Surface Treatment
Solvent vs Aqueous Degreasing: Choosing the Right Cleaning Route
Plating, painting and powder-coating failures trace back to cleaning more often than to the coating process itself. Oil left in a thread or drawing compound in a recess becomes a blister or a bare spot downstream. The right degreasing route depends on soil, substrate and volume.
Solvent degreasing
Fast, room-temperature, excellent on heavy oils and greases; no drying needed. Best for maintenance cleaning, low volumes, and moisture-sensitive parts. Costs: solvent consumption, flammability handling and fumes.
Aqueous alkaline cleaning
Heated soak or spray with alkaline cleaner emulsifies and saponifies oils; the standard for pre-plating lines. Cheap per part at volume and safer to handle, but needs heating, rinsing and effluent treatment. Electrocleaning adds gas scrubbing at the surface for a final water-break-free finish.
Ultrasonic cleaning
Cavitation scrubs blind holes and intricate geometry nothing else reaches — jewellery, precision components, medical parts. Pair with a low-foam concentrate designed for ultrasonic use; ordinary cleaners foam and kill cavitation.
We stock all three chemistries and will help you match cleaner to soil. A simple water-break test after cleaning tells you more than any datasheet — ask us how to run it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rinse the cleaned part and watch the water film: an unbroken sheet means clean; beading or breaks mean residual oil. It's the simplest meaningful cleanliness check on any line.
Need this chemistry for your process?
JSM Traders supplies the products discussed here with COA and MSDS, PAN India. Quotations within working hours.
