LPW Test and Service Center for Precision Cleaning - Video Tour

The new test and service center for precision cleaning (TDZ) of LPW Reinigungssysteme was recently reopened after only six months of construction time following a fire. It now presents itself more modern, more efficient and absolutely High Purity.

Due to a fire at the beginning of the year, LPW's test and service center for precision cleaning had to be rebuilt from scratch. The cleaning specialists took this as an opportunity to make the TDZ even more modern as well as more efficient and to equip it with high-tech at the highest level worth more than one million euros. Gerhard Koblenzer, CEO LPW Reinigungssysteme GmbH: "Of course, the fire was a shock at first. But we made the best of it and used the opportunity during the reconstruction to bring the TDZ up to the state of the art three years after opening and to make it more future-proof. In addition to the insurance money, we also put up our own money for this."

What the new TSC looks like and what the LPW Applications Engineering team is doing there - Gerhard Koblenzer explains more in an exclusive video tour for Surface Technology Online.

Customer trials, contract cleaning and work on development projects are now once again taking place at LPW on a total of 380 square meters. The new setting offers even more possibilities in the area of process development for external users as well as in-house activities.

Nothing enters the clean room without pre-cleaning. For this purpose, the gray room in the TDZ was equipped with a PowerJet 670T2 Basic system, which includes a two-stage cleaning/rinsing process with integrated US/CNp cleaning and subsequent hot air/vacuum drying.

The new cleanroom meets ISO 7 standards and is equipped with integrated air particle measurement, monitoring for all process data, and a three-stage final cleaning system (PowerJet 670T3 CNp) with US cleaning/rinsing, injection flooding, CNp cleaning/rinsing, an external ultrapure water rinse, integrated hot air/vacuum drying, and non-contact IR/CNp drying. The cleaned goods are also packaged here, if required in a nitrogen atmosphere. Furthermore, there is the possibility of complete darkening of the room for UV light inspections.

In addition, a mobile laminar flow unit is available in the cleanroom, providing work areas for inspection, handling and packaging of cleaned components under ISO 5/6 environmental conditions.

The laboratory facilities in the TSC are now equipped so that, in addition to cleanliness analysis, semi-automatic preliminary tests can also be carried out on a CNp wetbench with laminar flow unit or on a CNp/ultrasonic double tank system for chemistry selection/chemistry compatibility as well as for rinse tests and for process definition. In addition, this unit can be used for single part contract cleaning.

The cleanliness analysis is now also located in the TDZ. In addition to high-performance microscopy for component analysis, before and after the cleaning processes, the classic particle analyses can also be carried out here in accordance with the specifications of VDA 19.

The heart of the technical and maintenance area is the LPW ultra-pure water unit for supplying the laboratory areas and final cleaning in the clean room. It enables even the highest-quality requirements from medical technology, precision component manufacturing, the optical industry, and the new portfolio of the automotive sector to be met. At the heart of the technical and maintenance area is the LPW ultra-pure water unit for supplying the laboratory areas and final cleaning in the cleanroom. It enables even the highest-quality requirements from medical technology, precision component manufacturing, the optical industry and the new portfolio of the automotive sector to be met. In addition, central control technology enables documentation of all process steps and environmental conditions.

During the reconstruction of the TSC, attention was also paid to the optimization of the central building and process control as well as the batch-related data backup. Both in contract cleaning and in customer trials, all process-relevant measured values of the cleaning process itself as well as the environmental parameters are recorded and documented on a batch-related basis. This is an important component in validation processes.

The TSC is already busy again. Since demand is immense, LPW is planning to expand its contract cleaning capacities at the turn of the year by integrating additional equipment.

LPW's intention to open a test and service center is based on the company's more than 15 years of expertise in ultra-fine cleaning. In the high-purity field, the specialists from Riederich are among the pioneers who have dealt with the changed cleanliness requirements for highly complex components in, for example, high-vacuum technology or additive manufacturing, and have developed new technologies and systems accordingly. These systems and processes have been established for years among users in Europe, Asia and the USA. These activities also led to the awareness that for customer trials, the company's own development work and contract cleaning, an infrastructure must be created that focuses on a highly clean environment in the form of a clean room, a media supply suitable for the task and a digital monitoring platform for process documentation. Thus, the TDZ opening in 2019 ultimately represented the consequence of intensive work in this segment. LPW used the five-month interruption due to the fire to make improvements in all areas and to bring the setting up to the latest state of the art.

Gerhard Koblenzer: "In our test and service center we combine the best-of from our experience in ultra-fine and ultra-precision cleaning. In addition to our expertise, we are also driven by a passion for the subject and curiosity. Because we want to know today what will be needed and demanded tomorrow. In this way, we and our customers are not only up to date with current tasks, but also fit for the future." (OM-10/23)