What is aqueous cleaning?
Aqueous cleaning is industrial parts cleaning that uses water as the carrier and a dissolved chemical concentrate as the active cleaner, instead of an organic solvent. The chemistry lifts oil by saponification and emulsification, then a rinse carries it away. Typical working strength is 1–5% at 55–65 °C.
Also called: water-based cleaning, water based degreasing
- Working strength
- 1–5% (1:100 to 5:100)
- Wash temperature
- 55–65 °C
- TCE equivalent
- 90–100 °C
- Post-wash protection
- 7–15 days indoors
In an aqueous system the water does the transport and the concentrate does the work. Surfactants wet the surface and lower interfacial tension so the bath can reach into blind holes and thread roots; alkaline builders saponify fatty oils into soluble soaps; emulsifiers hold mineral oil in suspension so it can be skimmed or filtered out rather than redepositing on the next basket.
Because water is the carrier, an aqueous bath is non-flammable, has no vapour-degreasing enclosure to maintain, and produces no chlorinated solvent exposure. That is the whole reason Indian plants moved off trichloroethylene, kerosene and diesel: the cleaning performance is comparable on most engineering soils, and the safety and compliance burden is far lower.
The trade-off is that water must be removed. An aqueous line needs a rinse stage, a drying stage, and — because bare steel flash-rusts within minutes of a hot rinse — an inhibitor either in the final rinse or in the cleaner itself. Power Clean's aqueous concentrates carry an in-built inhibitor that holds indoor rust protection for 7–15 days after the wash.
