Old Archives

May 2022

Bubble, Bubble – Less Toil and Trouble

Action or Force are essential for effective critical and precision parts cleaning. As we explained in a recent Clean Source, while spray cleaning can be effective, it is line-of-sight. Ultrasonic cleaning and cyclic cavitation (also referred to as vacuum cycle nucleation or cyclic nucleation) are omni-directional. While both involve “bubbles,” […]
March 2022

Spray Cleaning

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the helpful people from Roto-Rooter visited the kitchen of the Cleaning Lady and the Rocket Scientist. They used aqueous spray cleaning to unclog our kitchen drains. Their actions were inspirational.  Spray cleaning is widely used in industrial, precision, and critical cleaning. Spray can be used […]
February 2022

Disruption and Cleaning Action

Cleaning is inherently disruptive. Time, Action, Chemistry, and Temperature (TACT) combine to form the disruption to achieve optimum product cleaning. It’s easy to get stuck on a single aspect of TACT, like the chemistry. The cleaning agent alone won’t get the job done. In this article, we focus on options […]
January 2022

How to Automate Critical Product Cleaning – Whether or not you ever automate

If you plan to automate the cleaning process, explore some factors that are key to successful automation. Your reward will be economical automation that does what you need it to do. If you never, ever expect to automate the cleaning process, you, too, will achieve more rugged, reliable manufacturing by […]
December 2021

Halogenated Solvent Exposure – How low will it go?

Throughout the United States, many manufacturers may need to change the cleaning agents and/or cleaning equipment used for critical product cleaning. One reason is that the allowable worker exposure to key chlorinated and brominated solvents may become far lower. The reduced levels will come not from OSHA but rather as […]
October 2021

The Power of Mixtures, Part 1: Solubility and Solvent Blends

By Ed Kanegsberg, and Barbara Kanegsberg, BFK Solutions, with Dr. Darren Williams and Tanner Volek, SHSU Anyone who has mixed paint, made a cocktail, or baked cookies realizes that mixtures can have very different characteristics than any of their components. In critical and precision product cleaning, mixtures are powerful tools […]
September 2021

Manual cleaning or automated cleaning – Which is better?

As the cleaning expert, I’m asking you. Which is better, manual or automated cleaning? An automated process may allow the manufacturer to demonstrate consistency or precision, but the process may not be the correct one for the application. If the manufacturer does not have a defined cleaning goal, it is […]
August 2021

How to Surf on a Tsunami – Part 1

Product manufacturing and product cleaning is like surfing on a Tsunami. It takes courage, intelligence, planning, and knowing the right time to act. How do you surf on a Tsunami? First, be aware that it exists. Next, figure out if it is heading toward your company, directly or indirectly. Many […]
July 2021

Getting Product Designers to Design Stuff that Manufacturers Can Clean

Picture a new product. It’s a thing of beauty – miniature ( about 10% the size of the current product), lightweight, uses new alloys, polymers, coatings. It combines 3D printed metal with convoluted surfaces and traditional assembly. Marketing has rolled out a stellar campaign, promising high reliability at low cost. […]
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