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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Alkali washing solution

2005

Sir,
I want to wash stainless steels wires to be washed for grease and oily coating. Previously we were using CTC for doing the same. Since CTC is banned I would like to have some alternative for washing. Kindly help in suggesting suitable alkali. The wires will be washed with hand. Hence this alkali should not be irritating nature to hands.
Regards,

KULASKEKARAN
- AMBATTUR, CHENNAI, India

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I don't know what CTC stands for unless you mean carbon tetrachloride. But no, no, no: one does not clean industrial parts with their hands bare anyway, and anything that is alkali is inherently irritating. If the parts can be cleaned satisfactorily with mild dish detergent, that's one possibility, but you probably need a properly formulated alkaline cleaner, available from any plating chemical distributor or painting pretreatment distributor, and your operators need to wear gloves, and you probably can put the parts in some kind of tray for immersion in the cleaning solution.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005