Ultrasonic Cleaning Solution for Rust and Corrosion Protection

Here’s a note we got from a customer:

Years ago in my high school science lab we were taught that rust was a form of oxidation or corrosion, colorfully described as slow burning.  To demonstrate, the teacher put some fine steel wool to the Bunsen burner, and sure enough, she was right!

Fast forward to today when I operate a small metal casting and fabricating shop that produces parts generally made out of gray iron and mild steel.   Parts are degreased and loose burrs removed in my Elma S 120 ultrasonic cleaner, then stored for a short period of time before being painted.

Trouble was that even during the short storage period these parts developed a very fine rust coating that had to be removed before the painting operation.   This proved to be very labor intensive.

I went back to Tovatech, the source of the ultrasonic cleaner, and was advised to add what they call Elma-KS to the ultrasonic cleaning bath.  It is described as a liquid mildly alkaline concentrate additive for temporary corrosion protection. It is specially formulated to work with the Elma Clean 210 concentrate I use for the ultrasonic cleaning operation.

What a difference!  During the ultrasonic cleaning cycle Elma-KS deposits a protective coating on a molecular level that provides full corrosion protection for our short storage period and has no impact on subsequent painting operations.  Moreover, as with the ultrasonic cleaning solution itself, Elma-KS is biodegradable.

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Is rust and corrosion a problem in your plant?  How do you deal with it?

Posted in Ultrasonic Cleaners and tagged

About Bob Sandor

Bob began working as a chemist in 1987 and remains a science geek to this day. After his PhD he worked on the bench in materials and inorganic chemistry for 10 years. He then took on a love for marketing and sales. He combined his passion for science and business and took entrepreneur general management positions in large corporations like Hoecsht Celanese now Sanofi Aventis, Bel-Art and Smiths Detection. There he learned what it would take to run a business and finally Tovatech was co-founded in 2006. Bob’s hobbies include playing, listening and composing music, skiing, working out, the internet and all things science. Read More