Archived Newsletter Article

August 2024
Published by Barbara and Edward Kanegsberg at August 2024

Survival of the Fittest, Critical Cleaning, and EPA Amended TSCA Rules – Coping with Change

Note: Analysis and comments reflect the status as of August 31, 2024. Specifically, a final rule for MC has been issued and proposed rules for PCE, TCE and nPB (1-BP) have been published. “Survival of the fittest” is a tenet of Charles Darwin’s evolution of species. Many United States manufacturers […]
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July 2024
Published by Barbara Kanegsberg at July 2024

Achieving Brilliant, Educated Employees

Manufacturers are in a fascinating, frightening era. It is also an era with excellent opportunities for growth. There are problems galore. Critical cleaning processes are changing, sometimes in unexpected, uncontrolled ways. Reliable, effective cleaning agents that have been used successfully are being restricted or eliminated. Replacement cleaning agents typically require […]
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July 2024
Published by Barbara Kanegsberg at July 2024

Managing Aggressive Solvents – Point/Counterpoint

Barb Kanegsberg with Kevin Pawlowski* As indicated in a recent LinkedIn post (Ref 1), perchloroethylene “creeps” – it has favorable wetting properties that allow access to residue in tight spaces. Many classic chlorinated and brominated solvents have similar “creeping” or wetting properties; and they have aggressive solvency properties – they […]
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May 2024
Published by Barbara and Edward Kanegsberg at May 2024

The Kauri-Butanol Number – Unconventional Wisdom

It would be terrific to have a numerical comparison of how effective various cleaning agents are at removing soils. Can you pick a single number to choose the best cleaning agent? Manufacturers have come to rely on the Kauri-Butanol (Kb) number as an indication of cleaning agent strength. Suppliers of […]
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April 2024
Published by Barbara Kanegsberg at April 2024

Chemical Literacy

Chemophobia pervades our society. Should you fear 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde? Not in tiny amounts, not if you enjoy cookies. A shorter name is vanillin, the primary chemical in vanilla extract. We fear chemicals because they have complicated names and often have fancy structures. Fear of an individual chemical leads to demonization of […]
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March 2024
Published by Barbara and Edward Kanegsberg at March 2024

Finding Cleaning Processes that Hide in Plain Sight: Ask “Why?” Ask “What’s That?”

To solve critical cleaning problems, be a preschooler. Ask: Why? Ask: What’s that? The source of the critical cleaning problems may be hiding in plain sight. A process might not be identified as cleaning; no one may think about it as cleaning. We were asked to improve a final aqueous […]
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February 2024
Published by Barbara Kanegsberg at February 2024

Consumer Products for Precision Cleaning – True or False

[This article appeared in Clean Source, October 2016] Never use a consumer/automotive cleaning agent for precision cleaning high-value product. True or false Quick! True or false. This is a timed test, and you will be graded. I hate true/false tests; there’s no room for nuance. In critical and precision cleaning, […]
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January 2024
Published by Barbara and Edward Kanegsberg at January 2024

Degreasers

The term “degreaser“ is confusing. Any cleaning chemistry or cleaning process that removes oils and greases is doing the task of degreasing. Degreasing chemicals might be water based with additives that promote dissolving non-polar substances. They may be organic solvents which inherently have solubility for oils. The term degreaser is […]
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December 2023
Published by Barbara Kanegsberg at December 2023

Traditions of the Season and Process Change

To The Cleaning Lady, nostalgia includes hand-grating potatoes for Chanukkah latkes; and bandaging the inevitable minor knuckle scrapes. Nostalgia includes one lonely Menorah with orange candles set high on a mantlepiece (the elders were afraid that the Cleaning Lady would set fire to the house). Nostalgia for The Rocket Scientist […]
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