Aerospace Cleaners for Critical Applications

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As it pertains to the cleaning of aerospace materials and components, you can probably already imagine that most of these parts are likely to be involved in critical applications, due to the type of industry. Very specific aerospace cleaners will be needed to successfully accomplish thorough cleaning for critical applications. Ecolink provides both aerospace and Department of Defense clients with an extensive and detailed list of qualified solvents, cleaners, and degreasers that guarantee to efficiently clean all aerospace parts, materials, and components needed for critical applications. Ecolink’s customer base includes several of the major airlines, both aerospace and defense contractors, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA. Several reasons, including our company’s professionalism, superior products, accountability, conscientious attention to detail, and cleaning success rate has resulted in Ecolink receiving a one hundred percent supplier rating at most of our customer locations.

CleanEnvironmentEcolink is pleased with the outstanding relationship it has continued to nurture with the aerospace industry. Ecolink’s partnership with the aerospace industry commenced when the company helped the Department of Defense replace its chlorinated solvents, which were needed for the cleaning of products that were used for critical applications, in the burn chambers of their spectrometers. Today, Ecolink works very closely with Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) personnel, materials and process engineers, as well as end users who are designated to ensure proficient cleaning of parts used for critical applications in order to arrange these high priority products with the best possible environmental and toxicological profile outcome.

The following are proven cleaning results from using Ecolink cleaning agents that will effectively clean the products used to build and perform critical applications related to aerospace business operations:

  • Environmentally preferred aviation solvents that can clean aviation hydraulic fluid, wheels and brakes, and general product surfaces.
  • Non flammable contact cleaners for relays, contacts, and other types of electrical apparatuses.
  • Regular contact cleaners for contacts, relays, and other kinds of electrical apparatuses.
  • Parts washing solutions for the immersion cleaning of aerospace materials and components.
  • Ultra high purity dielectric solvents for cleaning electrical systems, electromechanical systems, hydraulic systems, and fuel related soils.
  • Clean up products for paint guns and spray-on equipment.
  • Rapid evaporation metal cleaning that leaves zero residue, and is effective on a wide range of organic soils.
  • Wipe cleaning agents that can be used to clean electric motors, windings, breakers, bearings, and bushings.
  • Cleaning solutions that will clean up sticky reside from adhesives and decals, as well as get rid of corrosion inhibiting compounds and difficult to remove organic soils.

Partly aqueous solvents used to remove rosin flux, oily film from metal surfaces, and difficult to remove organic soils, such as asphalt and tar.

Alternative Cleaners for TCE – Why Switch?

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TCE, which is the acronym used for Trichloroethylene, has been classified as a Category Two Carcinogen. The risk phase associated with a Category Two Carcinogen reads as follows: “R-45 Risk Phase – May Cause Cancer. “ If your industrial business happens to be using TCE currently, and you are only now becoming aware of its hazardous chemical makeup, you need to make a change. Now. Already, the answer to the posed question in the title of this blog has been answered with absolutely zero equivocation. Any product that has a tagline that reads: “May Cause Cancer” immediately and with absolutely no prejudice. Though the cancer causing agents are, by far, the worst problem and highest risk associated with TCE, the chemical agent can also irritate eyes, skin, and throat, and the vapors can cause drowsiness and dizziness. In addition, TCE has been determined to be a threatening agent that increases the risk of Global Warming, is a hazardous air pollutant (making it subject to annual reporting requirements), and is chemically unstable and requires stabilizers, especially when being used as a vapor degreaser. Pertaining to use as a vapor degreaser, because of its extremely high boiling point and high heat of vaporization, TCE is one of the highest energy consumers for a chemical compound. Moreover, with regard to the previously mentioned chemical instability, because TCE is highly unstable, the solvent must be periodically removed and replaced with a new, fresh solvent, which results in a liquid waste stream, in addition to a much higher associated cost and expense.

In short, TCE is bad news, and if your industrial business is still using this chemical compound, hopefully you are on the phone with Ecolink already trying to make the switch to a safer alternative. One such alternative that is suggested as a substitute for TCE is FluoSolv CX. Right off the bat, FluoSolv CX is not labeled as a CMR (Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, and Reproductive Toxin), and TCE is. In other words, FluoSolv CX is not made up of chemical compounds that can kill people and pollute the environment. FluoSolv CX has an exposure limit of 200 ppm (parts per million). In case that sounds worrisome, it should not be. Instead, what should be worrisome is that the exposure limit for TCE is 5 ppm. In addition, FluoSolv CX is not considered a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) the way TCE is, and FluoSolv CX is made up of a blend of stable molecules that do not disintegrate in vapor degreasers, therefore no stabilizers are needed, which is the exact opposite of TCE. Finally, FluoSolv CX has a much lower boiling point than TCE, a much lower heat of vaporization, meaning it requires much less energy for vapor degreasing, unlike TCE, which require more than most chemical molecules, and does not generate a liquid waste stream. In other words, FluoSolv CX is a much more environmentally friendly choice over TCE, which is not environmentally friendly whatsoever.

If your industrial business is using TCE, please consider making the switch to FluoSolv CX, which is a much safer and less expensive option for cleaning and degreasing your industrial products.

Surgical Instrument Cleaners – What Does the CDC Recommend?

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When it comes to surgical instrument cleaning, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) states using a pH neutral detergent solution is most optimal because these types of solutions usually provide the best compatibility between the two entities, and offers the best method of soil removal. Enzymes are sometimes added to the solutions to improve the removal of organic materials form the instrument. Enzymes will attack harmful buildup on surgical instruments, such as proteins – which can come from blood and pus – which make up a giant portion of the harmful particles commonly found on these instruments. Cleaning solutions can have lipases – the active enzymes found in fats – and amylases, which are enzymes found in starches, to help enhance the cleaning process. Please keep in mind that cleaning enzymes are not disinfectants, because germicides can inactivate enzymes. In addition, enzymes must be rinsed from surgical instruments, as would any cleaning solution, or you risk the possibility of adverse reactions, including fever and sickness.

If you use enzyme solutions to clean surgical instruments, use them in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, which should include instruction regarding proper dilution of the enzymatic detergent, and address contact with surgical instruments, specified on its label. Neutral pH detergent solutions that contain enzymes are compatible with metals and other materials used to create surgical instruments, and are clearly the best option when cleaning delicate surgical instruments. Alkaline-based agents are used for cleaning certain medical devices because the agent efficiently dissolves protein and fat residues, but do carry a corrosive element, so one must be careful when cleaning with this method. Determining a superior cleaning solution is inconclusive, because some data proves that enzymatic cleaners are more effective than neutral detergents when removing microorganisms from the surface of surgical instruments, while recent contrary studies found no difference in cleaning efficiency between enzymatic and alkaline-based cleaners.

Although the Center for Disease Control mandates effective high level disinfection and sterilization for surgical instruments, there is no “real-time” testing that currently exist that can be placed in a clinical setting to verify effective cleaning. Having stated that, tests that can verify high level sterilization and disinfection of surgical instruments need to become commercially available to ensure, at the very least, an adequate level of cleaning. As it stands now, and until this gross lack of cleaning testing for surgical instruments is made available, at a minimum, all surgical instruments should be individually inspected and be visibly clean to prevent any chance of infection.

Precision Cleaners – Why Customization Matters

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Most industrial businesses say they carry “precision cleaners,” but what exactly does precision cleaners mean for their specific cleaning and degreasing needs? Most industrial companies have numerous different types of parts, metals, materials, components, and products, all of which need a specific type of cleaning and degreasing agent. For example, an industrial businesses may have a specific cleaning or degreasing agent that works very well for product X, but that might not necessarily be the case for product Y and / or for product Z. This may not be a consistent problem at the facility where you clean or degrease your industrial products, but what does a company do when it needs to clean or degrease several different products at the same time? Fortunately, companies like Ecolink exist that have successfully found methods of formulating custom precision cleaners that can manage any kind of cleaning or degreasing job, no matter how many different products need to be cleaned.

Ecolink is an environmentally conscious, precision chemical supplier that can offer customized precision cleaning that can successfully clean or degrease many different industrial products at the same time. Ecolink thoroughly tests their chemical solutions to ensure they can provide efficient cleaning, no matter what type of industrial product is needing cleansing. In addition, Ecolink provides eco friendly, green alternative cleaning solutions, which provides an added benefit – not only are you now able to clean several different industrial products at once, you are not posing any potential risk to people or to the environment. The same cannot be said for older model chemical cleaning solvents, which are unable to clean or degrease different types of products, and posed a toxic threat to people and to the environment because the solvent was created with hazardous chemical compounds. Unfortunately, many industrial businesses are still using these kinds of cleaning solvents – a serious issue that Ecolink is working hard to dispel.

Be careful with chemical cleaning and degreasing solution companies that tell you they offer precision cleaners. The term “precision cleaning” is too loosely used for describe cleaning and degreasing solvents, and businesses sometimes learn the hard way that the precision cleaner they received did not effectively clean certain industrial products, or worse, ruined the industrial product the company wanted cleaned or degreased. Ecolink has proven a long time ago its ability to truly provide customization of precision cleaners that will clean or degrease your industrial products, with the added benefit of using environmentally conscious solutions that pose zero threat to people and to the environment. Moreover, the eco friendly, green alternative precision cleaning solutions offered by Ecolink are often less expensive that traditional model cleaners that are not nearly as efficient as the precision cleaners provided by Ecolink.

Aerosol Solvents: Features & Benefits

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Today’s aerosol solvents are head and shoulders above the solvents of just twenty years ago. Improvements have been made to many aerosols that have eliminated the toxic nature of its ingredients. When businesses and citizens were made of aware of the alarming hazardous ingredients of aerosol cans, even the simple aerosol bottle sprays found in homes used by people in everyday occurrences, a movement began to address and find alternative measures for this problem. It was shocking how truly harmful a regular aerosol can could be the environment, and to people who were casually using them for trivial, everyday needs. Fortunately, at present, we as a nation are quite aware of hazardous aerosol ingredients, and can now use eco friendly, green alternative aerosol solvents that have features and benefits that are way above anything we have ever had before. Some features and benefits of eco friendly, green alternative aerosol solvents include the following:

1) Direct stream – Almost all aerosol canisters offer a direct stream option, which prevents aerosols from emitting a wide spray that has proven to waste the solvent because it uses more of the solution per spray attempt, and actually does not land on its intended target as precisely as does a direct stream. In other words, a direct stream provides the user with reduced overspray, which directly leads to less waste.

2) Fast drying and little-to-no odor – Because most aerosols developed today allow the user to apply less chemical to the product needing cleansing, the surface of the product has the opportunity to dry much faster than it previously did. In addition, newer aerosol solvents are releasing fewer odors, effectively eliminating ingredients that enable odoriferous delicacies that actually were developed with harmful chemical compounds that provided the odor.

3) No rinsing and no residue – In most previous aerosol models, the application of less chemicals usually meant less processing needs for the part(s). Today, through the help of effective modifications and advancements in aerosol design, aerosols can eliminate the need for the rinsing of part(s), along with the need for habitual residue removal.

4) Non ozone depleting – Using environmentally preferred chemical solutions, which have begun dominating the ingredients for new aerosol canisters, thanks to the help of environmentally conscious organizations such as Ecolink, means that current aerosols can be manufactured with a non ozone depleting quality. Eco friendly, green alternative solutions are in abundance as of late, even for aerosols. Therefore, the evolution of environmentally preferred aerosol ingredients, as long as people and businesses transition to these eco friendly, green alternative options, should come to prevent the use of any ozone depleting variations of aerosols.