Ecoclean GmbH’s new High Purity Test Center was officially inaugurated at its German production site in Dettingen unter Teck at the end of November 2022. It complements the company’s 15 existing technology centres in the high-purity sector. The facilities and conditions have been created to carry out cleaning trials on high-tech components with the highest cleanliness requirements.
In line with changing and sector-specific requirements in industrial parts cleaning, Ecoclean GmbH has added new products and services to its portfolio. These include cleaning machines and systems specially designed for so-called high-purity cleaning applications, where extremely high cleanliness requirements for metallic and optical components must be reliably met. Such components are needed, for example, by equipment manufacturers supplying the semiconductor industry, in precision optics, as well as in laser, measurement, analysis and high-vacuum applications.
It was thus a logical and appropriate step for Ecoclean to provide the corresponding capacities and technologies for conducting cleaning trials in a clean-room environment under ultraclean conditions for customers from these market segments. This resulted in the new High-Purity Test Center at the company’s production site in Dettingen unter Teck, in which Ecoclean invested around four million Euros. It was officially inaugurated at the end of November 2022.
More than just an alternative to in-house trials
The new Test Center comprises a total of five cleaning systems which are outfitted specifically for high-purity cleaning tasks. These systems cover all the technologies, media and processes needed for wet-chemical parts cleanings, such as ultrasonics, injection flood washing, plasma cleaning, pulsed pressure cleaning (PPC) and Ultrasonics Plus.
For customers who manufacture precision parts for high-purity applications, the ability to perform cleaning trials in Ecoclean’s Test Center offers several advantages. As a rule, new parts require extensive process validation procedures and cleaning trials. These would put a strain on in-house cleaning systems, which are invariably already validated and operated at full capacity. The cleaning processes and process parameters, for example, washing mechanics, chemistry, water qualities, cycle times and cleaning results, can be designed and optimized for the respective component independently of any company processes which might already exist.
The trials make it easier to estimate process requirements and cleaning results in advance, thus minimizing the risk for the team consisting of the customer and equipment manufacturer. In addition, tests and feasibility studies on the cleanability of new precision components can be performed without having to interfere with validated production processes. Last but not least, job cleaning services are also available to customers if required.
Equipped for pre-cleaning and final cleaning tasks with the highest requirements
The new Test Center has two cleaning areas, each with different cleanliness classes. The first one is in a clean room that contains both a solvent-based chamber cleaning machine with integrated low-pressure plasma cleaning and a chamber-type machine for aqueous media. This area is used for pre-cleaning tasks, which prepare parts for final cleaning in the clean-room environment. It is also suitable for meeting the higher cleanliness requirements of a variety of typical ultra-fine cleaning tasks encountered in sectors such as the sensor, aviation, e-mobility and coating industries.
The final cleaning area is in a validated ISO Class 7 clean room with ISO Class 6 zones. This contains a chamber-type washer for solvent media, a chamber-type washer for water-based media, and a multi-chamber ultrasonic cleaning system with nine wet and two dry stations. Here, different ultrasonic frequencies, cleaning chemicals, PPC, passivation agents and more can be tested. A range of (combinable) options is also available for drying parts.
In addition, the new Technology Center is fitted with media preparation systems for reverse osmosis (RO), de-ionized (DI) and ultra-pure water (UPW), thus supplying all the types of water qualities needed for ultra-fine and high-purity cleaning operations. Thanks to this equipment, extremely high cleanliness standards, such as those demanded by grades 1 and 2, can be met. Since all systems are networked via the Ecoclean Connect cloud solution, all machine and cleaning test data are available in digital form.
To verify cleaning results, the Test Center is equipped with diverse measuring instruments. There is also a special packaging station for cleaning products. The new Test Center enables customers with high-purity cleaning tasks to conduct tests under extremely clean conditions. For this, a total of five cleaning systems, RO, DI and UP water, measuring instruments and a packaging station are available in a clean area and a cleanroom.
In the final cleaning area, which is in a validated ISO Class 7 cleanroom with ISO Class 6 zones, cleaning tests with the highest cleanliness requirements, such as Grades 2 and 1, can be carried out. To detect residual particles, the High Purity Test Center also features a dark room with a UV light source.
