Heat Treated Parts and Oil

Question:

How can we clean parts that are heat treated and then quenched? We have tried alkaline cleaners, acid dips and electrocleaning methods to no avail. H. S.

Answer:

This is a classic case of trying to solve a problem that can be eliminated by getting everybody involved in the manufacturing process to do their job correctly. The best way to clean these parts is to specify that the oil be removed from the parts prior to the heat-treating and quenching steps. If you can’t get the upstream people to do this, you probably will have to look at a more aggressive cleaning step such as abrasive blasting.