions is skimmed off the contaminants to utmost precision and then used. This reduces the risk of re-adhesion of the component to a minimum. 
• Spray cleaning systems incur low electricity costs because it does not involve heating of large tanks having large volumes of cleaning media or solutions. 
• The cleaning cycle time per batch of components is low in case of the spray type of systems as compared to their counterpart dip system.

(Thoroughclean Ultrasonic (India) Pvt Ltd is a leader in casting, cleaning coating equipments, chemicals and services; and environment friendly, economical, perfect, safest, faster cleaning machines in wider range of configuration to suit every budget and pocket. Tel: 011-23654117, 23654118, 23654119. Mobile: 099100-65675. Fax: 91-11-23653488. Email: thoroughclean@gmail.com, enquiry@thoroughclean.com)