Why Is Vapor Degreasing Better for Critical Cleaning than Other Technologies?

Customers choose MicroCare cleaning fluids because they make cleaning easy, fast, consistent, safe and reliable. All of these factors combine together to make vapor degreasing with MicroCare fluids more affordable than any other critical cleaning technology.

MicroCare nonflammable solvents are used in special, engineered cleaning systems called “vapor degreasers.” For a vapor cleaning to work, you need both a special solvent and one of these special machines. It’s the combination of “solvent+system” which makes for a highly effective cleaning process.

To contrast a vapor degreaser with a competing aqueous cleaning system, the aqueous system will tend to be:

  • much larger than the solvent cleaner to accomplish the same cleaning tasks, plus it will be
  • more complex to buy and to operate,
  • require more complex waste-handling subsystems,
  • more expensive,
  • consume more energy,
  • take up more floor space, and
  • clean more slowly than a similarly-sized vapor degreasing cleaning system.

So, when looking at the total cost per part cleaned the solvent system is simply less expensive to buy and operate.

Vapor degreasing systems also are versatile. They are able to clean in many applications where water simply doesn’t work. MicroCare fluids can accomplish tasks that water simply can’t do, such as removing water from complex shapes, cleaning under tight components and depositing lubricants onto precision surfaces. At some point, the price isn’t the issue — it’s simply “getting the job done.”

Worker safety is another important criteria at which the MicroCare family of cleaning solvents and vapor degreasers come out on top. The basic solvent is nonflammable, nonconductive, non-corrosive, and all the other “non’s” you can think of. Plus, vapor degreasing is an inherently safe process. So a properly engineered and operated degreaser with a MicroCare fluid is a very safe system indeed.

The environment is another important issue where MicroCare products win. Today’s solvents are completely ozone-safe; and many of the new products are so new as to not even be listed in the Montreal Protocol. Many of the blends have low VOC content which helps prevent the formation of smog over our cities. Other choices have very low global warming indices which protect the planet. Plus — and this is big — a cleaning machine using a MicroCare fluid doesn’t use any of our scarce water supply, very little expensive electricity and returns almost no hazardous waste. These are very clean machines, in every sense of the word.

In short, when it comes to precision cleaning, the team at MicroCare really deliver the best of all possible worlds.

MicroCare Sr. VP Jay Tourigny and Chemist Venesia Hurtubise operate a medium-sized Branson vapor degreaser equipped with an automated hoist
Operators use a medium-sized Branson vapor degreaser equipped with an automated hoist