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Maintaining a vapor degreaser and electroclean tank

I have been moved into a plating shop recently and I have never done any sort of plating work in my life. Well one of the questions I'm asked is: Could I outline a procedure one may follow to maintain good cleaning on a continuous basis if my cleaning operation consists of a vapor degreaser and an anodic electrolytic cleaner. So I would be very grateful to anyone who can help me in this matter. Thank you and have a great day.

Yours Sincerely,

Brian Colloton
plating shop - Sidney, B.C, Canada
2004

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Brian,

Vapor degreasing is as generic a term as automobile. You need to be more specific as to which one. In generalities, do not put wet parts in any degreaser. The floor folks sure like to use it to dry parts off. Water is probably the biggest killer of solution that there is. It will also cause pitting of the SS liner which will promote further killing of the solvent-even new solvent. People that make vapor degreasing solvents do not separately sell the inhibitors. Mostly because they are dangerous and can easily be wrongly used. Also, they sell more solvent that way. Second help is to keep the reservoir at the proper level. Too low and you can have thermal degradation of the solvent or worse, a fire, if the low level shutoff switch fails. The result of this is everything in your shop will rust. Too full leads to a faster degradation of the inhibitors. Proper operation mandates that you do not have any cross currents of air. One place that I worked moved the degreaser under a heater vent and near a large door. Then wondered why their use of solvent doubled. Moving the vent exhaust and building a tall stub wall dropped the use to the original level. Proper hoist is mandatory, by USA law and saves money. Too fast a hoist displaces air which causes the vapors to escape the upper cooling coils. Not letting the part rest in the cold zone drags out a lot of solution. That costs money. Make sure that the thermostats are set correctly for your particular fluids. Virtually every engineer that I came across thought that a long soak really worked best. As soon as the vapors stop condensing on the part (or slows down significantly) take the part out. If you leave it in the hot vapors, all it does is bake any remaining soils onto the part which makes it very difficult to clean (because the vapor is no longer condensing and running off, removing the soil). You can always let the part cool in or above the cold zone and go back for a second try. Buy good equipment, which is not necessarily the most expensive. Shop wisely. Note that this is a regurgitation of the instructions with the degreaser and with the solvents, affirmed by several years of use. Good luck.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2004

There are non-flammable stabilizer booster packages to maintain acid acceptance levels in vapor degreasing processes. There is no doubt proper operation of the degreaser is vital. A quality supplier will provide training on proper operation; this too is available.

Jeff Beard
- Avon, Indiana, USA
January 31, 2008