Diversification in industrial component cleaning

In response to the transformation processes in industry and industrial component cleaning, cleaning specialist Ecoclean is meeting current and future challenges by diversifying its portfolio of solutions.

The economy is in a state of upheaval, which poses challenges for many areas of industry. New products and various megatrends require adjustments to production technologies and the range of products and services. Ecoclean GmbH is proactively responding to this change by further diversifying its portfolio of solutions for industrial component cleaning and the new business area of hydrogen technology.

Energy transition, sustainability, demographic change, mobility, automation, digitalization and security - these megatrends are resulting in technological and social changes. And at an increasingly rapid pace. This development requires companies to be increasingly flexible and agile. This can also be seen in the field of industrial parts cleaning: Whereas yesterday it felt like the automotive industry was setting the standards in terms of cleanliness requirements, today it is completely different industrial sectors, each with their own specific requirements. Ecoclean, one of the world's leading suppliers of equipment and systems for industrial parts cleaning, surface treatment and automation, is responding to these changes with a forward-looking and market-oriented diversification strategy. The course for this was set several years ago with appropriate financial and personnel investments. As a result, new solutions for high-tech sectors can now be offered in addition to equipment and systems for tasks in existing industrial sectors such as the automotive and supplier industry, mechanical engineering, fastening technology, the jewelry and watchmaking industry and aerospace.

This includes, for example, the semiconductor industry-supplier industry. In order to be able to produce ever smaller and more powerful microchips using EUV lithography, extremely high purity requirements are placed on the components for the production equipment. In addition to ultra-fine particulate residual impurities in the nanometer range and extremely strict specifications regarding film contamination, outgassing rates for organic substances and residual moisture as well as "prohibited" substances/elements play a decisive role in quality. Similarly strict cleanliness requirements must be met for vacuum technology components for the UHV, XHV and UCV range - for example in high-performance laser systems, high-tech measuring and analysis devices. Precision optics, micro-optical parts and sensor systems, including those for semi-automated and autonomous driving as well as digitalization applications in industry, also require a very high level of purity to ensure that they function flawlessly over the long term. Ecoclean offers industry- and application-specific solutions for these challenging tasks, from pre-cleaning to intermediate and final cleaning, connected to or integrated into a cleanroom. The company has its own High Purity Test Center with a validated cleanroom and corresponding measurement technology for the design of process and system technology.

High cleanliness requirements have always been commonplace in medical technology. With the introduction of the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR), the requirements for the cleaning of medical devices such as implants, instruments and equipment as well as for the qualification, documentation and traceability of processes have become even stricter. In the meantime, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to harmonize its quality system regulation with the MDR so that uniform regulations will apply regardless of market access. Ecoclean not only offers a complete and globally available portfolio of qualified cleaning systems in order to solve the very different tasks in medical technology efficiently and sustainably in line with requirements. Cooperation with renowned partners also enables the realization of turnkey projects with corresponding packaging and cleanroom solutions. Software specially developed for medical technology, RFID technology and audit trails ensure that all requirements regarding component identification, documentation and traceability are met in full. In addition, the company's experts provide support with qualification (IQ, QQ and PQ) on request. Thanks to the comprehensive medical technology and regulatory know-how in conjunction with extensively equipped technology centers including a cleanliness laboratory and validated cleanroom, the optimal technical and economic solution can be developed for every cleaning task. It can be easily duplicated for other production sites, which speeds up qualification and commissioning.

By entering into the development, production and sale of electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen and solutions for its use, the company is opening up a new business area. To this end, Ecoclean and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) have pooled their expertise in the joint project "EcoLyzer BW". Based on the robust and well-proven system technology for alkaline pressure electrolysis developed by ZSW and Ecoclean's expertise and decades of qualification in process engineering and industrial production technology, electrolysers are designed as a modular system with compact standard modules. With initial output classes of one to ten megawatts, they enable the simple and cost-efficient construction of electrolysers that can be adapted to a wide range of applications, for example in industry, mobility, energy supply for neighborhoods and the storage of surplus energy generated from renewable sources such as wind power and photovoltaic systems. The first solution in this area was completed in September 2023 with a test bench for alkaline pressure electrolysis. It enables electrolysis stacks with an output of up to 500 kW and a diameter of 1,200 mm to be tested and validated.

With this diversification strategy, Ecoclean is helping to overcome the challenges associated with disruptive developments and various megatrends. (OM-11/23)