REAL WORLD RESULTS
Our product formulas feature pH neutral chemistries that outperform and replace hazardous highly caustic or acidic industrial cleaners and washes. Our formulas enhance employee and environmental safety, reduce maintenance on equipment, and save money across a limitless range of industrial applications including metal parts washing, floor cleaning, equipment maintenance, surface preparation, and more. Click below to review our case studies:
- CASE STUDY #1: COOKWARE MANUFACTURER
- CASE STUDY #2: ALUMINUM WHEEL FINISHER
- CASE STUDY #3: CUSTOM MACHINE SHOP
- CASE STUDY #4: BOTTLING EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER
- CASE STUDY #5: AUTOMOTIVE MACHINING OPERATION
- CASE STUDY #6: AUTOMOTIVE MACHINING OPERATION
- CASE STUDY #7: MOTORCYCLE MANUFACTURER
- CASE STUDY #8: VENTILATOR MANUFACTURER
- CASE STUDY #9: ALUMINUM FABRICATOR
- CASE STUDY #10: FAUCET AND FIXTURE MANUFACTURER
- CASE STUDY #11: LOCK MANUFACTURER
CASE STUDY #1: COOKWARE MANUFACTURER
A large premium cookware manufacturer previously used strong alkaline cleaners to remove a variety of soils including buffing compounds, punching oils, drawing compounds and chlorinated paraffin sanding oils used to prepare the surface prior to the coating process. Alkaline wash chemicals required a labor-intensive acid neutralization process to clean out twenty-two washers prior to chemical discharge. This was costly and potentially hazardous to employees. Also, the wash chemical’s alkalinity caused extreme ware on the washer system parts.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Annually eliminated 636,480 lbs. of hazardous alkaline materials and 6,000 lbs. of muriatic acid from the facility improving employee safety
- Eliminated the labor-intensive hazmat disposal process for spent chemicals
- Lowered wash temperature by 20°F – cutting yearly energy costs by over $10,000
- Labor costs for washer maintenance and cleanout were cut by more than 50%
- Washer chemical usage was reduced by over $12,000
- Reduced compliance processing costs by eliminating chemistries requiring reporting
- Nominated for state environmental achievement award
CASE STUDY #2: ALUMINUM WHEEL FINISHER
Automotive wheel manufacturer had issues creating consistent satin finishes aluminum wheels. ESS neutral soap replaced their exiting lubricant resolving this issue.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Replacing the oil with undiluted ESS neutral vastly improved the process and created a unique, consistent, and highly desirable look and finish to the wheel
- Washing the neutral soap from the wheels simplified the process by facilitating drying with no residue
- Wastewater previously requiring expensive off-site disposal was now legal to be drained into public sewers saving $0.25 per gallon cost
- Successfully eliminated the formation of “micro-welds” of small aluminum particulates on the wheel surface previously not thought possible
- Sanding pads and media remained cleaner lasting 3X longer than with previous oil lubricant
- With far fewer embedded surface gauging particulates of aluminum debris in the sanding pads wheel rejection was significantly reduced
CASE STUDY #3: CUSTOM MACHINE SHOP
A multi-faceted custom machine shop had trouble cleaning a small part with an extremely small diameter hole. Alkaline cleaner could not remove machining oil from the hole resulting in staining on the part during the next manufacturing process.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Eliminated the staining problem through better cleaning
- Part rejection rate reduced by over 95% almost eliminating rework
- Replaced a complex multi-stage washer system with single small immersion tank with no rinse
- Cleaning process time reduced by 75% and increased available floorspace
CASE STUDY #4: BOTTLING EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER
A manufactures and re-manufactures of high-speed bottle filling equipment wanted to replace alkaline and solvent cleaners.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Replaced nine different solvent and alkaline products with only three ESS neutrals
- Neutral pH wastewater allowed for more efficient wastewater evaporation with less wear and tear on evaporation equipment
- Significantly reduced VOC emissions by over 50%
- Better cleaning resulted in better paint adhesion on re-built equipment
- Ceramic vibratory media lasted 5X longer than with the alkaline compound
- Annually, waste disposal costs were reduced by over $70,000.
CASE STUDY #5: AUTOMOTIVE MACHINING OPERATION
A large automotive machining operation was having trouble immersion cleaning small diameter brass and copper alloy tubes prior to being brazed together. The alkaline cleaner using contained silicates that contributed to a high braze rejection rate.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Achieved better cleaning with a noticeable improvement in finished appearance
- Rework almost completely eliminated when the brazing rejection rate was reduced by over 99%
- Two alkaline cleaners were replaced with only one ESS neutral product that worked with not only with brass and copper parts but also steel parts by adding a rust inhibitor. This allowed for a single washing system and reduced chemical changeout.
- Bath life was longer which ultimately reduced overall cleaning costs by over 25%.
CASE STUDY #6: AUTOMOTIVE MACHINING OPERATION
An automotive coolant machining operation was required to meet the rigorous Chrysler’s PS12974 cleaning specification – Room Temp Vulcanization Cleanliness Procedure. The spec requires a true neutral pH of less than 8.0 and has a stringent total particulate limit forbidding particle sizes exceeding 0.4mm x 0.4mm x 0.4mm on internal surfaces and 1mm x 1mm x 1mm on external surfaces.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Eliminated possible surface metal removal caused by stronger alkaline cleaners from an aluminum parts that had been reduced in weight by as much as 30%
- For the first time we are aware of, the specification was fully met
- Successfully consistent cleaning of this part has led to the expansion of this stringent spec to other parts.
CASE STUDY #7: MOTORCYCLE MANUFACTURER
A motorcycle manufacturer had high rejection and rework rates caused by inconsistent surface preparation from their vibratory de-burring operation when processing rocker arms, valves, and other engine parts. In addition, the costly ceramic media required changed out multiple times per year due to plugging and degradation caused by chemical alkalinity in process and acids during cleaning of the media.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Switching away from alkaline vibe compound resulted in over US$100,000 annual savings
- The pores on the ceramic media no longer plugged up with alkaline debris creating a more consistent and uniform finish on parts and reducing rework and rejections
- Ceramic media cleaning/unplugging with acid was eliminated solving a costly major wastewater headache and made them last 4X longer
CASE STUDY #8: VENTILATOR MANUFACTURER
A manufacturer of medical ventilators/breathing machines had issues with chemical staining on their aluminum parts. In addition, metal was consistently being thinned by chemical erosion on critical aluminum parts causing rejections due to the thickness specs. Manufacturing had wastefully utilized thicker raw materials to account for this metal loss in manufacturing.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Metal loss was eliminated completely
- Scrap elimination due to incorrect part thickness was eliminated
- A new quality baseline standard was established resulting in consistent part quality
CASE STUDY #9: ALUMINUM FABRICATOR
A manufacturer of aluminum stairs, porches and railings was outsourcing their powder coating causing costly logistical and transportation issues. In addition, inconsistent paint adhesion and quality issues, motivated an investment to bring the powder coat operation in-house. ESS designed a new powder coat pretreatment process that consisted of neutral cleaner wash, rinse, dry and paint with no etch.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- Required floorspace for the paint line was cut in half compared to traditional system.
- Wash equipment designed for the neutral cleaning process cost to 1/3 of a traditional system saving well over $1,000,000
- All chemicals typical of a traditional pre-treatment system including alkaline cleaner, caustic etch, mineral acid quench and phosphate pre-treatment were eliminated, making the system totally non-hazardous and environmentally friendly
- The wastewater generated is non-hazardous and non-regulated allowing direct discharge to public sewers. This eliminated the need for an expensive wastewater treatment system and the hazardous support chemicals.
- After thousands of parts have successfully been powder coated with no rejection, adhesion has been tested achieving the AAMA 2604 3000-hour salt spray spec.
CASE STUDY #10: FAUCET AND FIXTURE MANUFACTURER
A manufacturer of sink faucets and fixtures suffered major production inefficiencies by utilizing ultrasonic washers in every manufacturing cell while attempting to clean off buffing compound from chrome and brass parts. These difficult to clean parts required long cleaning cycles and significant rework.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- After switching to an ESS neutral, the ultrasonic washers were replaced with simple low maintenance immersion tanks.
- With cellular manufacturing expansion, ultrasonic washers were no longer needed savings $40,000 per unit
- More than 20 minutes of wash time was eliminated from each cleaning cycle contributing to a major improvement in efficiency
CASE STUDY #11: LOCK MANUFACTURER
A US manufacturer of locks shipped finished parts to Mexico for assembly with high transit oxidation issues causing wasteful and expensive scrap issues.
Benefits after switching to ESS neutrals:
- The parts rejected for rust went from over 1,000,000 to less than 100 in the first year