Vapor Degreasers, Vapor Degreaser Equipment, Ultrasonic Vapor Degreasing Systems

System Description
Common Applications
Common Configurations

Vapor degreasers have been around for a long time, but that doesn’t mean they are all created equal. Best Technology offers the highest quality vapor degreasers in industry. The significant advancements in cleaning solvent fluids has brought increased solvent costs; therefore, solvent recapture and vapor degreasing distillation has never been more important. Ensuring the proper boiling heat capacity balanced with chilling capacity and freeboard is a must for today’s vapor degreasers. We are experienced in proper vapor degreaser equipment sizing and the latest chemistries used in them.

For Full Scale Production, We Offer Floor Standing Vapor Degreasers

MEK, trichlor and soon to be phased out nPb are great solvents of the past that worked well but no longer are able to be used due to environmental and employee exposure limit impact.

How Do Vapor Degreasers Work?

Video of Actual Degreaser in Operation

For Smaller Applications, We Offer Bench Top Style Vapor Degreasers

Inside the tank, liquid solvent is heated to a vapor which envelops the soiled part suspended in the vapor zone of the vapor degreaser. As the vaporized/boiled solvent condenses when the ambient temperature parts enter the vapor, dirt and contaminants are washed from the part and is drained back into the liquid solvent solution in the boil sump of the vapor degreaser. Optionally, in some vapor degreasers, the parts may also be immersed into the solvent with ultrasonics in the rinse sump to “microscrub” the particulates off into the solvent.

Vapor Degreasing FAQs

How does a vapor degreaser work?

If you’ve ever been wearing glasses as you walked into an air-conditioned building on a hot summer day, you already have a good understanding of part of the Vapor Degreaser process works. (For those in colder northern climates, walking outside while wearing glasses on a cold winter day is an even better example)

A vapor degreaser has two tanks (sumps) of solvent inside. One boils the solvent (boil sump) which creates a vapor or mist of the solvent. The second sump (ultrasonic sump) is heated but not to the boiling point and is used as the second cleaning stage. The vapor degreaser also has bands of cooling coils inside just above the level of the sumps. These coils cause the vapor to return to a liquid state and fall back into the sump. The effect is like small “clouds” of the solvent are formed between the top of the sumps and the cooling tubes.

As parts at room temperature are lowered through the cooling area into the vapor, the vapor from the boil sump condenses on the parts just like moisture in the air does on your glasses in the examples above. This condensation contains the solvent that dissolves the oils on your parts, and the beading action creates droplets which run across the surfaces of the parts and fall back into the boil sump. The parts are then moved to the ultrasonic sump which contains heated but non-boiling solvent. This allows the parts to be lowered into the sump so that any blind holes or internal features are also thoroughly exposed to the solvent.

Finally parts are raised into the cooling coil area to allow the solvent to quickly dry and and then raised through a second layer of freeboard coils near the very top of the vapor degreaser that insure complete drying and the recapture of the solvent from the parts.

The below video demonstrates the process:

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Is desiccant required in a vapor degreaser?

Desiccants are used to absorb the water found in humid conditions to reduce or eliminate condensation. It can also be added directly to liquids to absorb the water content from the fluid. We are used to seeing the small white bags of desiccant found in packaging for everything from shoes to electronic equipment. Most of this desiccant is silica – typically in gel form. Other common substances used as desiccants are activated charcoal and calcium chloride.

The desiccant used in vapor degreasers is 3 Angstrom Molecular Sieve, small pellets of zeolite clay. Like all desiccants, the zeolite clay adsorbs water from the solvent, and may be reused by baking it dry. Desiccants are most often used in a vapor degreaser if the solvent contains an alcohol. This is often the case with solvents used for defluxing processes on soldered boards and leads. Water found in the separator extracts the alcohol from the solvent and in turn the water and alcohol is absorbed by the zeolite clay. If a degreaser is operated in a very humid environment a desiccant may be need to effectively remove the water from the solvent.

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Automated Vapor Degreasers

Industry Applications for Vapor Degreasers

Precision cleaning medical device parts critical to no chemical residue left on parts
Manufacturing processes requiring precision cleaning of true oils & particulate and quick drying
Semiconductor printed circuit board cleaning and flux removal
Aerospace parts cleaning for components required to conform to Military Specifications 1526B and BAC 5750
Minimizing solvent loss

Common Configurations

Our vapor degreasers come in a variety of configurations depending on customer application. We can size a vapor degreaser to not only fit your parts, but also your cycle time and production requirements. With today’s solvents it is essential to size the vapor degreaser properly to ensure maximum solvent recapture through distillation cycle cilling coils.