PRE-TREATMENT , SURFACE PREPARATION , DEGREASING & CLEANING
Cleaner , and Greener !
Stowlin were invited to review the pre- treatment process of an established , and leading casting company in the Midlands . The customer were utilising a 5 stage immersion chemical pre-treatment process , and found that the chosen chemistry was attacking the heater elements , causing them to fail . Numerous heaters of different metallurgy were bought and tried , but still the problem persisted .
The resultant lack of temperature meant the baths were failing to achieve the correct processing parameters , and this unfortunately meant the paint failed to adhere correctly to the substrate . Due to their stringent internal testing regime and processes , the customer identified the effect of the failure , and its root cause . Whilst no parts escaped to the OEM it did mean that a number of parts had to be reprocessed , creating unnecessary rework costs along with another bill for new tank heaters .
The objective was to allow correct pretreatment of the castings without any costly plant modifications whilst providing a green and safe alternative to the products already being used .
The chemistry employed at the time of the heater failure was a highly concentrated sulphuric acid in the first stage , followed by two water rinse tanks , and then a chromate conversion coating . A final water rinse followed before component drying and powder coating .
It was obvious that the previous chemistry was very aggressive towards tank components , not to mention the associated
H & S risks to operators . It was time for Stowlin to introduce the customer to Henkel ’ s New Generation Technology pre-treatment chemicals .
BONDERITE C-NE 90200 was specified as a neutral cleaner having a number of benefits over the acid , some of these are ;
Can operate at a much lower temperature enhancing your sustained efforts to achieve reduce costly energy bills .
Operates at almost PH neutral , so needing very little adjustment in the effluent plant .
Operates at low concentration in the tanks , returning hard earned pound notes to the bottom line .
The chosen NGT cleaner creates far less sludge than some of it ’ s predecessors .
It has been proven to require less waste disposal and less plant downtime to allow for clearing of sludge from the tank . In fact one company benefitted from reducing their tank de-sludges from three times a year to once a year , and this can save thousands of pounds annually .
BONDERITE M-NT 41040 was specified as the conversion coating and lifetime cost benefits extend to sustainability , with the system fully capable of operating at ambient temperatures . This has proved very popular as companies work towards UK governmental targets of reducing emissions by 78 % by 2035 . was .
With the new cleaner , and greener pretreatment system in operation , the customer also wanted to move away from costly effluent disposal , which they previously had to cater for with the chromate system that was utilised . Stowlins Technical team looked at the application and suggested the versatile 2 or 3 stage Stow-flocc effluent treatment system . In this case the 2 stages were sufficient to provide the process and customer with a fully compliant discharge to drain , eliminating most of their disposal costs .
If you would like to know more about whether these environmental and financial savings can be applied to your process , or if you would like information on Stow-flocc or any of the BONDERITE range of products , please do not hesitate to contact the Stowlin sales team on 0116 278 5373 .
50 MARCH 2022 twitter : @ surfaceworldmag