With the increasing regulatory pressure on PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances), which might impact the future use of fluorinated solvents in industrial parts cleaning, many companies are racing to find direct drop-in replacements. Safechem, a chemical service company and solvent risk management expert, offers a long-term perspective – the use of modified alcohols in an airtight degreaser as a future-proof cleaning solution.

Safechem’s modified alcohol solvents – Dowclene 16-series and Dualene 1601 S – are chlorine-free, bromine-free and fluorine-free. Produced synthetically, modified alcohols are stable in temperature and pH. With both non-polar and polar properties, they can effectively clean off non-polar contaminants such as oils and greases, just as effectively as certain polar contaminations like cooling emulsions or solids such as particles and abrasives.

Modified alcohols have a flashpoint and application must therefore take place in vacuum closed cleaning machines, or so-called airtight/airless degreasers. Users currently operating open/semi-open equipment are likely to see the initial equipment expenditure as a hurdle. They might also be apprehensive about changing their cleaning process altogether.
However, compared with the high consumption of fluorinated solvents (PFAS-free or not) and their running costs due to emissions and drag-out losses, a closed cleaning machine can practically pay itself back due to the many cost savings it enables – in addition to increased process safety and minimised environmental impact.

Put simply, Safechem says that solvents used in closed machines are much cheaper than fluorinated products. Furthermore, solvents can be recycled and reused much more efficiently thanks to the built-in vacuum distillation unit. Another advantage is the potential to extend solvent lifespan by using stabilisers, resulting in less consumption and fewer bath exchanges.
For further information www.bit.ly/42Bgzpa

To function properly and last for a long time in the human body, orthopaedic implants require precisely defined finishes on different surface areas. For the targeted surface finishing of femur components at its new high-tech plant in Penang, Malaysia, Smith+Nephew is utilising two manufacturing cells, each containing three R 6/1000 SF drag finishers from Rösler.

The drag finishers undertake process stages that include pre-grinding with ceramic media, pre-polishing using plastic media and dry polishing with a specially prepared organic polishing medium. To prevent any disruptions of the surface finishing operation, all drag finishers are suitable for running the dry polishing process. Furthermore, four of the six drag finishers are suitable for the pre-grinding and pre-polishing as well as the dry polishing operation.

The drag finishers consist of a processing bowl with a diameter of 1000 mm and a carousel with six rotary spindles. These are equipped with specially designed workpiece fixtures, to which the femur components are mounted.

“We’re now able to process 18 femur components in one single batch compared with only 12 the past,” says Jürgen Preiser, senior manufacturing engineer at the plant. “This increases our throughput by around 50%, a truly remarkable productivity boost.”

The plant also has two fully automatic Z1000 centrifuges, equipped with the ‘Advanced’ digital process water management system from Rösler Smart Solutions, which ensure that the process water is reliably and efficiently cleaned and recycled. Another indispensable contribution towards the stability of the finishing operation is the continuous monitoring and classification of the grinding and pre-polishing media.
For further information www.rosler.com