Barbara Kanegsberg

February 2016

Detecting Contamination with Witness Samples

Process monitoring takes more and more time; and it costs more and more money.  Examples include air in the room and air that is released to the environment, water before during and at the end of the process, assorted liquid chemicals for cleaning, metalworking fluids, other process chemicals, process gasses, […]
January 2016

Be Selfish – Conserve Water

Cousin Samantha (Sam) insisted, “you’ve got to take a look at Lake Mendocino; it will change your whole outlook.” We were in Northern California for a winter break.  I groaned inwardly. I know about the drought in California. I wanted to do a wine tasting, not look at a lake.  […]
October 2015

Location, Location, Location – Electronics Assembly

Location means everything when you’re buying or selling a house. Location is also important in critical cleaning, especially with line-of-sight cleaning. In line-of-sight cleaning, the cleaning force is directionally-aimed at the part or component. Do you use line-of-sight cleaning?  Most electronics assemblers remove flux and other residual soils using in-line […]
September 2015

What Is Clean Enough?

Suppliers of cleaning chemistry or cleaning equipment may claim their product “successfully cleans” heavy greases, particles, fluxes, and other soils. Private companies, military, and governmental agencies report successful cleaning in selecting a particular cleaning agent. What does “successful cleaning” actually mean for your manufacturing process? Success is a matter of […]
August 2015

Travels: The Future of Critical cleaning

Last year, our vacation was a day and an evening in Cleveland. Cleveland has much to offer – the “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, innovative restaurants!  Truth be told, our vacations end up getting squeezed in around conferences and committee meetings.  Recently, our travels have taken us to PCx […]
July 2015

Supply Chains and Critical Cleaning

If you are involved in manufacturing, if you are part of a supply chain, rugged critical cleaning processes will improve your productivity and profitability. You may be an OEM, a job shop, even a repair/rework facility. You may be the ultimate customer and have little or no direct contact with […]
May 2015

Fire and Water – Acetone

I was in the middle of my program “Cleaning Catastrophes” at the Parts Cleaning Expo (PCx) in Columbus. The sea of faces in the audience brightened expectantly when I began the topic of mixing acetone with water or with aqueous cleaners.  I had to squelch everyone’s enthusiasm by explaining that […]
April 2015

Procrastination and Critical Cleaning

It was back! The all-too-familiar multi-colored, cycling globe of doom dominated the screen. My lovable old computer and I waited patiently for it to go away. It didn’t. PowerPoint shut down, accompanied by the usual polite but unproductive announcement that it had to quit. “Nooooooo…! It happened again, Ed!” I […]
March 2015

Forceful

For better or worse, it is human nature to resort to offensive or defensive force when the going gets tough. In manufacturing, if the soil sticks to the part, there is an automatic reaction to get angry – angry at the soil, angry at the cleaning process, angry at the […]