Case Studies

Manufacturing

Case Studies:

DuBois Offers Innovative Solutions for Difficult Parts and Soils

OPPORTUNITY:

The customer is a manufacturer of high-quality grain, seed, and fertilizing bins for the agriculture industry. The majority of these bins need to be welded together, cleaned, and painted to be ready for purchase. The assembly process leaves oils and other forming residues on the surface of the part, while the welding process produces weld scale, smoke and smut. These soils are extremely difficult to clean and were responsible for many paint failures. In addition to such difficult soils, many of the bins being manufactured are over 50 feet in length, which makes it even more difficult to treat parts quickly without causing flash rusting. The manufacturer was utilizing a competitor’s chemicals, but amid their quality concerns, contacted their local DuBois technical specialist for support.

THE DUBOIS SOLUTION:

The DuBois team audited the customer’s process and began designing a unique chemistry solution that would clean the organic and inorganic soils present and support even the largest parts.
The system they designed incorporated three DuBois products – Laser Jel, GF Prep 621, and GF Seal 6107. The procedure calls to first clean and prepare the parts using Laser Jel. With its unique blend of acids, surfactants, and solvents, the Laser Jel can remove the difficult weld scale as well as many of the greases and oils on the surface of the part. While this product can be used neat, as a further cost reduction, the team determined that the product would still cling to the vertical surfaces and clean the scale and oils at a 33% dilution.
After allowing the Laser Jel to cling to the parts for 20 minutes, the procedure calls for the parts to be sprayed with GF Prep 621 using a wand at a 1% dilution. This product is a cleaner / iron phosphate that will remove the Laser Jel from the massive parts and increase the pH on the surface of the bins to reduce the tendency to flash rust. This is a critical step in the process, as the slow-reacting molybdate helps increase the pH of the surface, while depositing an iron phosphate coating. The parts are then rinsed with the GF Seal 6107. This alkaline silane product again further increases the pH of the part’s surface to protect from rust, while also increasing the part’s paint adhesion characteristics.
Upon implementation, the customer was very satisfied with these results, and found that their parts were cleaner, experienced less flash rusting, and less prone to paint failures. The manufacturer and DuBois technical team continue to evaluate additional opportunities for improvement and appreciate their continued partnership.

KEY BENEFITS:

• Effective removal of difficult soils, including weld scale, smoke, and forming oils
• Elimination of flash rust on large parts
• Improved paint performance and adhesion
• Chemistry optimization, resulting in significant cost savings