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Solvent Cleaning

Parts Cleaning articles from Products Finishing are selected and categorized by application for quick reference:

Passivation (Times Four!)   02/01/09
It is unusual that I would receive all four of these questions on different aspects of the same topic at one time. Because of that, I am going to answer all of these at one time by providing a brief overview of passivation which should answer the questions above along the way.

Aluminum Contamination   12/01/08
If some of the aluminum made it down into the tank, would it react with the cleaner and make it unable to clean? I ask because it was obvious that the cleaner was dissolving the aluminum parts that fell into the spray area and I’m sure that a serious effort to remove all of the aluminum from the tank itself was not made.

Pretreatment Before Powder   12/01/08
A customer has just purchased a powder coating plant. The steel is being stored outside and is very rusty prior to powder coating. Please provide recommendations for pre-treatment prior to powder coat.

Process Classification   12/01/08
A facility uses a dilute solution of hydrofluoric and phosphoric acids to pretreat aluminum parts prior to painting. Should this process be classified as conversion coating, etching, cleaning orsomething else? Would the acids produce a phosphate coating, or is it necessary to have a cathodic metal in the solution to conversion coat?

Stripping Chrome-Plated Parts   12/01/08
What would you recommend to strip the chrome without any effect on the duplex stainless surface?

Chlorinated Paraffin/Vacuum Heat Treating   10/01/08
I have a suspicion that the metal stamper is not removing all of the chlorinated paraffin and that the chlorinated paraffin is having an adverse effect on the steel parts during or shortly after the vacuum heat treat. Considering that the heat treatment is being done in a vacuum, I don’t think any paraffin is being decomposed, but rather cracked into smaller alkanes and alkenes. What is confusing me is the apparent rust pattern that develops on these parts. Can you advise me on this?

BLACK SUBSTANCE ON RAG   08/01/08
We are yellow chromating aluminum alloy 360 die castings. After processing, a grey/black material appears on rags used to wipe the parts. What is this material, and can it be prevented?

CLEANING TITANIUM   08/01/08
I have a question regarding the cleaning of titanium alloy 6-6-2 parts using “Hypersolve metal cleaner, degreaser and flux remover.” The parts have been carbo-nitrided. Hypersolve is a brominated solvent. Can you tell me if this solvent is safe to use?

Iron Phosphate Start-Up   12/01/07
I read an article you wrote on PFONLINE. I was hoping you could give me the short answer or a reference for what the wastewater issues may be with iron phosphating. I understand it is safe, but can't find specific information about it and would like an expert's point of view. What do you think about iron phosphatizing and wastewater issues? Any information you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Pretreatment for Beryllium Copper   10/01/07
I am looking for a pre-treatment/cleaning process (preferably spray, as opposed to a dip method) for beryllium copper parts. What cleaning process would you recommend for this material? In addition, would a bright dip be ideal for a last bath within the process?

Residual Smut?   08/01/07
We're having a problem with small cylindrical parts and small amounts of residual "smut" left over after our cleaning at an outside cleaning vendor. In this case the parts are cleaned as follows 1) vapor degrease 2) alkaline clean, 3) citric acid passivation, 4) rinse. The residue is found in the ID of these parts when wiping the ID with a cotton swab. The material is type 304L stainless steel. Do you have any advice on how to eliminate or remove this smut? Parts are sensor housings and must be clean for later electrical processing.

Rust on 17-4ph   08/01/07
I have parts that are made of 17-4PH stainless steel per AMS 5643, approximately ½ inch diameter by 1 inch long. They're rusting when our customer uses them, but products we have in our inventory from the same lot show no signs of rust. We machine the parts in-house using carbide tooling and then send them to a heat treater and thermal treater-H1025 per AMS 6875. Then they're sent out for bead blasting and are passivated per ASTM A 967. Could the customer's rust be the thermal treating or just poor passivation, and to what extent can these parts be expected to rust if they are processed correctly but subjected to extreme conditions?

Removing Teflon Rings   06/01/07
We are chemical strippers and have a client who has a number of alloy units who wishes to remove a Teflon ring from one end. Is this possible?

Clingier Can Be Better   04/01/07
Gel cleaners extend dwell time, provide better cleaning

FRP Parts Washer   04/01/07
I am considering the use of a 5 stage part washer constructed from FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic). Do you or know anyone who has any experience with a washer constructed from this material? It is intended to wash mild steel sheet metal parts.

Passivation Problems   04/01/07
I am having a problem with parts passivated in citric asic. They are 303ss and passivated for 30 min. My end user is sending them out for a salt spray test and they are failing.

Cleaning Copper   02/01/07
I have a copper sink. Can you tell me if there is a remedy to coat the surface to alleviate the spots/tarnish....A friend said she uses lemon oil to wipe down her stainless steel sink.

Removing Rust, Mill Scale And Oils In One Step   02/01/07
We have a small job shop that powder coats. We do parts of varying sizes all the way up to 20 ft in length, made of steel or aluminum, occasional magnesium. The parts we receive, as stated before, are constantly different sizes and shape and some of it is made of HRS steel and has rust and corrosion on it, as well as oil. I always see the typical pretreatment stages to be a cleaner, rinse, phosphate, rinse, sealer, rinse or not. Nowhere do I see anything to deal with the rust and mill scale from the HRS steel. Is there a product that removes the rust, mill scale and oils in one step? Or are there more steps required, I can honestly say most everything I ever read about seems like a perfect world where the only thing the steel has on it is oils. This is not the case in my business. We have a manual spray washing system that we use due to our varied parts, but I can absolutely see the need for a dip tank being a useful tool as well for the smaller parts.

Smut On Titanium Parts   02/01/07
I use a Nitric/HF bath to etch titanium. Afterwards I desmut in 45% by volume nitric acid solution. Recently I have been noticing smut on parts.

Thermal Cleaning   02/01/07
We currently use a phosphate/rinse/non-chrome seal on light gage sheet metal parts. Someone has suggested we consider thermal cleaning instead of chemical cleaning as I'm getting our three-stage wash line quoted for replacement next year.

Evaluating Acid Concentration by Titration   12/01/06
We have installed a vibratory clean/deburr system that uses stainless media and sulfuric acid to clean copper and brass brazed parts. When performing a titration to evaluate the acid concentration we get a coalescing of black material in the solution as the end point is approached. This makes it difficult to observe a pink color shift. It also seems to slow the reaction. Does anyone have an idea what this substance may be? Any suggestions?.

Removing Oxide Coating From Titanium   12/01/06
I want to find how would you remove the bluish color from the surface of titanium products?

Alodine   08/01/06
We use alodine on 5053 aluminum and use a water based coating. We want to change to powder but we are also having to meet the RoHS requirement that does not allow hexavalent chrome in the alodine. Have you found or know of an alternative to the Alodine that would give good adhesion and good Florida exposure.

June Issue   08/01/06
I am a loyal reader of PRODUCTS FINISHING and just finished reading the June issue. You are always very thorough and descriptive. I observed your response to E.P. regarding the phosphate cleaning systems and have some other suggestions...

Pretreatment   08/01/06
I am setting up a new Batch operation and wanted to know which pretreatment to go with. A 3 stage dipping system, or is a 3 stage hot pressure cleaning solution wash, Clear Rinse and sealant? Will the Iron railings benefit from a 3 minute dipping more than a power wash manually?

Silicone   06/01/06
What would be the appropriate solvent to preclean aluminum surfaces to assure they are free of silicone prior to painting?

Which Solvents to Use   06/01/06
I'm new to formulating a sprayable solvent-based epoxy paint and my question mainly involves the choice of solvents. Although I know each solvent has its own evaporation rate and solvent power, why do most formulators use more than two types. For example, why would toluene, MEK, MIBK, xylene be used in one paint formulation? Couldn't I get a specific evaporation rate, viscosity, sprayability, VOC's, etc. by just using MIBK and MEK? Or are xylene, toluene or other solvents having more of a major play in a formulation than a carrier?

Passivate Using Different Materials   04/01/06
Can I passivate assembled parts with two different materials? One is 304 stainless steel tube and the other is 303 stainless steel solid. I am using epoxy glue made by 3M #2214 regular. I want to know if the acid will create problems to the glue or harm the parts.

Alkaline Solution   02/01/06
I work at a carpet cleaner. We also clean tile. Recently we spilled a little of our alkaline solution onto a customer's steel refrigerator door. I first told the customer to use the back side of a Brillo pad to kind of scratch the steel door to match the patterns, but that hasn't worked. Do you have any recommendations on what I could use to get rid of the etching spots made by the alkaline solution? We use an acid cleaner as well but I'm not sure if the acid cleaner that we use would change the pH balance enough to counter the alkaline.

Vendor's Degreasing Liquid   08/01/05
Our in-house use of a non-etch alkaline soap cleaner has been an old and reliable standby and now our vendor has decided to use an acidic cleaner and has raised some questions. While I know the butylcellosolve is popular in some household cleaners (i.e.. liquid "Fantastic"), I am not sure if most of our aluminum alloys (series 6000, 7000, 2000 and 5000) would sufficiently degrease water soluble and possibly light machine oils?

Cleaning in the 60s   06/07/05
We are an environmental consulting firm doing some research for an industrial client. We are trying to find a definitive information source(s) that lists the predominant solvent for vapor degreasing in the period 1962-1972. We have significant anecdotal information but nothing that's firmly based...

Precleaning for Laser   01/31/05
We produce some small parts of CDA 798-2 Nickel-Silver that require laser stenciling. The stenciling is done by an outside vendor. The customer is complaining of dark spots on the surface next to the marking. The laser people said that it would not be from the laser operation but from the residue on the surface prior to stenciling. They said it could be a film or even dust that gets heated up by the laser. What would be the recommended method of precleaning the parts?

Cleaning Method   11/19/04
I had a local metal fabricator cut a shape out of a 7×10 ft ×1/2 inch thick out of cold roll steel to be used as a tabletop. I want to take the existing blackish-rust colored finish down to the silver metal color so I can use a blueing kit on the entire surface. Can you recommend a cleaning method, other than mechanical? Everyone keeps telling me to grind it down, but I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. I would rather use chemicals.

Alumina   09/25/04
What chemical can be used to remove dried alumina powder from stainless steel?

Cleaning the Mold Release Agent Off of Aluminum Castings   09/25/04
We are trying to clean the mold release agent off the aluminum castings we purchase. The release agent gets into the pores of the aluminum and resurfaces upon heating-so the cleaning process has to clean into the pores of the aluminum. The process our current supplier uses has yielded a casting without the release agent but we now have aluminum oxide and smut on the casting. Now we need a better way to clean the mold release agent and also a way to clean the aluminum oxide and smut off the casting. Product cost is $100 per casting and we have 1,000 castings with the oxide and smut on them. Your thoughts, particularly on cleaning the oxide and smut?

Comments on Cleaning with Trichloroethylene   04/01/02
In your August 2001 column, I read your answer to the question on outsourcing cleaning with TCE. There is one correction and a suggestion. The correction is that TCE boils at approximately 187-190F...

Classification of Flashpoints   12/01/01
I found your discussion in the April 2001 issue informative as always. I would like to put in my two cents on your answer to "Alcohol Replacement for Drying." It is our understanding that according to OSHA, the National Fire Code and the Department of Transportation, solvents with flashpoints above 100F and below 140F are classified as "Combustible," not "Flammable"...

Solvent Cleaning Disc Drive Parts   12/01/01
You received an inquiry regarding solvent cleaning of disc drive parts using "exotic" solvent and alcohol in a vacuum style vapor degreaser. Our company manufactures these units and we have one that cleans disc drive platters...

Disc Drive Parts Cleaning   02/01/01
My company is working with several disc drive parts manufacturers. There has been a move lately to clean with solvents in either a vapor degreaser or a vacuum-style vapor degreaser. Using one of the newer so called exotic solvents with alcohol addition seems to provide better results, including particulate removal, than DI water. Cleaning is so critical for some of these parts that water no longer is doing the job. The added density of these solvents seems to be helping remove more particulates. We would be pleased to test clean parts for C.M. (C.M. posed his question in the May 2000 issue of Products Finishing). Can you answer this?

Preparation Before Ion Implantation   09/01/00
I would like to ask what preprocessing has to be done in order to prepare the steel surface before ion implantation of mould? What cleaning methods should be used? Thank you very much.

Rubber Cleaner   09/01/00
I am looking for a rubber cleaner that can be used on EPDM and not cause any drying or glazing of the surface. We are using EPDM rubber rollers to drive thin SST sheet material via a web process that punches and cuts the material in certain length sheets with hole patterns for material I.D. We are currently using isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the oil used to protect the coil material and a fine, powder-like SST from the rollers. However, the alcohol severely dries out the rubber and creates a "glazed" surface finish that is detrimental to the function of the machine. Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Cleaning Galvanized Steel   07/01/00
I need to clean galvanized steel mirror bases prior to painting. We can't remove the galvanization. Any suggestions?

Removing Plating Wax from Aircraft Parts   07/01/00
I am currently using PCE vapor degreasing to remove plating wax from aircraft parts. Any suggestions/experience on use of a hot oil solvent followed by removal by aqueous wash?

Wax Removal and Aircraft Parts   07/01/00
We are currently using perchloroethyene vapor degreasing to remove masking wax from aircraft components. Do you have any suggestions on what process we can use to replace vapor degreasing?