Acid Testing — an Essential Process With nPB-Based Solvents

Acid testing is an important maintenance function for companies using nPB in their vapor degreaser. nPB-based solvents can turn acid if  you don’t regularly monitor the acid  level of the solvent; sometimes this can get really nasty. A vapor degreaser that has “gone acid” will actually eat away the internal surfaces of the machine. The acid may damage parts, create safety hazards, and even destroy the system if the situation is not remedied right away. Normally the clean-up also must include the cost of treating the inside of the degreaser to render any residual acids harmless. Plus, the waste disposal costs are high.

Several functions could be the cause of the acidity: the heat of the degreasing breaking down the solvent, latent acid in cutting oils, or the mixing of water with the solvent, such as after a plating operation.  Every nPB-based cleaning fluid will turn acid if the process is not controlled.

The MicroCare  Bromothane cleaning fluids already have a “stabilizer” in the formulation to prevent the fluid from deteriorating into a bromine-containing acid. This enables MicroCare customers to keep using and re-using their Bromothane cleaning fluids over a long period of time, which saves money.

You can also prevent acidity by adding an additional stabilizer, BromoBooster™. It’s a concentrated stabilizer that is added to the cleaning fluid from time to time.

When do you add BromoBooster™? Simple answer: when the results from an acid test indicate you need to add some. The acid acceptance test is available from MicroCare as the BromoTest kit. The BromoTest™ kit contains everything you need to conduct the simple test. It takes about ten minutes once a week, and is as easy as just dropping in a few drops from an eyedropper and looking at the results. A strong background in chemistry is not required.

This video shows the process.