Military components pose unique cleaning, stripping challenges
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE (+) Engine cylinder heads before (left)
and after cleaning. Molten salt processing completely removed
all oils, greases and carbon deposits in less than 30 min,
leaving the part chemically clean and ready for inspection.
Cold-formed titanium rivets used in aircraft assembly are coated
with molybdenum disulfide extreme-pressure lubricant for
forming. Here they are shown before (top) and after cleaning.
Some of the most difficult cleaning or stripping challenges
involve removing “stuff” that was painstakingly engineered to
remain in place for years no matter what it may run into. The
fact that these surface coatings were developed to be resistant
to common cleaning media or techniques makes the task of
preparing substrates for subsequent operations difficult.
Examples of some of these challenges include: How do you
efficiently remove these materials from components when you run
into a “do-over” during initial manufacturing or