Parts Cleaning & Degreasing
_________________________________________
Vapor degreasing is the cleaning process which involves condensing solvents vapors on the object that is being cleaned. The process doesn’t require any water or scrubbing. Instead, the vapor-degreasing machine uses solvent vapors to cleanse and remove contaminants from parts. This process is used to clean various materials.
In its most basic configuration, a vapor degreaser contains two tanks that are called sumps, a metal basket, and bands of cooling coils. The first sump boils the solvent (boil sump) and the second sump (rinse sump) collects the solvent distillate.
As a secondary cleaning method, the parts may be dipped into a boil sump, then agitated with high-frequency, ultrasonic for additional agitation.
In this process, parts are placed in a metal basket that is lowered within the machine. The basket remains above the boiling solvent but below the cooling coils. The vapor degreaser boils the solvent. Solvent vapors rise but don’t escape because they’re trapped within the machine by a layer of refrigeration provided by the cooling coils.
The vapor then condenses on the surface of the parts dissolving the contaminants. As the solvent drips off the objects it removes the soils with it. This is a closed-loop process, so the solvent is cycled over-and-over again. The vapors rise into the cold trap, condense into liquid, then run back down into the rinse sump. The rinse sump then overflows into the boil sump. The soil stays in the boil sump and does not travel with the vapor, thus avoiding cross-contamination of both the parts and the rinse sump.