Are You Removing Gas Appliances, Or Cleaning With Flammable Solvents?
As described in Chapter 3 of the Adhesives Technology Handbook*, "solvent cleaning is the process of removing soil from a surface with an organic solvent without physically or chemically altering the cloth being cleaned. This includes methods such as vapor degreasing, spraying, immersion, and mechanical or ultrasonic scrubbing." This post describes how to safely employ a volatile solvent cleaner with a low flash betoken.
Solvent Cleaner Flash Points
Solvent cleaners accept dissimilar flashpoints. In chemical science, the flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which its vapors ignite if given an ignition source. In brief, the lower the flashpoint the more flammable they are. This is important when using a solvent cleaner.
The American Chemic Club publishes a table of mutual organic solvents that includes flash points. Examples of low flash point volatile solvents are one-propanol at 59⁰F (xv⁰C), acetone at -4⁰F (-20⁰C) and toluene at 39⁰F (four⁰C).
Using a Solvent Cleaner in an Ultrasonic Cleaner
Ultrasonic energy is widely recognized as a fast, prophylactic and efficient way to remove unwanted contaminants from well-nigh any surface that can be safely wetted.
Using a flammable solvent in an ultrasonic cleaner may exist necessary if conventional biodegradable cleaning solution formulations won't do the job.
But as the name indicates, a flammable solvent cleaner gives off vapors that are both unhealthy for personnel and may be explosive. Vapor generation is profoundly increased due to cavitation action in the ultrasonic cleaner tank.
Dealing with Flammable Solvents in an Ultrasonic Cleaner
Local and national regulations apply when using a solvent cleaner.
As a general rule, whenever you operate an ultrasonic unit using a solvent cleaner you must cheque with local public safety officials and your plant safety personnel to ensure compliance.
Your best overall source for compliance, in addition to your local and establish safety personnel, is the National Electric Code (NEC) and National Burn Protection Association (NFPA). These accost issues related to Class, Division and group, ventilation, electrical cord , plug , and receptacle. Check this link to NFPA 30 for more information on these issues.
There are right procedures for using a solvent cleaner for an ultrasonic cleaning operation. The simplest and least costly approach can be used to clean small parts in benchtop ultrasonic cleaner beaker kits available from Tovatech.
This approach, however, does not prevent careful handling of solvent cleaners and using them in well-ventilated areas.
As a preparatory step fill the ultrasonic cleaner tank with water containing a surfactant to meliorate cavitation efficiency. Activate the ultrasonic cleaner's degas role to remove entrained air in the solution, otherwise operate it until air bubbles non longer rise to the surface.
Place parts to be cleaned in beakers or flasks. And so add together enough cleaning solvent to fully immerse the parts. Loosely cap the container to slow the escape of solvent vapors. Do non tightly cap the containers.
A tank lid with openings to snugly accommodate the containers is put in place. Otherwise use a shallow-draft mesh basket. Lower the containers into the tank taking care that they are immersed ii to 3 inches into the solution. Containers should not contact the lesser the tank.
Activate the ultrasound. Cavitation action in the aqueous solution will penetrate the container walls to actuate the solvent cleaner and clean the products.
At the stop of the bike decant the solvent into a sealable container for reuse or for disposal according to local regulations. Considering most solvents rapidly evaporate there may be no need to rinse and dry the cleaned products unless your procedures telephone call for it.
Large Scale Ultrasonic Cleaning with Flammable Solvents
Especially designed and code-approved ultrasonic cleaners are required when cleaning large parts using combustible solvents in the tank itself.
An example is the SOL XP explosion proof ultrasonic cleaner bachelor from Tovatech.
Available in vi tank capacities from 2 to 33 gallons, these explosion proof bench top ultrasonic cleaners are fast, efficient and safe to use for solvent cleaning using isopropyl booze, acetone and similar low flash point formulations.
They provide the ultrasonic ability density of the largest industrial systems, and are designed for utilize in Grade I Partitioning one hazardous areas.
These explosion proof ultrasonic cleaners bear an Intertek ETL Certification and are shipped with a remote electrical console to be located outside the CID1 envelope. Units are nitrogen inerted for additional fire protection. Other included and optional features tin be found on Tovatech's SOL XP combustible liquid ultrasonic cleaning systems page.
Examples Using the SOL XP Solvent Cleaner
An explosion-proof ultrasonic cleaning organization satisfies customers' preferences for flammable solvents employed during initial cleaning processes for new and reconditioned stainless-steel filters at Porvair Filtration Group in Caribou, ME.
Solvent cleaning is part of the passivation cycle to amend the corrosion resistance of 316L stainless steel filters past removing ferrous contaminants like gratuitous iron from surfaces, and restoring them to their original corrosion specifications.
At L3 Harris EDD (Electron Devices), Torrance, CA, solvent ultrasonic cleaning is used to remove machining oils and particulates from piece parts and brazed assemblies at diverse stages of the assembly process including preparing surfaces for a subsequent blanket. The company manufactures products such as traveling wave tubes, xenon ion propulsion systems, electronic power conditioners and microwave power modules for a multifariousness of infinite and defense applications.
An Automated Procedure for Solvent Cleaning Very Small Parts
Extremely small parts such as watch parts, micro-optics, and micro-machined parts are very effectively cleaned, rinsed, and dried in the Elmasolvex VA ultrasonic cleaner.
This ultrasonic cleaner is certified to be explosion proof when used with solvents with a flash point ≥ 12°C (53⁰F). Optimum cleaning results are achieved using a combination of multi-frequency ultrasonic cleaning, oscillation, and vacuum technology. Cleaned parts are completely residue-free.
View this video for a short tutorial on how it works.
Need more Solvent Cleaner Info?
Contact the ultrasonic cleaning professionals at Tovatech for assistance in specifying the correct ultrasonic cleaner for your applications.
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*Tertiary Edition 2022 "Fabric Surface Preparation Techniques"
Source: https://tovatech.com/blog/11850/explosion-proof-ultrasonic-cleaners/flammable-solutions-in-an-ultrasonic-cleaner
Posted by: lockepabod1973.blogspot.com
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