The most painful mistake people make when purchasing vapor degreasing units, according to Mike Jones is Vice President of MicroCare Corp., is they buy cheap cleaning machines. There are many good makers of vapor degreasers. But there are an even larger number of companies that make junk. Those companies don’t understand the thermodynamics, materials compatibility or even the vapor cleaning process. So they cut corners on the design and never explain how those short-cuts will degrade the cleaning process.
Unlike water-based cleaning systems, solvent-based cleaning systems have very simple maintenance requirements, and are very easy to operate. The customer will need to maintain a proper solvent level in the machine. Allow excess moisture to drain from the machine via the drains that are designed into the degreaser. Lastly, periodically clean the sumps, clean the heater elements, and change the particulate filters. That’s about it for maintenance. There are many vapor degreasers out there that operate for decades with very minimal maintenance.
Most customers initially are surprised by the cost of the cleaning fluid. Water-based saponifiers and surfactants cost hundreds of dollars per drum; vapor degreasing solvents are thousands of dollars per drum. It’s a huge difference.
But, in use, the cost-equation swings the opposite way. People buy far less solvent with a vapor degreaser, because modern systems recycle the fluid and have very low solvent losses. In contrast, most aqueous systems are a “use and lose” design, with slower cycles and much higher energy costs. So vapor degreasing is almost always the lowest cost, per-part-cleaned.
This cleanroom tip was taken from “Critical Cleaning in Controlled Environments,” by Mike Jones. The article appeared in the March 2015 issue of Controlled Environments.
