Precision degreasing is a problem in nearly every industry where quality and reliability are valued.

In a precision cleaning application, the goal is to produce a clean, smooth surface ready for painting or some other finishing process. The surface must be free of spots, oils, dust and other imperfections. The typical contamination will be the machining oils, metal finings, marking inks, light grease or fingerprints. These are demanding criteria.

It's interesting to note that aqueous cleaning and/or hydrocarbon degreasers are often used for the coarse, "first-cut" cleaning in these types of application. For example, in the 1990s, many of vapor degreasers were replaced with water-cleaning systems in an effort to protect the environment and reduce costs. However, these systems are expensive to operate and often fail to achieve the standards required of the final finishing processes. With the advent of environmentally-benign cleaners like Vertrel^®, companies now are switching back to fast, convenient and affordable vapor degreasing and leaving their troublesome aqueous systems behind.

The first problem with degreasing with those aqueous or semi-aqueous systems is "entrapment". Often precision components will have irregular shapes, blind vias or tiny openings on them. The tiny drill bit and pipettes in the photo are good examples of applications at which Vertrel^® will excel; the actual size of each item is barely bigger than a sewing needle. If water gets trapped in these tight pipettes it will be very difficult to get the water out of them.

This photo emphasizes the difficult cleaning environment under which many engineers work today. These components are tiny but the performance standards are high. In these instances, the new Vertrel^® solvents are an excellent and cost-effective choice that will lower the total cost-per-part-cleaned.

It's much easier to replace the water or hydrocarbons with a material like Vertrel^® which dries quickly, rather than struggle with those old-style solvents with the hope of obtaining the desired result.

Other problems with different degreasers include the floor space required for large cleaning machines, the slow through-put of aqueous systems, and the handling/safety issues associated with other solvent degreasers.

There are other solvents which could be used for precision degreasing, but the Vertrel^® solvents are growing in popularity. The cheap, old-style chlorinated solvents are troublesome due to concerns about the environment, health and safety. HCFCs are another propular degreaser, but the most popular one is being phased out at the end of 2002 and the alternative is significantly more expensive (and still an ozone-depleter). The brominated solvents have been widely considered for degreasing but they have significant toxicity, handling and environmental problems. There aren't many good choices left for the busy process engineer.

Precision degreasing with Vertrel^® simplifies all of these issues. The Vertrel^® products dissolve oils, light grease, fingerprints and more. The Vertrel^® cleaners also have much lower surface tension than water -- they actually are "wetter" than water -- so they will easily go into and come out of tight spaces, dissolving oils from those dark crevices. Vertrel^® can even be used to purge filter media, without a fear of solvent entrapment in the filters. Lastly, the Vertrel^® cleaners boil at very low temperatures, entrapment is never a problem.

With Vertrel^® what would the precision degreasing process look like? It's easy. A simple vapor degreaser is the only equipment required. Normally the parts are immersed into the vapor of the solvent. The solvent condenses on the parts and rinses the contamination away. Immersion, ultrasonics and spray wands are also used to speed cleaning and boost the thoroughness of the cleaning.

Precision degreasing with Vertrel^® is simple, fast and very cost-effective. When quality counts, select Vertrel^®!

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