Acp Systems receives Green Screen certificate for cleaners and degreasers
As the first manufacturer of a non-wet chemical cleaning technology, Acp Systems AG has received the Clean Production Action's Green Screen Certificate for Cleaners and Degreasers for its QuattroClean snow blasting technology in combination with CO2 gas from Linde.
Since mid-April, Acp Systems has been able to prove in black and white that the liquid carbon dioxide from Linde used for full-surface or partial dry cleaning with the QuattroClean snow blasting process is a "green" cleaning medium. The company was the first manufacturer of a dry cleaning technology to receive the Green Screen Certificate for cleaners and degreasers, which applies to all industrial applications, especially electronics manufacturing. It confirms that there are no chemical substances in the process gas that harm people and nature. Green Screen is a globally recognized tool for evaluating and benchmarking chemicals based on their hazardousness. With the Green Screen certification for cleaners and degreasers, Clean Production Action (CPA) has created a benchmark specifically for cleaning media used as process chemicals in manufacturing. The focus is on the electronics industry. The background is the IPC-1402 - Standard for Green Cleaners Used in Electronics Manufacturing, jointly developed by the IPC (Association Connecting Electronics Industries), Apple and other international companies, which has been available since mid-2022. It defines the criteria that a "green" cleaner must meet in the electronics industry. Well-known manufacturers were also among CPA's partners in developing the certification for cleaning media.
The certification ensures that products tested by an independent organization according to scientifically based and freely accessible criteria are free of PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds) and other chemicals of concern. The test limits are 100 ppm. In the scalable QuattroClean snowblasting technology, recycled liquid carbon dioxide produced during chemical manufacturing processes and biomass energy production is fed through a wear-free two-substance ring nozzle. As it emerges, the CO2 expands to form fine snow particles, which are bundled and directed by a jacket jet of compressed air at supersonic speed specifically onto the surface to be cleaned. In the process, the jet unfolds four mechanisms of action that reliably remove particulate contamination down to the sub-micrometer range and filmic contamination. The process is used in the electronics, semiconductor and communications industries as well as in medical and pharmaceutical technology, battery and fuel cell production, microsystems technology and other sectors. Green Screen certification ensures that the health of personnel and the environment are protected when the process is used.