For the first time, the FiT's symposium for industrial component cleaning was held at the Neckarforum in Esslingen - a successful choice as a venue. In addition, with 138 participants and 24 exhibitors, the conference returned to the times before Corona after a significantly smaller event last year.
Broad range of topics
A total of 17 presentations provided participants with an interesting cross-section of current developments and topics in the cleaning industry. For example, one presentation highlighted considerable savings potential in optimizing the cleaning process and corrosion protection. In this context, different combinations of inhibitors - for example VCI or desiccants - and coatings had been investigated in corrosion tests.
Also of interest was a contribution on the effects of the new pressure swing processes, for example CnP or PPC, on common surfactant formulations, the use of which can often lead to surfactant depletion and increased foam formation in the vacuum phase. This can only be prevented by cleaning agents with a formulation specially adapted for these processes. In this respect, different priorities have to be set for the surfactant formulation than in a classic cleaning system - which, however, does not bring any decisive disadvantages in view of the high effectiveness of the processes.
Selective cleaning, for example by laser, was also on the agenda. A market and trend analysis showed growth of over 20 percent within the last five years. The increase in bonding, particularly in the automotive industry and in battery technology, as well as with regard to electromobility, are ensuring increasingly tight limits for filmic contamination - on smaller partial surfaces, so that wet-chemical processes sometimes offer no advantages here, either in terms of productivity or from an energy point of view. In this respect, further rapid growth in market share can be expected in this area.
The first day was rounded off by an expert forum on the FiT's new project "Guidelines for Process Solutions for Industrial Component Cleaning". A very positive response to the project emerged from the lively discussion and the comments made.
Future topics
The second day provided a variety of highly interesting topics from research and for the further development of cleaning processes. These included insights into robot-assisted fluorescence measurement by laser with a detection limit of 1 to 10 mg/sqm. Furthermore, efforts were presented to develop a communication standard for digitization in component cleaning according to the OPC UA specification in order to reduce the effort for digitization projects in the medium term. Investigations into the design of packaging for technically clean components - and investigations into the transfer of impurities in packaging to the components - were also of great relevance. Here, there are sometimes still large discrepancies between what would make sense and what is actually done in practice.
The participants praised the broad spectrum of topics and also their practical orientation. The exhibitors were also pleased with the lively discussions and drew a positive conclusion.