The most energy-saving and cost-effective cleaning is that which does not have to take place. Conversely, this means that the less cleaning is required to achieve the specified technical cleanliness, the lower the energy demand and costs. In addition to the choice of the right cleaning method and process, the amount of contamination introduced therefore influences the energy and time required. Here, potential savings can often be exploited cost-effectively without making any technical changes to the plant.
This includes checking part-specific process parameters once they have been defined. These are usually defined on the basis of a worst-case component, resulting in treatment times of ten to 15 minutes or even longer for cleaning, rinsing and drying. However, since the vast majority of workpieces to be cleaned are much less contaminated, energy and time are wasted - these parts are cleaned longer than necessary. If it is possible to avoid worst-case parts and to enter the system with workpieces that are as little contaminated as possible, treatment times can be significantly shortened and energy consumption reduced accordingly. This directs attention to the optimization of the pre-processes, whereby each production step must be examined from the point of view of technical cleanliness. The goal is to minimize and keep constant the net contamination before cleaning.
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