If you are washing parts machined in oil, your current parts-washing solution may be inefficient or cost-ineffective. Factors such as customer specifications, maintenance and labor, cycle times and EPA regulations may play a hefty role in determining whether you need to consider upgrading your current process. That’s where vacuum chamber parts washers come into play.
Meet customer cleanliness specifications
Cleanliness specs are important to meet during the first cycle; otherwise, you may end up having to manually rework parts. Aqueous solutions such as spray washers may fail to reach deep recesses or flush small, tapped holes in complex parts, leaving unwanted soils and chip fines. If you’re using forced heat to airdry your bulk-washed parts, the center of the basket tends to wind up undried, requiring centrifuge or air hose work after the cycle.
iFP parts washers utilize vacuum along with KYZEN Metalnox M6386 modified alcohol to reach every surface of every part. The chemical properties of this solvent allow it to clean both oil-based and water-based soils, and its non-viscous nature allows it to flush even the tightest of recesses and holes when used in vacuum. iFP washers also use ultrasonics in the process to break up tougher soils. The vapor cycle then heats the parts and removes any remaining solvent and soils. Before finishing the drying process, rust prevention, if desired, is mixed in and applied to the parts.
The iFP washing process takes an average of 8-15 minutes for a full bulk-wash cycle and yields fully-washed, fully-dried parts every time. Then the part is ready to be added to an assembly or packaged and shipped.
Decrease Parts-Washing Expenses
If you’re using water to wash parts machined in oil, you already know the expenses of water, water conditioning and all the mix-in chemistries you need. Based on the type of metals your parts are made of, you may require multiple different chemistries, which would require manual supervision of the wash cycles in order to monitor, mix, and dispose of the added chemistry. These chemistries tend to leave residue and scum build-up, yet another task for you to waste labor hours accommodating.
As mentioned before, other solutions can require manual rework if the process doesn’t meet specifications on the first cycle. Unsuccessful cycles can result in manual scrubbing or drying, and unfit chemistries can result in user intervention.
iFP removes all these cost-related challenges. Since it only utilizes modified alcohol, all water and water-related costs would be immediately expunged. No more mixing, no more scum-caused maintenance, and no more rework. Metalnox M6386’s chemical makeup allows the machine to separate it from the cutting oils and preserve it through each cycle, resulting in a loss of only 1/10 gallon of solvent per 10 gallons of oil removed and cutting cost of solvent and disposable water-based chemistries.
Satisfy EPA Regulations
When it comes to solvent-based parts-washing options, manual and vapor degreasers will be more effective than aqueous solutions at cleaning parts with oil-based soils, but solvent fumes and handling can be a hazardous business, which is why EPA regulations and restrictions on chemicals in the workplace have risen in the past several years. In the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the EPA published a list containing 10 chemical substances that may be regulated as Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP). These five solvents, used for typical metal parts cleaning, are on that list:
- Methylene Chloride (MC)
- N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP)
- Bromopropane (nPB)
- Perchloroethylene (Perc)
- Tricholoroethylene (TCE)
By switching to environmentally green processes and solvents, you can eliminate hazardous chemicals from the air, decrease emissions, and lower your chemical consumption. Metalnox M6386 is a non-hazardous biodegradable organic solvent solution that has many great features including being REACH compliant, CFC free and nonflammable.
iFP offers a green solution that eliminates water-related costs, adheres to EPA standards and fully satisfies customer cleanliness specs. If you want to learn more about the benefits of iFP parts washers, please reach out to one of our inside sales representatives. We’ll be glad to help!
