Fit2clean Award 2024 winner honored

With the "FiT2clean Award", the German Industrial Parts Cleaning Association (FiT) annually recognizes outstanding achievements and solutions for industrial component cleaning. Dr. Michael Flämmich, Chairman of the FiT, explains:. "Our aim is to promote and drive innovation in industrial cleaning technology." The €10,000 innovation prize was awarded for the third time in 2024. Of the three finalists who presented their solutions to the 120 participants at the 32nd "Industrial Component Cleaning" conference on September 11, PartikelArt Solution GmbH secured first place with an innovative app for quick and easy particle analysis. It was followed by the solutions from Acp Systems AG and Kist + Escherich GmbH. The winner of the FiT2clean Award, which is endowed with 10,000 euros and one year's free membership of the trade association, PartikelArt Solution GmbH, developed an AI-based, easy-to-use app for Android and iOS smartphones that can be used to measure and classify particles from 200 µm Feret max quickly, easily and reliably directly in the line. A purple square located on a particle trap or a particle stamp, for example, serves as a reference for the size measurement. The particles are classified into metallic, non-metallic and fibers using AI-based image processing. As with a microscopic analysis, the measurement results can be output as a report and sent directly by email or saved. Compared to laboratory analyses, checking technical cleanliness with the app is significantly more cost-effective. In addition, the results are immediately available so that an immediate response can be made if necessary.

The innovation from Acp Systems AG, which came in second place, also deals with testing technical cleanliness. The company has developed a completely new extraction device for particle extraction, which is traditionally carried out by rinsing with a liquid medium that is often harmful to health and the environment, or by blowing or vacuuming off the component. It is based on the already established CO2 snow jet cleaning process, in which recycled carbon dioxide is used as the medium. As it can remove particles down to the sub-micrometer range, the innovative extraction solution is particularly suitable for components with a specified particle size of less than 50 µm and for electronic components that cannot be tested by rinsing or that previously had to be scrapped after testing. As a result, the extraction device enables cost savings on the one hand and saves critical raw materials, energy and electronic waste on the other. Kist + Escherich GmbH secured third place with a new cleaning solution for PCB magazines. These complex containers are used in the electronics industry to transport printed circuit boards (PCBs, PCBAs) and when they are used in pick-and-place machines, particles accumulate in the magazine slots that can be carried over into subsequent processes or into the products. The cleaning of the PCB magazines, which until now has usually not been carried out manually or only selectively, is carried out in the new system on all sides, dry and contact-free. Dust and particles are loosened by means of ionized compressed air through rotating nozzles, captured by a suction flow and fed to an embedded filter unit. The integrated electrostatic discharge is optimized for ESD applications. The system can be used both offline and inline and can be programmed for different magazine sizes. The automated, dry cleaning of the magazines significantly reduces the risk of particle-related defects or even failures in sensitive electronic components. In 2024, a total of nine companies and institutions competed for the innovation award with new and further developments. The FiT Innovation Award will be presented next year at parts2clean, which will be held at the Stuttgart trade fair grounds from October 7 to 9, 2025.