Ultra high vacuum compatible cleaning

Q. Can Liquinox detergent be used to remove residues from stainless steel for ultra high vacuum compatible cleaning?

A. Yes, Liquinox® Critical Cleaning Liquid Detergent has been used for cleaning ultra high vacuum equipment as the detergent cleaning step.

Use a 1% (10 mL/L) solution in water with such heat as is practical, ideally 40-50 deg C. Rinse very thoroughly with purified water. The key to good ultra high vacuum cleaning is thorough rinsing.  Hence, all of our free -rinsing aqueous detergents can be considered depending on residue involved.  Following thorough rinsing, they will leave residue free surfaces.  The typical general and environmental residues found in ultra high vacuum applications are very well served by Liquinox detergent.

If cleaning a small container, fill and empty it six times with high purity rinse water. If there is a running water rinse, expose each surface to at least 30 seconds of flooding water. Rinse allows foam to flow off of the surfaces being rinsed and does not allow foam to congregate.

In some cases, due to the geometry of the parts being cleaned, foam during rinsing cannot be avoided.  For those such cases, rinse until all the foam is gone, and then rinse some more. It may take a while.

To request any Alconox Inc. detergents for free, please complete the questionnaire at Get Sample. For more information about any one of our Alconox, Inc. detergents, consult the technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s Safety Data Sheets.

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