Industrial Cleaning Methods

Industrial processes often leave dirt, grease, biological material etc. behind on the machinery being used. To clean away this residue, there are a variety of industrial cleaning machines to do the work: ultrasonic cleaning, high-pressure water cleaning, chemical cleaning, dry ice blasting, and saturated steam cleaning.

Ultrasonic Cleaning

Ultrasonic cleaning is the direct and indirect effect of the cavitation, acceleration and direct flow of the ultrasonic waves on the liquid and the dirt, so that the dirt layer is dispersed, emulsified and peeled off to achieve the cleaning purpose.

 


Features:

Ultrasonic cleaning is used widely to remove flux residue from soldered circuit boards. However, some electronic components, notably MEMS devices such as gyroscopes, accelerometers and microphones can become damaged or destroyed by the high-intensity vibrations they are subjected to during cleaning. Piezoelectric buzzers can work in reverse and produce voltage, which may pose a danger to their drive circuits.

Application areas:

Ultrasonic cleaners are used to clean many different types of objects, including jewelry, lenses and other optical parts, watches, dental and surgical instruments, tools, coins, fountain pens, golf clubs, fishing reels, window blinds, firearms, car fuel injectors, musical instruments, gramophone records, industrial parts and electronic equipment. They are used in many jewelry workshops, watchmakers' establishments, and electronic repair workshops.

High-Pressure Water Cleaning

Using water as the medium, the water will generate multi-beam, multi-angle and high-strength high-pressure water jets through the special equipment system, thoroughly cutting, crushing, squeezing and scouring the scale and attachments and plugs in the equipment.

Features:

The equipment cost is low, and the cost of environmental protection is high. Besides the quality of the water has a great influence on the cleaning effect.

Application areas:

Pressure washing is employed by businesses and homeowners to reduce allergies, minimize hazards, and improve aesthetics. A pressure washer is used to clean surfaces such as gutters, roofs, decks, sidewalks, patios, driveways, siding, parking lots.

Depending upon the surface to be cleaned, higher or lower pressure should be used, as well as the appropriate nozzle.

Chemical Cleaning

Chemical cleaning refers to the method of using chemical methods and chemicals to achieve the purpose of cleaning equipment.

Features:

Acid or alkaline cleaning material may cause corrosion to the object to be cleaned. The cleaning has a long downtime and consumes a lot of energy. The pollution is serious, and the special solvent also needs to be rust-proofed on the parts and equipment, which has certain damage to the operator's body.

Application areas:

Power industry, petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, textile chemical fiber industry, paper printing, cement, and building materials industry, metallurgy industry, food industry, machinery industry, oil exploration industry, coal industry, oil exploitation industry, etc.

Dry Ice Blasting

Dry ice blasting is a form of carbon dioxide cleaning, where dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, is accelerated in a pressurized air stream and directed at a surface in order to clean it. Dry ice blasting is an environmentally responsible cleaning method. Dry ice is made of reclaimed carbon dioxide that is produced from other industrial processes, does not add additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and is an approved media by the EPA, FDA, and USDA. It also reduces or eliminates employee exposure to the use of chemical cleaning agents.

Advantage: It can be cleaned online to reduce downtime; there is no secondary pollution during the cleaning process. It can be directly cleaned without adding any cleaning solvent.

Disadvantages: Due to the use of ultra-low temperature dry ice, the cost is high, the equipment requirements are high; the requirements for the working environment are extremely high. The operator should pay attention to safety and must maintain good ventilation conditions during cleaning.

Application areas:

Dry ice blasting can be used to clean food processing equipment, plastic and rubber molds, conservation and historical preservation projects, semiconductor, aerospace, and medical device manufacturing industries. The cleaning process is also used in other manufacturing settings, such as cleaning production equipment on automated weld lines, cleaning composite tooling, cleaning industrial printing presses, cleaning molds and equipment used in foundries, and to clean equipment and tooling in onshore and offshore environments in the oil and gas industry.

Dry ice blasting is also used to deburr and deflash parts and surface preparation prior to painting.

Saturated Steam Cleaning

Saturated steam is steam that is in equilibrium with heated water at the same pressure, i.e., it has not been heated more than the boiling point for that pressure. This is in contrast to superheated steam, in which the steam (vapor) has been separated from the water droplets then additional heat has been added. The high temperature of the steam and the applied high pressure are used to clean the oil stain on the surface of the part and vaporize it. At the same time, it can clean any small gaps and holes, remove oil stains and residues, so as to achieve high efficiency, water saving, clean and dry requirements.

Features:

The method is environmentally friendly without adding any chemical products. Water consumption is lower.

Application areas:

Saturated steam cleaning is used in machinery, painting, cold (heat) processing, electronics and food industry.

Intelligent Cleaning Trend

With the continuous improvement of China's service industry, China's cleaning industry is expected to further increase over the next four-year compound growth rate can be 9.6%, which means that China's commercial clean market will reach 48.82 billion RMB in 2021. At present, the age structure of cleaners presents an “inverted triangle” from top to bottom. The population aged 50-60 years is the main force in the cleaning industry, and will gradually reach retirement age in the next few years. However, the younger generation is rarely willing to engage in the cleaning industry, which means that the cleaning service company may face the pressure of labor and high labor costs in the future. For this kind of dilemma, intelligent cleaning is a good solution. It can not only help cleaners to complete high-intensity mechanized cleaning work, but also connect with the background through the Internet of Things to improve the intelligent management capabilities of enterprises.

What is intelligent cleaning? Intelligent cleaning is based on traditional cleaning technology, supplemented by artificial intelligence technology, so as to improve cleaning efficiency and reduce labor costs. For example, a property company needs to arrange 10 people to operate 10 machines to complete the cleaning task. With an intelligent automatic cleaning robot, it may only need 1 person to manage 10 machines to complete the task. Although the equipment procurement cost is improved, the labor cost required for the equipment life cycle has decreased, and the overall work efficiency has also increased accordingly. This solves the contradiction between efficiency and cost, and redefines the nature of the work of the “cleaner” position. The cleaners have changed from simple laborers to labor managers, which is helpful for reversing the prejudice of the society to the cleaners.

However, many cleaners have a lot of problems when they face the new thing of smart cleaning: most of our front-line cleaners haven’t received tertiary education, is it hard to train cleaners? If the fault occurs, is it difficult to repair? In fact, there is no need to worry about these issues. In general, cleaning personnel only need to supervise the cleaning process and effects, and there are fewer operational processes and steps. The training burden is almost non-existent. As for maintenance, there are two aspects to the maintenance of intelligent cleaning equipment: on the one hand, the maintenance of the system software, and on the other hand, the maintenance of the mechanical and system hardware. In terms of system software maintenance, the device provider will judge the software status of the smart cleaning device through the remote background. If there is a program error in the software, they will remotely fix the program and upgrade the device software. If there is a problem with the device hardware, the device provider will usually be notified to come to the door for repair or replacement.

Although it is premature to talk about how the intelligent cleaning model will overturn the existing cleaning industry, the future implementation of smart cleaning technology in the commercial cleaning sector may be more imminent than anyone else have hoped. At present, many companies have developed and manufactured mature intelligent cleaning equipment, including Intellibot and Brain in the United States, Avidbot in Canada, DDROBO in China, Cleanfix in Switzerland and so on.

Just as the increasingly heavy wheat harvesting in history has prompted the combine harvester to replace the wheat reaper and the thresh grain, in order to further improve service quality and efficiency of the cleaning industry, stable and effective intelligent cleaning solutions will become the inevitable trend.

Floor Cleaning Machines

Vacuum Cleaners

A vacuum cleaner is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a rigid cartridge, which may be emptied and reused. Vacuum cleaners are used in homes as well as in industry, and exist in a variety of sizes and models.

Scrubbers

There three kinds of scrubber equipment: walk-behind, ride-on and autonomous. A walk-behind scrubber machine is meant to clean smaller spaces and is more compact. Ride-on scrubbers are made for tougher cleaning tasks. Automatic floor scrubbers are a type of floor cleaning machine that are used to scrub a floor clean of light debris, dust, oil, grease or floor marks. These machines have either disk or cylindrical scrubbing head and an automated system for dispensing cleaning solution and then vacuuming it up. So, in one pass over the floor, a user can dispense cleaning, scrub it into the floor, and then vacuum it all up with an auto scrubber squeegee attachment at the back of the machine. Auto scrubbers have a separate dispensing (solution) tank and collection (recovery) tank to keep the clean water separate from the dirty water.

Sweepers

Using floor sweepers are faster than floor scrubber ones. An industrial floor sweeper has two different kinds: walk behind floor sweeper and ride-on.

Vacuum sweepers are used for picking up light materials such as shredded paper and/or leaves. Broom sweepers, on the other hand, are used for picking up heavier materials. They are mostly used in food handling and electronics manufacturing applications.

There are three various types of sweeping systems: dust control, overthrow, and dustpan.

Sweeper-Scrubbers 

Some facilities require both functions and features of sweepers and scrubbers. Buying a sweeper-scrubber is cheaper than purchasing both a sweeper and a scrubber separately. Combination sweeper-scrubbers offer the best of both worlds to facilities that have applications that require extensive cleaning.

Sweeper-scrubbers have the feature of being able to have dust control. They can also clean light debris plus surfaces with oil or grease.

Carpet Washer

Carpet washers clean your carpets using a detergent cleaning solution. Using a carpet washer helps to reduce the appearance of stains and break down ground-in and embedded dirt that builds up in the carpet pile. Using a carpet washer can leave your carpets up to ten times cleaner than vacuuming, and can be dry enough to walk on in two to three hours.

Carpet washers can be large full size or portable, allowing you to choose a carpet washer to suit your needs. Full size cleaners are suitable for cleaning larger areas such as rooms, hallways and rugs. Portable deep cleaners are smaller, and are adept at cleaning small stains and spills, ideal for those with small children or pets.

Conclusion

All of these types of industrial floor cleaning machines guarantee the best for your industry’s needs. Each type of industry would have its own specific needs, so it is important to be aware of the distinguishing features, benefits, and disadvantages of each of the equipment discussed above.

High-Rise Window Cleaning

Have you ever wondered how the windows on high rise buildings get cleaned? This article will present how to clean high-rise window.

Over the years, many different mechanical devices have been used to clean the windows properly and safely. The most common of these are the Bosun’s Chair, the Boom, the Carriage and the portable Davit.

 Bosun’s Chair

This is a fairly modern invention and is meant for a single window cleaner. It takes the form of a comfortable, strap-in seat. Using a Bosun’s Chair, cleaners can access very difficult-to-reach areas of a skyscraper. It’s also ideal for protracted periods of dedicated window cleaning.

Boom

The Boom is one of the oldest and most commonly used mechanical contraptions. It consists of a scaffold, or platform, that can carry a whole team of window cleaners. Fixed to the top of a building, the Boom is a permanent window-washing system that can be used as and when required.

Carriage

Providing a superior and more modern alternative to the Boom is the Carriage. A Carriage is mounted on top of a rail on the roof and is able to move to the left and right over the building’s façade. It can also accommodate multiple cleaners and, because of its movement across the face of a building, it has a clear advantage over a Boom.

Portable Davit

The portable Davit is one of the cheapest mechanical options, enabling access to most areas of a building’s façade. It can also carry a group of cleaners. The Davit has metal arms from which lines are suspended. These arms swivel, allowing the window-cleaners to set up equipment on the rooftop, from which they then swing out over the skyscraper walls.  

Window cleaning robot

High-rise window cleaning is kind of dangerous. With a robotic helper in the shape of a window cleaning robot, this task becomes safer and easier than ever. In the near future, buildings will be cleaned by automated systems.