Barbara Kanegsberg

Those of us involved in cleaning, surface quality, and documented cleaning performance should be aware of the activities of the Joint Service Solvent Substitution Working Group. The group, which includes all branches of the military as well as NASA, has the ambitious goal of conducting an efficient, effective, well-documented solvent substitution program. I have participated in two meetings of the Working Group; the most recent one was in early November, in Fairborn Ohio. The group is building a comprehensive, achievable program that will help everyone in the cleaning community. Suppliers of alternative cleaning agents may find it of value to participate in appropriate projects.

The program includes defining and selecting the processes to be modified, determining validation and acceptance criteria, selecting the new, alternative agents to be tested, and conducting the evaluations. Results will be documented and will be available through an electronic database. By involving an array of military and related stakeholders throughout the project, including those who actually have to perform the process, the working group expects to avoid the "model project" syndrome. This means selected processes can actually be implemented across a range of organizations. In addition, significant results will be publicly available.

In the past, many companies, including those producing product with critical applications, looked to military specifications to support their choice of cleaning process, or at least as a discriminator to limit the number of choices. While this approach may have been appropriate in the era of ozone-depleting compounds, today's manufacturing environment is far more complex. Proposed solutions must meet higher standards of cleanliness and contamination control. New processes must be pro-active, addressing the ever-increasing array of environmental and safety requirements. Process costs, including control of capital expenditures must also be considered. The Joint Services effort has the potential to provide comprehensive, readily adopted solutions for military and many non-military applications.

Upcoming activities through the first half of 2005 include refining the database to assure that it will be efficient and user-friendly, targeting initial processes to be modified, and performing initial evaluations. The program is expected to be of benefit to those who conduct cleaning operations as part of their maintenance program.

For additional information, contact Tom Torres, the Working Group lead (tom.torres@navy.mil). Of course, we’re also happy to discuss Working Group activities with you (Barbara@bfksolutions.com).

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