Modular systems for efficient, sustainable component cleaning

A cleaning system manufacturer is focusing on a broader and more modularized product range in order to meet the increased demands for efficient, innovative and sustainable industrial component cleaning.

Whether degreasing, classic component cleaning or high purity applications - the demands on cleaning solutions have increased in all areas of the manufacturing industry. Ecoclean is responding to these changing market requirements with an even broader and more modularized product range. The focus is on higher cleaning quality, improved costs and more energy-efficient processes.

Component cleaning is an essential production step in all industrial sectors in order to ensure that downstream processes meet requirements and product quality is high and stable. Regardless of the industry, new and modified products, increasingly compact and complex geometries, an ever-increasing variety of materials and workpiece dimensions ranging from one millimeter or less to several meters all contribute to the fact that the range of required cleaning applications is more diverse today than ever before. The requirements for the process and the cleanliness to be achieved vary depending on the production stage as well as the product and industry. For example, in the final cleaning of high-tech components for the semiconductor industry, medical, sensor and analysis technology and precision optics, particulate contamination in the nanometer range and nanolayers of residual film contamination must be removed.

In contrast, the general industry, for example, with its very different areas and chips and processing media, requires cleaning. Factors such as high throughput requirements, heavy workpieces, a widely varying range of components and short delivery times often also play a role. In addition, cleaning must always be economical and energy and resource efficient.

In order to optimally adapt a cleaning solution to the task at hand, further product and company-specific criteria must be taken into account in addition to the cleanliness specifications to be met. This requires a manufacturer whose product range offers corresponding flexibility with regard to the cleaning media to be used as well as the system and process technologies. As a full-service provider of future-oriented, flexible and energy-efficient solutions for industrial component cleaning, Ecoclean and UCM, the group's division specializing in precision and ultra-fine cleaning, cover the entire spectrum of wet-chemical processes with water-based media, solvents and modified alcohols. This means that cleaning processes and systems, including the most suitable process and drying technologies for both batch and individual part cleaning, can be tailored very efficiently to product and company-specific requirements. The process design is carried out in the company's own test centers, with clean room test centers with adapted system and measurement technology available for tasks in medical technology and for high-purity applications.

With a wide range of standardized chamber systems for cleaning with water-based media, solvents and modified alcohols as well as a wide variety of process technologies such as spray and high-pressure cleaning, ultrasound, injection flood washing (IWF), steam degreasing, ultrasound plus, pulsed pressure cleaning (PPC) and plasma cleaning, Ecoclean covers the majority of cleaning tasks in general industry as well as the automotive and supplier sectors. However, in recent years there has been a sharp increase in applications that require individually designed special systems due to component dimensions, throughput requirements, cleanliness specifications or other company-specific factors. In order to reduce the necessary design effort and shorten delivery times, the system manufacturer has developed the innovative modular systems EcoCvela for water-based cleaning and EcoCstretch for cleaning with solvents or modified alcohol. The modular concept for the solvent systems includes four working chamber sizes with diameters from 750 to 1,200 mm and can be equipped with several flood tanks. For individual cleaning processes, the systems can be equipped with all process technologies available for solvent cleaning.

With the EcoCvela, the diameters of the modular working chambers vary from 650 to 1,500 mm. The systems can also be equipped with several working chambers and flood tanks. With these highly flexible systems, various process technologies and systems for efficient heat recovery also ensure short process times and energy-saving operation. Both types of system can also be equipped with the corresponding high purity features for very high cleanliness requirements.

The UCMBaseLine, UCMSmartLine, UCMPerformanceLine and UCMHighLine ranges of multi-bath ultrasonic cleaning systems also offer solutions consisting of standardized modules. With the modules for the cleaning, rinsing, PPC, drying, loading and unloading process steps as well as a flexible transport system, cleaning systems can be configured and commissioned cost-effectively and easily for a wide range of applications. The fact that the electrical and control technology is already integrated also contributes to this. For high-purity applications, the systems are designed with the appropriate equipment and for operation in or connection to a cleanroom. Thanks to the further diversified portfolio, Ecoclean enables companies from all industrial sectors to meet changing cleaning requirements not only economically and stably, but also in a resource-saving and future-oriented manner. (OM-1/24)