Knowing your required cleaning quality requirements is fundamental to choosing the right cleaning agent.

To achieve optimal cleaning results, you need to consider two different kinds of soils:

1) particle contaminations, including their size, numbers and types and
2) the sort of filmy contaminations.

“Heavier” cleaning agents are effective in removing particulates that cannot be readily dissolved. They can literally “push” or ”float away” particulates and lift them off the surface. Aqueous cleaning agents have a density of approx. 1g/ml. Solvents may have a higher or lower density.

Filmy contaminations can affect the required surface energy of the metal surface, which varies depending on the industrial applications. For example, nitriding or crack detection requires a higher surface energy than standard coating or assembling. The required surface energy should therefore match the ability of the cleaning agent.

For precision cleaning where required surface energy can range anywhere from 38 mN/m to approx. 60 mN/m, both aqueous-based cleaning and solvents are capable of fulfilling the requirement.