Barbara Kanegsberg

June 2021

Life Forms in Process Baths

Microbes could be growing in your cleaning process bath. Minimize unwanted microbes to achieve a more consistent, productive manufacturing process. Those of you not involved in producing pharmaceuticals or in final assembly of medical devices may think microbial contamination doesn’t apply. Think again! Let’s consider conditions that you and I […]
March 2021

Fascinating Botanicals, Challenging Residue

In contrast with animals, plants don’t poop. While plants may release volatile chemicals, like pheromones and fragrances, more often they produce and store a wide variety of complex compounds. These chemicals may be useful not only to the plants themselves but also to people. Refined plant materials or extracts are […]
December 2020

‘Tis the Season for Trichloroethylene (and Other Halogenated Solvents)

‘Tis the season to be brave – to get educated, to speak up, to consider your critical cleaning options, to strategize. The U.S. EPA, under what is sometimes referred to as TSCA reform, is looking not only at the environmental impact of certain chemicals but also at worker exposure. As […]
September 2020

Critical Cleaning and Sedimentary Rock

Cleaning processes tend to build up; one layer of cleaning is added to another. The overall cleaning process becomes something that resembles sedimentary rock (or, to the surface of the desk of the Rocket Scientist). Recently, a manufacturing engineer involved in optics fabrication, called to brainstorm and, frankly, to vent. […]
June 2020

Max Sever – Cleaning, Communication, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering

As an intern at BFK Solutions, Max Sever was instrumental in putting together many of the cleaning studies and demonstrations for BFK Solutions and for the Product Quality Cleaning Workshops (PQCW). He’s a student of mechanical engineering who understands chemistry and can actually communicate! “I may start my own business […]
May 2020

Cleaning Perspective– parts2clean, Part I

Successful manufacturers make it a point to look at cleaning options from new perspectives. They picture how those options can improve production – whether or not they plan an immediate change in critical product cleaning. There are lots of ways to gain new perspectives, including actual travel to programs, webinars, […]
May 2020

Ethan DeBrosky – Innovation and Adaptability

“I wanted to be a police officer as a kid. I also grew up watching TV crime shows; but wasn’t until high school that I got exposed to science. I got to like it!” Ethan started out as a biology major, then found he “just gravitated toward chemistry – the […]
April 2020

Cleaning Work Surfaces

If battling COVID-19 involves new strategies, doing so in a manufacturing environment demands coordinated brilliance. Manufacturers are adding emergency protocols to protect employees, including the way they clean work surfaces. For many manufacturers involved in critical product cleaning, precision cleaning, and surface preparation, the concern is with removing soils that […]
April 2020

Alex Lu – Ultrasonic Cleaning and Imagination

Alex Lu, a chemistry major at Sam Houston State University, came from to the U.S. from China six years ago. He explains that “when I graduated from High School, I had two interests: chemistry and physics. I enjoyed chemistry more.” Alex is an innovator, an “imaginator” (if there is such […]
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