SOLVENT CONTROL
An Introduction To Our Impregnated Wipes
Whatever your work within industry, you will need to clean down equipment, components and hands. Agma has an innovative solution in the form of solvent impregnated wipes. Not only are impregnated wipes convenient and easy to use - providing exactly the right quantity of solvent in each impregnated wipe - they offer excellent economy. No more the heavy handed "glug, glug" syndrome of wasting solvent when packed in containers and the hidden expense of purchasing cleaning rags.
There are 300 heavy duty wipes to a bucket, and the dimensions of each wipe are 250mm x 210mm. The actual wipe is non-linting and virtually indestructible under conditions of use by hand.
These Agma impregnated wipes have been well received by industry in general and have proved particularly suitable for critical application and have already been approved by the Aerospace and Defence industries.
Above all Agma has taken into account the three important issues that affect us all and is able to offer you a soundly researched range of alternatives in the form of solvent impregnated wipes.
The Ozone Depletion Issue
The depletion of the ozone layer has been reliably associated, at least in part, with the catalytic breakdown of ozone by some chlorinated and chloro-fluorinated hydrocarbons accumulating in the upper atmosphere in the presence of incoming radiant energy.
Whilst the main culprits appear to be those highly volatile and mobile CFCs employed as aerosol propellants and refrigerants, the generally heavier and less mobile species employed as cleaning and degreasing agents have also been implicated.
The Montreal Protocol (1987) was signed by around 40 countries and sought to limit the use of ozone depleting compounds by 50% before 1999. The EEC Directive (1989 and subsequent amendments) seeks to act even more quickly and has targeted the cessation of production of ozone depleting species by the mid 1990s.
The Health And Safety Issue
The control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) regulations require the user of hazardous substances to review and document procedures involving such materials and to adopt less hazardous materials and/or processes where possible, such that the hazard is diminished.
Certainly it is implicit in the act that the operator of a process may not replace it directly with an alternative process wherein the overall hazard (comprising both material and method) is increased. The manner in which two totally unrelated hazards, i.e. fire hazard versus chronic dermal irritance, are to be compared is not evident since no absolute index of severity exists and legal precedent is far from clear.
It is, however, self evident that the obligations enshrined in COSHH regulations must be carefully weighed in any scheme devised to supplant the use of ozone depleting cleaning processes.
The VOC Emissions Issue
The volatile organic chemical emissions regulations form part of the Environmental Protection Act (1991). The regulations place limits upon the tonnage of solvent vapours exhausted into the atmosphere from industrial premises engaged in nominated processes - including solvent degreasing and cleaning. The numerical limits are time-related and include, additionally, those VOCs arising from all nominated processes. So the combined emissions from degreasing, cleaning and painting operations will be considered as a single entity.
A solvent-based paint must ultimately dry and therefore contribute a fixed finite emission. The emission of VOC from cleaning and degreasing processes in unit time can, in contrast, be managed by the careful selection of the degreasing solvent in order to minimise its volatility and hence its loss at atmosphere.
Which Wipe Would Suit You?
If you are involved with the manufacture or use of oils, grease, resins, adhesives, elastomers, mastics, plastics and paints etc. you will require a product that takes into account the important issues and removes soils effectively, economically and easily. Then look no further - Agma has the answer.
AGMASOL PT
Odourless cosmetic grade solvent cleaner intended as specialised replacement for 1,1,1-Tricholoroethane and other chlorinated and fluoro-chlorinated solvents where the latter are scheduled for discontinuation under the Montreal Protocol. Superb solvency towards oils and greases. High flash point, low toxicity and moderate evaporation rate.
AGMASOL PS40
Solvency and activity - as AGMASOL PT, though with a moderate flash point, low toxicity and an enhanced evaporation rate.
AGMASOL 216
High boiling safety solvents - designed to give good solvency with low toxicity and controlled evaporation required to meet the increasingly tight Health and Safety and Environmental regulations now being imposed on industry. AGMASOL 216 has a low odour and low vapour pressure, together with a high flash point. Ideal for removing those really stubborn paints, resins, adhesives and elastomers as well as graffiti.
ISOPROPANOL 99 and I.M.S. (74 O.P.)
High quality solvent with rapid evaporation for light soils.
If you would like a free sample of our impregnated wipes, please contact us.