Chemicals & Solvents

AQUEOUS CLEANERS - Waterbased cleaners can be acid, neutral, alkaline or caustic solutions depending on the pH of the liquid. Acid cleaners are used to remove inorganic soils as well as to condition metal substrates for further processing. Although acids are common in plating operations, they are poor product choices where oily-type soils are involved.

Neutral, alkaline and caustic cleaners may contain water, alkalinity builders, surfactants, inhibitors and water conditioners. Some also contain dyes and fragrances.

Our cleaners are designed to be self-cleaning. Since the cleaner has a greater affinity for the part surface than the soil does, it undercuts the soil and pops it from the part surface. Light soils float to the surface where they can be skimmed or filtered off. Heavy soils including chlorinated paraffin settle to the bottom where they can be filtered off or collected as sludge.

Only the contaminants need to be hauled away as waste. The liquid can be recycled indefinitely. Concentration is replenished and cleaning continues. Soils readily removed with water based cleaners include but are not limited to:

Cutting Oils Finger Prints Mill markings Road soils

Shop Dirt  Grease Carbon Coolants

Low Melt Waxes Rust Preventatives Dye Penetrants Some Water based Paints

Neutral, alkaline and caustic cleaners are used successfully:

Prior to painting In-process cleaning Prior to plating

Precision cleaning Prior to anodizing Sump cleaning

SOLVENT AND SEMI-AQUEOUS CLEANERS - ORGANIC SOLVENTS can be applied by manual, immersion, coarse spray or vapor methods. The following solvents are frequently used in these applications.

All solvent cleaners are VOC's. Air Quality Boards regulate the amount of VOC's which can be released into the atmosphere. Some solvents are exempt from these regulations. Metal Preparations has several solvents available to help you in your solvent requirements.

SEMI-AQUEOUS EMULSION CLEANERS - Semi-aqueous cleaners contain non-chlorinated solvents along with emulsifiers and inhibitors. Since they contain non-volatile materials, a rinse is essential. Many semi-aqueous cleaners are flammable and some have worker exposure limits. Most semi-aqueous cleaners emulsify soils, dispersing them throughout the liquid; as the cleaner is used, the entire bath becomes saturated. Many of the citrus based cleaners are considered semi-aqueous. Metal Preparations has several semi-aqueous cleaners including, our popular Pro-Tek 591.

RUST INHIBITORS - This class of material are broken into water soluble and water displacing items. Water soluble rust inhibitors work well to give you short term protection and contain no type of oil. Water displacing materials on the other hand are used straight or "neat" and "displace" any water still on the part. When using water soluble inhibitors, some can interfere with further plating or painting operations.

STRIPPERS - These specialized chemicals are good at removing paints and coatings. Very special precautions must be taken when using this material. From both an operator and disposal point of view. One should consider plastic blasting if at all possible.