Excellent innovations for industrial parts cleaning

With joy, Dr. Markus Rochowicz accepted the first FiT2clean Award for the innovation Advanced Butane Cleaning by Juliane Schulze and Dr. Michael Flämmich. (Image source: Doris Schulz)

The FiT2clean Award recognizes outstanding new and further developments for parts cleaning and was awarded for the first time this year by the Professional Association for Industrial Parts Cleaning (FiT): Dr. Michael Flämmich (FiT), Karl-Heinz Menauer (acp systems), Dr. Markus Rochowicz (IPA), Alexander Genze (Ecoclean), Juliane Schulze (FiT) (from left). (Image source: Doris Schulz)

The FiT2clean Award was announced for the first time this year by the Industrial Parts Cleaning Association (FiT) to promote innovations in component cleaning and to recognize outstanding solutions. And all three finalists presented exceptional achievements on the last day of the parts2clean 2022 trade fair. With the extraordinary idea of using the flammable gas butane as a cleaning medium, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation (IPA) secured first place.

Performance, process safety, economic efficiency, and energy efficiency are also key drivers for innovation in industrial component cleaning. "To honor outstanding solutions and achievements as well as to promote new and further developments, the Industrial Parts Cleaning Association has established the FiT2clean Award," reports Dr. Michael Flämmich, Chairman of FiT. The award, endowed with 10,000 euros and a one-year free membership in the association, was awarded for the first time in 2022.

Exciting developments that create added value

From a total of nine applications, the expert jury, composed of individuals from science, research, industry, and media, selected three finalists who presented their solutions on the last day (October 13) of the trade fair parts2clean. Following this, the FiT2clean Award was presented by Michael Flämmich:

The 2022 winner is the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation (IPA) with the ABC solution, which uses flammable butane gas as a cleaning medium. Although the use of butane, which has so far been mainly used as a fuel in camping stoves, refrigerant in air conditioning and refrigerators, and propellant in spray cans, may seem somewhat adventurous at first glance, it reveals several advantages for component cleaning upon closer inspection. These include that, according to the Kyoto Protocol, butane does not qualify as a greenhouse gas when liquefied at around five bar and then exhibits high spalling and excellent solvent properties for oils at room temperature. Under normal pressure, it reverts to the gaseous phase, allowing parts to be dried without a separate drying process. A cooling stretch can also be omitted, and the cold generated during sublimation can be used for cooling other processes. The Advanced Butane Cleaning (ABC) thus offers considerable potential for energy-saving cleaning processes.

Second place was secured by Ecoclean GmbH with the APM (Acoustic Performance Measurement). The newly developed measurement solution enables, for the first time in fully automated ultrasonic multi-bath immersion systems, reproducible and contactless inline monitoring of ultrasonic frequency and power per batch. For this purpose, a special directional microphone is placed at the treatment tanks to be monitored. It monitors the frequency and power of the bath during cleaning and transmits the data to the system's software. The software analyzes the actual values, compares them with predefined target values, and documents the measurement results. Deviations trigger a warning or error message. Especially in high-purity cleaning applications, such as in medical technology and semiconductor supply industries, this innovation ensures improved process safety and traceability.

Third place went to acp systems AG for the development of a pulsating jet technology for the established CO2 snow cleaning process. The pulsating jet, with a cycle time of 20 milliseconds, achieves improved cleaning efficiency through higher kinetic energy. At the same time, cleaning can be carried out with reduced use of compressed air and CO2, resulting in cost savings.

“It was truly impressive to see how innovative the providers in cleaning technology are. The new developments awarded this year make us very curious about the applications for the FiT2clean Award 2023,” notes Michael Flämmich. The award ceremony will also take place next year during parts2clean, which will be held from September 26 to 28, 2023, at the Stuttgart trade fair grounds.