Medical Device

Q. We are washing stainless medical devices in a washer and are getting water spots. We are using Solujet and Citrajet. What’s causing this problem?

A. Water spots typically occur because of two main reasons: the orientation of the parts in the washer is trapping dirty wash water and/or detergent dosing is insufficient.

Visit Alconox Inc. at BIOMEDevice East 2019, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, May 15-16, 2019.  Stop by Booth 729 to receive our unique gifts, expert technical support for your critical cleaning applications, and detergent samples. Our critical cleaning detergents remove an array…

Q. Does Alconox provide information on calculating cleaning agent safety based limits?
A. Cleaning agent safety based limits are typically calculated from a safety factor of an acceptable daily intake (ADI), a (1/1000 or more) reduction of an LD50 preferably by the same route of administration, or reproductive hazard levels. Alconox, Inc Pharmaceutical Cleaning Validation References PDF has an entire section dedicated to cleaning agent safety based limits.

Intuition, logic, and maybe even some experiences, can lead us to believe more detergent is better.  These everyday experiences where it might apply include your washing machine, dishwasher, or even your hands in the bathroom sink.  But, what is actually meant by better?  This is where concentration and detergency come into play, terms you may see in our literature and documentation, as well as our responses and solutions to cleaning challenges.

Q. How to determine appropriate temperature to clean parts with ultrasonic cleaner?

A. In general, every 10 deg C you go up in temperature doubles the cleaning speed. The faster you want to clean the hotter you should get.

There is a theoretical optimal ultrasonic cavitation temperature at around 70 deg C depending on the exact concentration of detergent. Even though in theory cavitation…