Industrial cleaning for dummies

There’s ongoing pressure on business leaders in industrial production environments to cut costs, but the increasing complexity of industrial environments means that many people are often unaware of the simple measures they can take to reduce cleaning and maintenance costs.

1. Automatic dilution and dispensing equipment
Engineers often put off maintaining their equipment to avoid spending hours mixing and applying cleaning solutions. However, left unattended, this leads to rust and a build-up of grime, leading to more serious maintenance problems down the line.

One area that plant managers typically face challenges with is a plant's water cooling system. Typically made up of miles of pipes, boilers, chillers, storage tanks and cooling towers, cooling systems can be a haven for the build-up of rust, mineral scale and microbiological contamination such as legionella. The treatment of these systems often involves phased downtime, labour intensive cleaning and the use of hazardous chemicals.

In these applications, automatic dosing systems can be used with water based degreasers, rust removal solutions and other concentrated cleaning liquids, meaning that they fit into existing cleaning processes, but make them much quicker. They are also more cost effective, as not only do workers spend less time cleaning and more time actually using the machines, they ensure an accurate rate of dilution and dispensing.

2. Effective rust solutions
Rust is an issue that affects businesses globally, but many are unaware of the ways to treat it. Knowing the difference between temporary and permanent rust solutions is vital in order to use the right product for your needs, cutting down on long term cleaning, maintenance costs and time.

Temporary oil or wax based coatings should be used to protect metal parts from corroding during transportation and when storing equipment. This means the team doesn’t need to spend hours trying to clean parts. The temporary coating can then be removed easily with a degreaser before use.

Permanent structures such as storage tanks or railings can be treated with a corrosion resistant coating, such as rust treatment solution Salvage 2+ by NCH Europe. Salvage 2+ offers a cost effective long term solution, encapsulating the existing rust and providing a barrier that prevents further corrosion; making future maintenance easier.

3. Effective degreasing
We all know that degreasers are one of the best ways of dealing with industrial dirt, grease and grime, but making the right choice makes the process quicker and easier. When choosing a degreaser, it’s vital that the substrate, or surface being cleaned, is matched effectively to the degreaser. If not, the degreaser may damage the substrate and cleaning performance may be adversely affected.

There are now alternatives to traditional solvent degreasers, which are just as effective but less harmful to the user, surface and environment. Powerful water based degreasers, such as NCH Europe’s Aqua-Sol Power, use the latest surfactant technology to break the bonds between the soil and the substrate, emulsifying the solution so it can be rinsed away.

By making these small changes, industry professionals can complete their cleaning jobs in half the time. Unlike Kim and Aggie, cleaning might not be something that we all enjoy and want to do all day, but choosing the right product for the job can make it ten times easier and quicker.