Aerospace Cleaning
The modern era offers a wide range of useful appliances and technological marvels that have eased every aspect of our lives. From supercomputers to powerful aerospace wonders, we have everything available on fingertips. However, all modern machinery requires constant maintenance and upkeep in order to keep running perfectly. Aerospace vehicles are no exception.
Aerospace cleaning is often viewed as a tedious and challenging task. However, with a house full of expert professionals, skilled technicians, and brilliant problem-solvers, Precision Fabricating & Cleaning offers amazing aerospace cleaning services to ensure that the airliner keeps running at optimal capacity. Before moving forward, you need to understand the following concepts that are extremely crucial in industrial cleaning services [1].
What Is a Class 7 Cleanroom and A Class 5 Workstation?
Why Is Air Quality Important?
The consistency of the indoor air is essential for human comfort and safety. Air, whether from outside or recirculated within the environment, serves as a medium for airborne contaminants carried in by a person, substance, etc. movement. In airliners, many of these airborne contaminants are toxic to consumers or the crew members, they need to be eliminated for scientific, ethical, social or financial reasons.
You cannot just clean the inside of an airplane with regular tools, bleach and air filters. These highly pressurized cabin compartments require intense cleaning services supervised by professionals. Moreover, these compartments and the relevant components cannot be cleaned in an ordinary workshop. Specially designed cleanrooms and workstations are used for aerospace cleaning.
What Are Cleanrooms and Workstations?
A "clean room" is usually defined as an enclosed area that has the technology that regulates the level of particulate matter in the air through air pressure and filters. In layman terms, a clean room is a specially designed room that controls the pollutants inside the room [2].
In order to meet the criteria of a "clean room" as established by Federal Standard 209E and newer ISO Standards, all cleanrooms must not surpass one particulate count as stated in the air cleanliness class [3].
A Class 7 Cleanroom is specially built, environmentally regulated enclosed space where airborne particle concentration (contaminants) is held below pre-defined limits by the Federal Standard and ISO Standards. These cleanrooms are used in the manufacturing of electronic hardware such as integrated circuits (ICs) and hard disks, and also for the cleaning for sensitive apparatus where contaminants pose a threat.
A similar criterion applies to workstations as well. These workstations are kept free of any foreign contaminants, and are used only for the manufacturing, cleaning or repairing of sensitive apparatus.
Class 5 Workstations are used for aerospace cleaning. These ensure that no contaminants polluted the pressurized cabins, and the internal systems are now free of residual pollutants.
How Does Aerospace Cleaning Work?
Even the smallest Boeing Airliner, Boeing 737, is made up of 367,000 unique and individual parts. Cleaning them is not only time consuming, but also quite challenging. The biggest problem faced during aerospace cleaning is the risk of introducing harmful contaminants to the cabins or the sensitive components. This is why professionals are hired to clean the airliners and ensure that everything works accordingly to the standards.
The experts at PFC use a wide range of scientifically proven and state-of-the-art aerospace chemicals and aerospace cleaning products for aerospace cleaning. Just like cleanrooms and workstations, these products are designed for precise and contamination-free cleaning services of airliners.
Aerospace components have several exotic materials, and formed sections are more complicated than any other industry. Finding the right approach for properly cleaning all the relevant pieces as well as following specific regulations of the industry can be quite a difficult task. Aerospace needs more efficient cleaning and aqueous cleaning in a Class 7 Cleanroom and a Class 5 Workstation is one of the most effective techniques used for this purpose [4].
Cleaning Aircraft Bearings
Cleaning aircraft bearings can be difficult, because you will have to follow stern criteria for Millipore and Milligram standards of the industry. Aqueous solutions and cleaning techniques works wonders for this segment.
The components must have final clean precision to help prevent installed aircraft bearings from rusting and drying before the assembling process. These aircraft bearings should be designed to fit in the work cells and reduce the need for transference from and to the designated cleaning areas.
Aqueous washers thoroughly clean and dry the components so that the aerospace products conform with these specific regulations.
Cleaning Fuel Filter Cages
Another elemental step in aerospace cleaning is the thorough cleansing of fuel filter cages. If cleaned improperly, these fuel filter can malfunction during the flight, and have life-threatening consequences for the passengers and the crew.
Cleaning of aircraft engine fuel filter cages requires the proper elimination of:
- Grease
- Cut-off pieces
- Foreign Contaminants
- Accumulated dirt
- Harmful Pollutants
The pieces must be washed every eight minutes in two different buckets. In total, professionals recommend using sixteen baskets an hour with a low-profile unit. Moreover, these components should be removed, taken to either Class 7 Cleanroom or a Class 5 Workstation for a proper cleaning.
The professionals at PFC recommend using a recirculating hot-air dryer. Aqueous cleaners may assist with the cycle by cleaning and rinsing the pieces with immersion and submerging high-pressure spray and finish with a full dry for these fuel cages.
Cleaning Engine Components
Following laser drilling and welding processes, the task of cleaning engine components is to eliminate silicone and splatter from shaped high-nickel strips and complicated shapes from within the aerospace engine compartment.
The modern market offers automatic aqueous washers integrated into Class 7 Cleanrooms for a thorough cleaning that goes hand in hand with the industry standards.
An aqueous washer with four tanks, fluid filtration, power spray device, high volume aqueous solution rinse, and sophisticated water management using a single source of water would work amazingly for the process of cleaning the engine part [5].
What Do We Have to Say?
The process of aerospace cleaning is not an easy one and requires professional tools, equipment and techniques to ensure that the cleaning will actually enhance the overall performance of the airliner.
PFC employs only the best of technicians and experts who have years of resourceful knowledge in the field of aerospace cleaning, and who understand how to use modern cleanrooms and workstations to offer the best possible aerospace cleaning services possible.
Sources:
- https://www.aero-mag.com/nch-europe-cleaning-parts-aviation-industry/
- https://www.mecart-cleanrooms.com/learning-center/cleanroom-classifications-iso-8-iso-7-iso-6-iso-5/
- https://www.terrauniversal.com/blog/fs209e-and-iso-cleanroom-standards/
- https://jenfab.com/aqueous-cleaning-for-aerospace-parts-cleaning-regulations/
- https://www.productionmachining.com/articles/aqueous-cleaning-for-aerospace