Metal Cleaners

EPi was able to find a perfect solution using our E-Kleen SR 163, a neutral phosphated multi-cleaner for zinc!

Recently, a Wisconsin based customer has contacted EPi looking for the best way to clean carbon residual from Zinc Diecast Tooling - without having to remove machine parts or waste more time and money to get the job done.

 Read our customer's initial request and see how well our E-Kleen SR 163 was able to help achieve their goals:

“Hello, I'm looking for a product and/or a means to clean and polish tool steel. This product would be used to maintain a class-A, cosmetic surface in our zinc diecasting process. I'm hoping to find something that can be applied right at the machine, without requiring that the casting mold be pulled from the machine for repair. This product would need to remove any buildup from the tool surface without scratching. Thanks!” -WI Customer

Here are the results:

After running a few different concentrations of the E-Kleen SR 163 - Here is what our customer came up with for their SOP on cleaning carbon residual from their Zinc Diecast Tooling:

1. In a liter container mix 750 mLs of Kleen SR 163 with 250 mLs of water. (Use a container that has a lid to easily store any excess solution)
2. Cool tooling down to ~150° F
3. Apply solution with a stiff natural hair
4. Let sit 30 – 60 seconds
5. Spray with water
6. Wipe with a cotton cloth (Red Shop Rag)

To date, the Customer is very happy with the performance of the E-Kleen SR 163 for the following reasons:

1. The Customer only needs a Tool and Die Maintenance member at the Diecast machine for minutes instead of hours. Typically, the customer would have to have the Tool and Die Maintenance person remove the die and take it back to the maintenance area and then comeback and reassemble the die into the machine –Time saving of up to 8 hrs. per Die Cleaning!
2. The typical Die Cleaning process created excessive downtime
3. The old cleaning process caused machines to be down for up to three days (Tool removal).
4. Now the machine is only down for cleaning, which takes ~6 hours total.

Summary:

 Since, our customer has started using the E-Kleen SR 163, to clean up carbon residual that they are seeing on some Zinc Diecast Tooling, they have seen improvements in the following Operational metrics:

1. Safety – Removal of the Diecast tool – Bulky and heavy
2. Delivery – Shorter downtime to clean the tooling
3. Cost - Maintenance Time reduced by 8 hrs. per Die Cleaning

I have been in the plating or coating industry for over 30 years from coating ammunition to POP, PWB and Electrolytic plating. I am a licensed WWT operator in multiple states and although each state has their own unique limits for the effluent they all can be controlled if the chemistry you are using is combatable to your WWT system.

Several cleaners on the market contain chelators such as EDTA or amines this is great for extending the life of the cleaner but limits the ability to properly treat the material in a wastewater treatment system. The chelators can tie up metal in your wastewater system and prevent the proper treatment of your water.

One of the other items people do not discuss a lot is the amount of solvent that can be in the cleaners and how it affects your wastewater system. Our facility is very fortunate being in Indiana we are able to comply with the EPA’s TOMP or what some people call a Solvent Management Plan. Being able to be part of this plan we only need to check TTO’s or Total Toxic Organics once every 5 years or in the first six months of a new WWT permit. Being a facility that treats water for cyanide the amount of solvent in the cleaner can be a big deal.

We were fortunate to find a very good cleaner that would work over multiple base metals and as most companies should do we started with one tank and within a couple of years we were using this cleaner in several tanks. We came up on our permit renewal and after sampling for our TTO’s we realized they were still under the control limits but our chloroform numbers had increased by 3 times the amount in the prior testing 5 years ago. We will still under any permit limits but the State and we wanted to understand why the number was elevated by 3. We spent a lot of time researching what can cause chloroform to form in your waste water with the help of EPI we were able to find the source, and find a solution. To be honest it is scary to know there are so many videos on the internet on how to make chloroform. You can mix virtually any solvent with bleach or sodium hypochlorite and generate chloroform in your waste water and not even know there is any solvent in your cleaner.

Some water born solvent such as M-pyrol or glycol ethers can be added to cleaners and may not be recorded to the SDS based on the hazard. We found that the cleaner chemistry that we were using at the time was generating all of the chloroform that was found in our waste water effluent after the water went through the cyanide destruct using sodium hypochlorite. We were able to contact EPI to help us change to E-Kleen SR102E, a cleaner that did not contain any solvents to eliminate the generation of any chloroform in our effluent. Our TTO number went down to their original levels and everyone was satisfied with our end results.

My Story,

Ben McKnight, EHS Director

Electro-Spec, Inc

www.electro-spec.com

Learn more about E-Kleen SR102E by clicking here!