Page 54 - PCMI Journal December 2021
P. 54
Maintenance Tips For PCM Etching Equipment
Kirk Lauver, Marketing and Customer Lab Manager, Chemcut Corporation, US
12/6/21
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Maintenance Tips For PCM Etching Equipment The Impact Of Chemistry On Maintenance
Three Common Issues
• Black Carbon coating the machine’s surfaces and floating on the solution
• Precipitates, Crystals, and Debris accumulating in the machine’s sump
• Hard Scale forming on the machine’s internal surfaces, even inside piping
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Maintenance Tips For PCM Etching Equipment The Impact Of Chemistry On Maintenance
Black Carbon
• Most common in machines used to etch high carbon steel alloys
• “Sticky,” it floats and makes large bubbles, and coats surfaces
• Very fine and difficult to remove, even with continuous filtration
• Can be entrapped within other deposits and scales
• Usually worse in machines with regeneration systems
• Best controlled with frequent machine cleaning, “power wash”
Issue 138 December 2021 PCMI Journal 54
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