Cleaning and Vapor Degreasing

Precision Cleaning for a Wide Range of Industries

Developed with performance and the environment in mind, Vertrel™ specialty fluids are used for a variety of cleaning applications. The fluids' low viscosity, low surface tension, and high liquid density enables good wetting in tight places and a thin boundary layer, to clean soils and particles completely.

Vertrel™ specialty fluids portfolio offers broad and versatile product options that are safe and easy to use and include the following benefits:

  • Ideal replacement for HCFC-225, Trichloroethylene (TCE), and n-Propyl Bromide (nPB)
  • Zero ozone depletion potential (ODP)
  • Compatibility with a broad range of substrates
  • High solvency for a variety of contaminants
  • Efficient cleaning in tight to reach places and complex geometries
  • No drying required for increased productivity
  • Non-flammability

Industries served include electronics, aerospace, luxury high-end products, medical, military, semiconductor manufacturing, industrial machining, optics, and automotive.

The Vertrel™ specialty fluids portfolio includes azeotropic blends uniquely formulated for optimal performance in vapor degreasers. Vapor degreasing is a precision cleaning technique used to dissolve greases and remove soils from component surfaces. A vapor degreaser is not only a parts cleaning system but also a tight, fast, energy-efficient recycling system that captures and refreshes the solvent with little waste, while leaving components clean, dry, and spot-free.

Vertrel™ specialty fluids can be used a in cold cleaning, wet wipes, or co-solvent processes. This flexibility allows Vertrel™ fluids to be used for a wide range of cleaning applications, including:

Light, Medium, and Heavy Soil Removal

Vertrel™ specialty fluids can remove difficult soils such as greases, waxes, and oils from a range of substrates, including plastics and metal parts. The Vertrel™ fluid portfolio offers products with high solvency to clean a wide variety of hard-to-clean soils without damaging the substrate or leaving behind residue. They are often used in a vapor degreaser, and are ideal for cleaning parts that have complex shapes or holes that would trap other solvents or water.

Defluxing

Vertrel™ specialty fluids are versatile enough to work for almost any electronic defluxing application and are widely used in critical industries such as the military, aerospace, and the medical field. They are uniquely formulated to target polar and nonpolar fluxes used in the manufacturing of circuit boards. Vertrel™ specialty fluids have proven to be the ideal solution for the critical demands of the electronics industry.

Particulate and Ionic Removal

Vertrel™ specialty fluids are very effective in cleaning submicron particulate and ionic soils that adhere to material because of the relationship between the substrate and particulate. Contaminants like fingerprints, dust particles, fibers, and other process contaminants can bond with the surface of the part by some physical force, such as electrostatic forces or a mechanical entrapment due to the surface geometry. Removal of these contaminants requires a solvent that can reduce the laminar boundary layer thickness to allow particles to be washed away by the liquid solvent flow-through.

Optics Cleaning

Vertrel™ specialty fluids are used to remove dust, polishing media, and water spots from optical assemblies and lenses for optimal performance. Also used for optical fibers, Vertrel™ specialty fluids enable effective cleaning and quick drying that ensures a clean joining surface, preventing signal loss due to imperfect joints.

Benefits of Vertrel™ Specialty Fluids Over Aqueous Solutions

Vertrel™ fluids offer several advantages over cleaning with aqueous solutions, including:

  • Short cycle times, which increases productivity
  • Parts that exit the machine cool, dry, and spot-free
  • Lower energy consumption
  • Excellent cleaning performance, even on complex geometries and tight clearances
  • Easy process monitoring with minimal effort and minimal waste generation
  • Easy reclamation
  • Compatibility with a broad range of sensitive components (some components or products are sensitive to the high pressures of water cleaning, the heat of washing and/or drying, or surface residues after drying)