Spray, Immersion and Ultrasonic Cleaners

Product Highlight:  IC 3453

Product Type:  Concentrated Liquid Alkaline Immersion Cleaner

Customer: Large-Volume Manufacturer of Stainless Steel Tubing

Objective: Replace an Underperforming and Expensive Immersion Cleaner

Description: The customer was unable to clean manufactured tubes with an overly expensive immersion cleaner that was proving to be ineffectual. In addition, the vendor was seemingly unable or unwilling to assist in the process improvements or offer alternative chemistry that may have solved the problem.

ICC was contacted and charged with finding solutions. The laboratory staff performed a battery of tests on the former immersion cleaner and found glaring inconsistencies in performance and quality control. It was also necessary for the customer to dump their immersion tanks every two weeks or risk total bath collapse. Make-up volumes were also very high. As you can imagine, both aforementioned factors contributed mightily to cost overruns despite inconsistent and mostly inadequate cleaning performance.

A multitude of ICC cleaner formulations were considered, but none were exactly what we—and the customer—needed for ultimate success. Therefore, our Technical Director started from scratch and built a brand new immersion cleaner from the ground up.

Once the R&D was completed, a sufficient volume to charge a 1,500-gallon immersion washer was shipped in for performance evaluations. In actual fact, the test proved so successful that the customer switched to IC 3453 on the spot and refused to recharge the washer with anything else.

Conclusion: Due to the diligent work of ICC’s Technical Director and the laboratory staff, ICC was able to formulate and blend a custom-engineered liquid alkaline immersion cleaner, perform in-house trials to verify performance capabilities, manufacture a sufficient volume for on-site testing and ship it to the customer free of charge, and all in a matter of weeks.

The customer was able to double the bath life (from two weeks to four), lower the bath temperature (from 200°F to 180°F) and dramatically reduce the make-up volume required to maintain optimum solution concentration for the successful removal of all soils (forming lubricants, machining coolants, way and hydraulic oils and metal fines). And finally, ICC provided cost savings in excess of 25% on a per-gallon cost basis versus the competition.