Surface World March 2019 SW_March_2019_LR | Page 32

PRE-TREATMENT, SURFACE PREPARATION, DEGREASING & CLEANING
Innovative developments for ultra-fi ne cleaning and activation
New cleaning solutions for altered requirements
Coating, adhesive bonding, sealing,
painting – these are just some
manufacturing operations calling
for profoundly clean, and sometimes
activated, part surfaces. It is with these
requirements in mind that Ecoclean has
developed a set of new cleaning solutions.
One of them combines wet chemical and
low pressure plasma cleaning in a single
machine. Another innovation consists in
integrating diverse applications for partial
or full-surface cleaning or activation –
e.g., atmospheric pressure plasma
treatment, laser, CO2 snow blasting
and/or surface inspection operations –
into one processing system. This toolkit
enables operators to cover virtually all
pre-treatment needs.
In automotive manufacturing and its supplier industries, mechanical
engineering, aerospace applications, precision and micro-mechanics,
medical and optical systems, electronics and other fields of industry,
component parts are subjected to cleaning in order to prevent quality
problems in downstream processes and to ensure flawless product
performance. In recent years, the focus in many industries lay on
removing particulate contaminants. However, given new or modified
production, joining and coating technologies as well as improved
materials and combinations thereof, the elimination of film-type
residue – e.g., of machining and preserving media, release agents,
silicones, other auxiliary production compounds, or even fingerprints
– is gaining increasingly in importance. This is because such residue
can impair the quality of subsequent processes, e.g., coating,
welding, adhesive bonding, sealing, painting or heat treatment.
Ecoclean (formerly Dürr Ecoclean) addresses these evolving
requirements with a number of new solutions.
Ultra-fi ne degreasing by a combination
cleaning process with integrated low-
pressure plasma treatment
For workpieces made of steel, aluminium, glass, ceramics and some
other materials that are cleaned in batch processes – whether in bulk
or arranged in part carriers – the company has developed a
combination cleaning technique merging wet chemical cleaning with
a subsequent plasma cleaning step. To this end, a low-pressure
For workpieces made of steel, aluminium,
glass, ceramics and some other materials that
are cleaned in batch processes – whether in bulk
or arranged in part carriers – the company has
developed a combination cleaning technique
merging wet chemical cleaning with a
subsequent plasma cleaning step.
The advantages of the integrated plasma
cleaning process in ultra-fi ne degreasing are
substantial, on the other hand, including a high
operating fl exibility, reduced process times, low
investment and operating costs, plus very
compact equipment build.
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MARCH 2019
read online: www.surfaceworld.com