How to Safely Use a Solvent Cleaner

As described in Chapter 3 of the Adhesives Technology Handbook*, “solvent cleaning is the process of removing soil from a surface with an organic solvent without physically or chemically altering the material being cleaned. This includes methods such as vapor degreasing, spraying, immersion, and mechanical or ultrasonic scrubbing.” This post describes how to safely use a volatile solvent cleaner with a low flash point.

Solvent Cleaner Flash Points

Solvent cleaners have different flashpoints. In chemistry, the flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which its vapors ignite if given an ignition source. In brief, the lower the flashpoint the more flammable they are. This is important when using a solvent cleaner.

The American Chemical Society publishes a table of common organic solvents that includes flash points. Examples of low flash point volatile solvents are 1-propanol at 59⁰F (15⁰C), acetone at -4⁰F (-20⁰C)  and toluene at 39⁰F (4⁰C). … Read the rest

Ultrasonic Cleaning Systems for Precision Optics

Specifying ultrasonic cleaning systems for precision optics requires close collaboration between optics manufacturers establishing optical cleaning requirements and engineers at firms supplying the equipment and chemicals to fulfill those requirements.  It is not the intent of this post to specify cleaning equipment and procedures.  Instead it’s our objective to provide an overview of Elmasonic equipment for cleaning ophthalmic optics.

And a wide range of equipment it is – ranging from individual cleaning tanks to fully automated multi-stage wash-rinse-dry cleaning lines in a clean room.   We’ll briefly describe cleaning chemicals formulated for specific functions from mold manufacturing to cleaning for inspection and cleaning for coating.

Other equipment supporting cleaning optics includes water treatment plants, filtration systems, solvent treatment plants and laminar air flow modules to support clean rooms.

Our role, other than to provide these introductions to equipment and chemicals, is to put you in touch with equipment specialists for cleaning … Read the rest

How to Clean Lab Glassware

Cleaning volumetric lab glassware such as burets, pipettes, flasks, and graduated cylinders can be a daunting task for two reasons:  laboratory glassware is susceptible to breakage and associated replacement costs, and complex configurations make thorough cleaning difficult.   But all lab personnel know this.

The task is made easier with an ultrasonic cleaner – equipment widely used in labs for a variety of reasons.  One of these is being an excellent means to thoroughly remove tenacious contaminants from delicate laboratory glass.  The secret to effective sonic cleaning lab glassware is selecting the right cleaner, cleaning solution formulation and establishing a consistent cleaning procedure.

Cleaning is accomplished by cavitation action, the implosion of millions of minute air bubbles created by generator powered transducers bonded to the bottom of the cleaning tank and vibrating at ultrasonic frequencies such as 37,000 cycles per second (37 kHz).  The imploding bubbles safely and effectively remove contaminants … Read the rest