The Problem:
The customer manufactures parts for recreational and commercial boats, but was starting to encounter rust on some of their parts after running them through a cleaning tank. Specifically, the rust was appearing on a ductile iron piece, which is difficult to prevent as iron is a very porous metal and absorbs moisture easily. The cleaner and rinse solution the customer was using did not effectively prevent rust and left spots on the parts after cleaning.
The cleaning tank was running at 180⁰ F and a concentration of approximately 1.5%, this was both too hot and too weak for an effective cleaning process. The higher temperature resulted in “flash drying” which leads to more rust than regular drying. This occurred in between the cleaning cycle and the rinse cycle. The higher temperatures and weak solutions caused greater evaporation and rusting.
The Solution:
After evaluating their cleaning process, Twin Specialties determined that adjustments were needed for the cleaning process, cleaner, and rinse solution. In the cleaning process, the first issue to address with the temperatures for the cleaning and rinse cycles. The cycles ran at 180⁰F and 100⁰F, respectively. After consulting the manufacturer and technical data sheets, we determined the proper temperatures for the cleaning and rinse cycles should be 140⁰ F and 75⁰ F, respectively. This reduced evaporation of the cleaner and rust preventative and alleviated the “flash drying” issue.
Secondly, we increased the concentration of both the cleaner and rust preventative. Originally, both were running around 1-2%. Based on the manufacturers recommendations and previous results, we determined that running both the cleaning and rinsing solutions at 3% will improve performance of both chemicals. This allowed for a thorough cleaning and application of the rust preventative.
Finally, we set up the system with our high-performance products. For the cleaning cycle, the customer is using the Twin Industrial Cleaner 2458-B. This is a heavy-duty liquid alkaline cleaner that has some of the Twin Soluble Rust Preventative 110 included in the product’s chemistry. For this specific application, this helps fight the “flash drying” that occurs in between the cleaning and rinse cycles. In the rinse cycle, the customer is using the Twin Soluble Rust Preventative 110 as an additive to the rinse solution. This synthetic product is non-foaming and provides a dry film for short term rust protection in typical indoor storage conditions.
Using this formula for cleaning operations, the customer eliminated rust from parts and reduced service needed on its products. Coupling this with Twin Industrial Cleaner 2458-B and the Twin Soluble Rust Preventative 110, the customer is able to fulfill its orders and deliver pristine parts to its customers. The lower temperatures also reduced energy consumption and produced further cost savings.