Ambient Temperature for Cleaning

Q. I am manufacturing engineer and I have a question regarding Alconox powdered precision cleaner. Your catalog says that the minimum cleaning temperature when using Alconox should be ambient temperature. How much is Ambient Temperature exactly? Our clean rooms have a temperature of approximately 21°C, which means that after heating it for preparation it will cool down through the day. Should we keep it over 21°C?

A. Ambient temperature is of course variable from one location to another.  But it is the concept of how cleaning temperature effects cleaning time that is the important take home message.  In theory, every 10°C increase in temperature means you double the rate of cleaning (halve the cleaning time). If you heat the solution to make it, and then use the solution for cleaning, it will clean faster when hot than at a lower temperature (for the vast majority of applications and residues). As long as you set up your cleaning times to be sufficient to work at lower ambient temperatures of 21°C, there is no harm in cleaning for those periods of time at a hotter temperature as the solutions cools down.

If you want to clean quickly, then set up your cleaning times based on hotter temperatures and maintain a hotter temperature. Have a technical question for Alconox?  Then Ask Alconox and we’ll provide an answer.