In cooperation between one of the leading manufacturers of high-performance quenching fluids, BURGDORF GmbH & Co.KG in Stuttgart, and VTN, a new solvent cleaner was designed for our vacuum cleaning system, SERVIDUR SOLV 840. The aim was to further optimize component cleanliness after case hardening with oil quenching under vacuum (low-pressure carburizing). To do this, the solvent had to be precisely matched to the quenching oil used. Requirements regarding boiling and flash points had to be considered as well as the suitability of the new solvent for the pre-washing processes carried out in the same washer. After a 6-month test phase with the adapted solvent cleaner, which has now been completed, we can consider all project goals to have been met.

VTN operates state-of-the-art plant lines for carburizing under vacuum with oil quenching at its Witten-Herbede and Wilthen sites. The associated cleaning is carried out in evacuatable solvent cleaning systems. With this combination, we achieved cleaning conditions that more than met the requirements of our customers even before the project. Optimal cleaning is a challenge, especially for us as contract heat treaters, as impurities from the preliminary processes such as oils, greases, dirt particles, salts or oxide layers are not sufficiently known in most cases. Therefore, the goal was to identify and implement possible optimizations together with Burgdorf.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank BURGDORF again for their support and the successful project. We would also like to take this opportunity to refer to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung + Werkstofftechnik e. V. and the Technical Committee 14 Component Cleaning. This is dedicated at regular intervals to the complex of topics of industrial component cleaning.