Vapor Degreasing: Planning and Acquisition

• Vapor Degreaser Capital Costs: Purchase
• Vapor Degreaser Capital Costs: Installation
• Vapor Degreaser Operating Costs
• Vapor Degreasing Energy Consumption
• Technical Features in Modern Vapor Degreasers

Vapor Degreaser Capital Costs: Purchase

Equipment costs vary widely, so it's difficult to provide an exact cost. However, there are some general guidelines that may be useful:

• A very small benchtop sized system with one chamber and holding less than one gallon/4 liters of solvent costs about $10,000-$15,000.
• A small to medium-sized, floor-mounted batch system with two chambers and a water separator is going to cost about $20,000-$75,000. At the higher price, the machine should include a hoist, advanced programmable controls and some extra cleaning features.
• A large, floor-mounted batch system with three chambers and all sorts of bells and whistles is going to cost about $75,000-$150,000.
• A large, floor-mounted in-line system with the very highest capacities and speeds is going to cost more than $200,000.
• A large, floor-mounted "zero emission" or "low emission" system is going to cost about $250,000. These systems are popular in Southern California.

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Vapor Degreaser Capital Costs: Installation

For most vapor degreasers, the installation costs are insignificant because vapor degreasers tend to be small and their infrastructure requirements are almost nil. This contrasts sharply with the installation costs of aqueous cleaning systems, which can include building renovations, ventilation enhancements, electrical upgrades and water-treatment subsystems required to support the new system.

Another consideration is the actual cost of the space required by the cleaning machine and the support systems it requires. Solvent systems usually are far smaller than aqueous or semi-aqueous systems by a "footprint factor" of 1/4. To estimate floor space costs, engineers use the "fully-loaded per-foot costs" for the space in which the unit will be installed. This usually will be expressed as a "triple-net" rent per square foot.

Here is a short list of capital expenses to consider when selecting a cleaning system, other than the cost of the cleaning system itself:

• Freight & Insurance to Get It Delivered
• Site Engineering & Architectural Planning Costs (usually nominal)
• Construction (usually nominal)
• Electrical Changes (usually nominal)
• Water/Plumbing (not normally required)
• Ventilation (not normally required)
• System Set-Up
• Cost Per Square Foot of the Total Required Floor Space
• Cost of Capital

For more ideas and suggestions, contact the manufacturers of the vapor degreasers and get their expert insights on the cost comparisons. Remember to ask about the numerous options and add-ons that can reduce the daily operating cost of the cleaning system. MicroCare has prepared a cost-comparison worksheet in Excel format that can help track the truth costs of different cleaning systems.

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Vapor Degreaser Operating Costs

The best way to measure the operating cost of a vapor degreaser is to compute the "total cost-per-part-cleaned." Other variations on this theme might be "total cleaning costs per hour" if costs can be tabulated on an hourly basis. Perhaps the "total cost per batch" works best for one company; MicroCare knows of another customer that uses "total cleaning cost per kilo" because their tiny parts are tracked by weight.

In general, the single most crucial operating cost for a vapor degreaser is the cost of lost solvent. A modern, tight vapor degreaser has very few leaks or other losses, so the operating costs can be very small. But the system has to be “tight” and properly used to maximize these savings.

Other costs to consider:

• Labor: Operator, Cost Per Hour (fully-loaded labor rate)
• Electricity
• Consumables (Filters, etc.)
• Solvent Losses
• Solvent Disposal

Once these costs have been determined, divide those total costs by the quantity of pieces to be cleaned. This "calibrates" the costs into an index that allows fair comparisons when evaluating the different cleaning choices.

Notice that the price of the solvent is not a major issue in the cost analysis. In fact, the only time the actual price of the solvent enters the issue is when evaluating solvent losses. A small, modern vapor degreaser normally loses about 0.118 lbs. of solvent per square foot of vapor area per hour of operation, or roughly one pound (half a kilo) per day. Solvent losses can be minimized by the use of good operational practices.

Labor and maintenance are additional operating costs. In general, vapor degreasers have very low labor costs and the maintenance should be equally limited. If these numbers seem high, double-check the processes or contact the equipment manufacturer for suggestions.

Total one-time capital costs, discussed above, also should be "calibrated" to reflect the productivity of the machine over its expected economic lifespan. For example, if the machine is planned to clean 10,000 parts per year for ten years, it will clean a total of 100,000 parts in its economic lifespan. The total one-time costs should be divided by the throughput (in this case, 100,000 parts) to calculate the true "total capital costs per part cleaned."

MicroCare has produced a spreadsheet that offers some guidelines for estimating the cleaning costs of running a vapor degreaser with MicroCare cleaning fluids. Look at the total cost per part cleaned to compare the cleaning options and select the best. In many common applications, the vapor degreaser is simply less expensive to operate. Contact MicroCare at with questions about the spreadsheet and how it might apply to any particular application.

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Energy Consumption and Vapor Degreasing

This is one of the main advantages of solvent cleaning when compared to water cleaning. Water cleaning uses a great deal of electricity while solvent cleaning uses far, far less. There are four features in every aqueous cleaning system that make them energy-intensive. These are:

• the energy it takes to power the numerous, high-pressure pumps to move the water around the machine,
• the energy it takes to heat the cleaning water,
• the energy it takes to dry the parts, and lastly
• the energy it takes to treat and repurify the water for re-use or disposal.

All of this additional work is required because of the inherent nature of the molecules of water. Basically, water has a high surface tension, a high specific heat and a high latent heat of evaporation. These are molecular characteristics that no amount of fancy engineering can change.

Compare those issues to solvent cleaning:

• There is no water to heat, which saves electricity. Instead the solvent is heated to only about 40°-60°C which takes considerably less electricity.
• There are no big pumps required to push the solvent around, which saves electricity. Instead, the solvent moves by boiling, distillation and gravity.
• There are no blowers or "air knives" on vapor degreasers, which saves electricity. The solvent is contained inside the machine and the components come out dry. (In fact, motorized fans and fume hoods are not recommended near properly designed vapor degreasers because they increase solvent losses, so electricity is saved there, too.)
• There is no waste treatment facility required, which saves electricity, because the degreaser is automatically, inherently and continuously re-purifying and re-distilling the solvent.

The net result is that a typical vapor degreaser uses about 30 amps of power when cleaning and one-tenth of that energy in stand-by (night) mode. This contrasts with water-cleaning systems that often require hundreds and even thousands of amps, 440 volt circuits and big power panels.

See this case study when a company replaced it’s aqueous cleaning system with a vapor degreaser and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in electricity.

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Technical Features in Modern Vapor Degreasers

Vapor degreasers will deliver fast, reliable and consistent cleaning at the very lowest cost-per-part-cleaned. There are some special features to look for on the machines that improve the cleaning process and keep costs down. In effect, this is trading an increase in the one-time capital expense for a significant decrease in daily operating costs. Here are a few of the features to look for:

Freeboard. This is the single most important design element in the system that will do the most to control cleaning costs. "Freeboard" is the height of the degreaser over the cooling cools. Higher sides means the cold trap is more efficient and reduces diffusional losses. This means the system will do a better job trapping the solvent vapors inside the machine, which saves money. More freeboard helps reduce solvent losses and the overall cost of cleaning.

Freeboard is typically measured as a ratio of the size of the machine. The freeboard ratio is the depth of the machine divided by the width of the machice. A freeboard ratio greater than 1.25 is the minimum recommended because the machine will have significantly lower solvent losses; 1.5-2.0 is even better, although it may have the effect of making the machine very tall.

Hoists. Most modern vapor degreasers will have an automatic hoist as an optional feature. Normally, these hoists are mounted out of the way, on the back of the machine. The operators will place their baskets of parts to be cleaned on the hoist and simply hit the "start" button. Once activated, the hoist will automatically open the degreaser, lower the parts in to it for a prescribed period of time, and then remove them.

The savings from a hoist can be substantial. First, they free the operator to go back to work and do more productive tasks. Secondly, they lower and raise the basket slowly which reduces solvent losses. Lastly, the automatic systems that operate the hoist offer more consistent cleaning results by precisely controlling the cleaning cycle. Of all the options equipment makers promote, nothing will save more money faster than an automated hoist.

Super Heat. Some products are difficult to clean because their shapes trap solvent inside the part. When the part is removed from the degreaser, and lifted through the cold trap, the solvent evaporates and escapes into the air. This is wasteful and unnecessary.

A better solution is to have a layer of heating coils below the two layers of chilling coils. Called super-heat, these coils can raise the temperature of the vapors, usually to 12°C (25°F) above the boiling point of the solvent. This greatly enhances drying and encourages any entrapped solvent to boil out of the inner recesses of the parts.

Every part and application is different, but a general rule of thumb suggests that super-heat can reduce solvent losses by 50% or more.

Ultrasonics. Ultra-high frequency sound waves can be injected into the cleaning fluid in the vapor degreaser and improving the cleaning results. When using ultrasonics, the parts being cleaned must be submerged into the solvent bath. The ultrasonic energy forms tiny cavities in the liquid that then collapse at phenomenal pressures. The internal pressures in these bubbles can approach 10,000

 times the force of gravity. Obviously, these "scrubbing bubbles" deliver great cleaning. All of the MicroCare cleaners are designed to work with ultrasonics.

Spray Rinses. This is one accessory that requires some careful planning. Sprays work great – they speed cleaning and improve cleaning quality, certainly. If troublesome particulate residues are a problem, spraying wands can do the job. But old-style spray wands disturb the cold trap, allowing vapors to escape, and they possibly expose workers to solvent vapors. MicroCare normally recommends a fixed spray bar to be installed in the machine instead of a manually-operated spray wand.

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