Trial Number 0

Three products were selected from the lab's on-line database of cleaning alternatives, www.cleanersolutions.org, based on client supplied information. One product was used at 2.5% based on vendor recommended concentrations. The other two products were used at 20%. Water was included for comparative purposes. Products were used at room temperature. Each solution was used in a 40 kHz Branson 1510 ultrasonic unit after being degassed for 5 minutes.

One end of the supplied glass part was immersed into the ultrasonic tank and cleaned for 5 minutes. Following cleaning, parts were rinsed with a tap water spray for 1 minute at room temperature. The cleaned part was dried with compressed air at room temperature for 30 seconds. Observations were made to determine how well each solution worked.

All four products were able to remove the nanoclay that was on the surface of the inside diameter of the glass cooling column. However, water was not able to remove the oxide layer that was in the inner jacket of the tube. The Citranox had some success with the oxide layer. OmniBrite Acid and the Valtron SP 2700 KB worked very well on the oxide layer. The table lists the observations made for each cleaning solution.

The two effective products will be evaluated to determine how long to clean the glass part for to remove a majority of the contaminants.