Critical Cleaning - Alconox, Inc.: Maximum Wash Temperature for Liquinox

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Thursday, April 05, 2007

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Maximum Wash Temperature for Liquinox

Question:
What is the maximum wash temperature for Liquinox? At this maximum temperature is there an accelerated breakdown of detergent?

Answer:
Liquinox is heat stable all the way to boiling at standard temperature and
pressure conditions. From a practical standpoint, there are some detergency
mechanisms that begin to break down mechanistically as you approach boiling.
Emulsions begin to become less stable as you approach within a couple
degrees of boiling. If emulsifying is not a critical cleaning mechanism,
this may not be relevant to you. Maintaining a hot temperature and keeping
water from evaporating is also a practical consideration as far as maximum
temperature is concerned. As you approach boiling, the rates of evaporation
of water increase and it becomes more important to add make-up water in
order to maintain a controlled concentration of Liquinox. It is also of
course energy intensive to maintain a near boiling solution. As you
approach boiling, corrosion mechanisms are at their peak, so sometimes it
does not pay to approach boiling temperatures from a substrate stability
standpoint. From a practical standpoint, you would not typically use
Liquinox much above 95 deg C (200 deg F). With that said, there are unique
applications we are aware of that employ boiling Liquinox for small parts
washing, i.e. used in jewelry making where parts are dipped into a pot of
boiling Liquinox and the end user has to periodically add make-up water to
compensate for water evaporation.

(Maximum Wash Temperature for Liquinox)