Help Topics

Topics

Classification Help

General category of product type, i.e. alkaline, neutral, petroleum distillate. Click here to get detailed information on each category of product type.

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Classification Full Definitions

Aqueous - water based products that can come in four subgroups

Acidic - pH less than 7. Acidic cleaning is routinely used to remove scale, rust, and oxides from metals. The cleaners may contain mineral acids (hydrofluoric, sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric), chromic acids, or organic acids (acetic or oxalic). They also may contain detergents, chelating agents, and small amounts of water-miscible solvents.

Alkaline - pH greater than 7 and less then 12. They are the most common solutions in aqueous cleaning. Alkaline cleaners often contain additives to improve cleaning, such as sequestering agents, emulsifiers, and surfactants. Inhibitors are necessary with some metals, especially aluminum.

Caustic - ph greater than 12, usually contain sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.

Neutral - are mixtures of water and other chemical compounds with a pH near 7. The chemical compounds may include surfactants, corrosion inhibitors, and other additives. Neutral and alkaline aqueous solutions are the most commonly used aqueous solutions. They will work for most solvent substitution applications.

Semi-Aqueous - are semi-stable mixtures of water and solvents, also called emulsions. Semiaqueous cleaning also includes processes where parts are first cleaned in a solvent, then rinsed in water. The solvents are usually volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as terpenes, glycol ethers, esters, or hydrocarbons. These solvents are also flammable when used by themselves, or pure. Most semiaqueous solutions leave a residue that can be removed with a water rinse. Sometimes the film is left on the part as a protective coating.

Terpene - are organic solvents that are usually derived from natural sources such as pine trees or citrus fruit. They generally have strong characteristic odors. Specific terpenes used in cleaning are a-pinene, d-limonene, and turpentine, which is a mixture of terpenes. Terpenes are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and are flammable or combustible.

Petroleum distillates - are hydrocarbon solvents produced from crude oil. These solvents include mineral spirits, kerosene, white spirits, naphtha, and Stoddard solvent.

Alcohols - commonly used alcohols in cleaning include methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol (IPA). IPA is the most widely used. They are all volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with vapor pressures ranging from 33 to 92 mmHg at 68 deg F (44 to 122 mbar at 20 deg C). They are also flammable and must be handled accordingly.

Di-Basic Esters (DBE) - are a mixture of methyl esters of adipic, glutaric, and succinic acid. DBE is commonly used as a paint stripper.

Ethyl Lactate - Ethyl lactate (ethyl 2-hydroxypropionate) is a commercially available monobasic ester solvent.

Glycol Ether - are organic solvents. Many different glycol ethers are used for cleaning.

Bio-based - is composed, in whole or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials.

Halogenated - solvents that contain one or more of the Halogen chemicals (typically fluorine, chlorine or bromine).

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Client Trial Help

The Client, Project and Trial #’s will allow you to do further research into the specific operating conditions of the listed results. Sometimes products may be listed more than once for the entered search criteria for a set of Client, Project and Trial #’s. Many times by viewing the specific trial information the multiple listing can be explained by minor differences in operating conditions. By selecting the Client#, a summary the projects for the client can be reviewed. [This information is located in the table: Project Information in the summary column.] By selecting the Trial#, the specific operating conditions, (time, temperature, contaminant information) can be reviewed. [This information is located in the table: Trial Information and would include everything but the start and end pages. You can also leave out the equipment ID]

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Company Name Help

Manufacturer, vendor or distributor of displayed product.

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Contaminant Help

General category of contaminant type, i.e. adhesive, cutting fluid, wax.

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Effective Help

Signifies whether or not the product listed was successful in removing a majority of the contaminant using the listed equipment. A green circle with a white Y in this columns represents an effective product. A red circle with a white N in this column means the product was tested but was not effective.

Yes Effective test results.

No Ineffective test results.

Equipment Help

General category of equipment used during testing, i.e. immersion/soak, ultrasonics, media blasting.

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P2OASys Help

Pollution Prevention Options Analysis System

Safety Evaluation - P2OASys allows companies to assess the potential environmental, worker, and public health impacts of alternative technologies aimed at reducing toxics use. The goal is more comprehensive and systematic thinking about the potential hazards posed by current and alternative processes identified during the TUR planning process. The tool will assist companies in two ways:

To systematically examine the potential environmental and worker impacts of TUR options in a comprehensive manner, examining the total impacts of process changes, rather than simply those of chemical changes

To compare TUR options with the company's current process based on quantitative and qualitative factors.
As part of the TURI Lab's evaluation process for health and safety, the lab uses P2OASys to input both quantitative and qualitative data on: 

The following table includes the ranking protocol utilized by the P2OASys tool.

If the displayed results on CleanerSolutions do not contain one of these fields, that means there was not enough information to make a judgement on that set of data.

For more information on this EH&S comparison tool, check out the information on the TURI P2OASys website or contact the lab directly.

PLEASE NOTE: As of the fall of 2017, P2OASys tool has been updated and some of the categories have been modified and end points adjusted. The data on CleanerSolutions for P2OASys values are now based on the new endpoints. 

More on the P2OASys tool.

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Product Name Help

Product tested under search criteria.

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Substrate Help

General category of substrate (material of construction), i.e. brass, stainless steel, plastic.

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VOC help

Volatile Organic Compounds.

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