huangyhg

cleaning with isopropyl alcohol instead of acetone.
can anybody help out with this question of which is the better cleaner for a mild degreaser and organic substance desolver? we use small i.d. stainless steel tubing that is ordered from the vendor in a "as cleaned" condition. the tubing is then formed to various bend geometries and the vendor has been instructed to not use lubrication of any kind when forming and to be very careful of where the parts are stored till shipping. after we receive the formed tubing, we then use a small recycling pump and storage tank to recirculate acetone through the lines. this operation is neccesary because of our product is for aerospace and military applications. a question came up about using isopropyl alcohol instead of acetone. i have heard that acetone can leave a residue behind and this could contaminate our units, let alone the cleaning station. can anybody help out with this concern of ours? if acetone is used as the cleaner, what should follow it in the process to insure no contamination? which is better, alcohol or acetone ( other than the obvious)?
i can't attest to the quality differences between them, but i can say that during my time at an aircraft company, all of the post-machining parts wiping operations that were originally done with acetone had been switched to ipa. this, i believe, due to health and safety reasons. i believe acetone (over)exposure has been linked to birth defects. i'd assume that since the switch was made, ipa performed well enough in light of the health risks of acetone.
aspearin1
acetone has long been abandoned as a degreasing agent because of the health hazard. there is no reason for acetone to leave more or less residue than ipa, the residue being dissolved contaminants left behind when the solvent evaporates. acetone is slightly more volatile than ipa and will therefore evaporate quicker from inside your tube. acetone will dissolve some plastics that ipa won't. it all depends on what the major contaminants are in the tube.
ipa is used for internal cleannig of metal parts and products such as valves for space use where the cleanliness grade is very high. so i assume it is more than ok for your job.
ipa will still leave a residue. if you can... i would use freon tf, it will displace any mousture and leave much less of a residue than ipa. i would not use acetone. if you can't use freon tf, investigate drycleaning solvent i beleave they leave less of a residue than ipa.

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