Machinery parts cleaning can be quick, effective and responsible

Cleaning is a common production operation and is usually the first task in maintenance, repair and overhaul processes – and it’s mostly very expensive. Industry offers a variety of cleaning procedures to achieve the required cleanliness for the subsequent work, focusing on speed, efficiency, safety at work and concern for the environment, and often permitting cleaning without the need to dismantle.

Reliable removal of impurities is necessary to facilitate the real work of repair, maintenance, refurbishment or inspection of plant, machinery, assemblies and components. Cleaning thus has a decisive impact on quality and costs in maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) processes – and just how cleaning achieves cost-effectiveness and eco-efficiency depends on using the appropriate technology.

Manual cleaning with renewable resources
Manual cleaning is part of the daily routine in virtually every maintenance shop or department, using cleaning agents that meet the demands for safety at work and environmental protection, in addition to the required quality of cleaning, user-friendliness and efficiency. Innovative cleaning agents are now available, with constituents based on renewable resources, having the potential to replace VOC-based and/or irritant solvents such as petroleum. Depending on their composition, these cleaning agents can even deal with heavy contamination such as rubber marks, bitumen and wax residues, grease, oil carbon deposits, rust, cracking and adhesive residue.

Scoured clean
Spray-jet procedures such as water jets, shot-blasting with solid media or steam, dry ice blasting and laser-beaming provide efficient, cost-effective and rapid cleaning processes for maintenance tasks. Mobile cleaning units are available for these processes, as well as fixed cleaning systems.

A new steam-blasting procedure bases its cleaning effect on the combination of saturated steam and a high-speed air-stream. Steam is generated by heating water as it flows through, so that there is always a constant amount of steam for cleaning, with consistent properties. The steam throughput rate, and its temperature and fluid content, are determined by the items to be cleaned and the impurities to be cleaned away. The system can reliably remove even heavy contaminants, such as dried oil without using chemical cleaning agents.

Dry ice jet cleaning is being used for more and more maintenance tasks. This is due partly to the technical advantages of the process, and also to its low environmental impact. The odourless, colourless, non-flammable and non-toxic CO2 for the jet-spray process is produced and prepared as a byproduct of chemical and industrial processes. Its cleaning power comes from a combination of thermal, mechanical and sublimation effects. Among other applications, this dry process is used for cleaning spray injectors and moulds, in the food and aerospace industries, and for removing paint and coatings. Dry ice is a non-conductor, so it can also be used to clean electrically live machinery and equipment.

Laser beams are used to vaporise away layers of grime using focused light. Their applications are in such areas as removal of organic and inorganic coatings, and cleaning functional surfaces in preparation for subsequent processing.

Water or solvent and process engineering
In so-called wet chemical cleaning, the process operates under semi-automatic or full automatic control, in single or multi-chamber lines. The cleaning effect is mainly determined by the solvent properties of the cleaning agent that is used. Popular current choices include both aqueous cleaners, available in alkaline, neutral and acid forms, and solvents – the solvents being broadly sub-divided into non-halogenated hydAir Jordan IV 4 Shoes