THE CHEMICALS DON’T WORK… OR DO THEY?

The Situation Imagine the following. Poor, non-effective cleaning is occurring in a pre-treatment plant and this is resulting in quality control rejects or worse still, customer complaints. The actual root cause of the problem is due to worn, clogged or poorly aligned nozzles, but this is unknown at the time. The wrong diagnosis and the consequences It is decided that the problem must be something to do with the chemicals being used. Perhaps a new batch is being used just before the problems started? So the problem is “remedied” by either increasing the flow rate or increasing the concentration of chemical cleaner used and this seems to solve the problem for while. The nozzle of course continues to ware or becomes even more clogged, so the problem re-occurs some time afterwards. The operating costs have increased as chemical usage has increased, and quite literally, money is being poured (or sprayed) away. Also, the chemical supplier is probably taking some flak unfairly! The solution Whilst it may seem logical to blame a poor batch of chemicals it would perhaps have been advisable to look at the spray set-up / nozzles as well. Nozzles actually wear out far quicker than most people think, particularly if the manufacturing quality of the nozzle is not to a high enough standard. However, it’s often the case that the down-time and inconvenience associated with checking and replacing a nozzle arrays deters many maintenance managers from checking this equipment.