Operating time and efficiency
- HELICORD® Treatment:
Because of the constant movement of the cord, the wire is always in contact with fresh, clean cord at the end of the process zone.
⇒ The efficiency of the HELICORD®-process is independent of the time.
- Ultrasonic Treatment:
The cleaning liquid is constantly contaminated with soluble and solid residues removed from the wire surface.
In order to avoid useless absorption of ultrasonic energy, floating particles have to be filtered out continously.
Despite such a costly filtration, the intensity of cleaning constantly decreases due to the accumulation of (soluble) pollutants, until the liquid is exchanged.
⇒ The efficiency of ultrasonic cleaning shows a saw-tooth-like behaviour when plotted against time.
- Chemical Treatment (Pickling):
The chemical bath is constantly polluted with non reactive, solid residues as well as it is used up increasingly by the chemical reaction with the wire surface. Accordingly, the intensity of cleaning constantly decreases until the chemical bath is exchanged.
⇒ The efficiency of chemical cleaning shows a saw-tooth-like behaviour.
- High Pressure Water Cleaning:
The circulating water is constantly contaminated with soluble and solid residues removed from the wire surface. Despite costly filtration, the intensity of cleaning constantly decreases due to the accumulation of pollutants until the liquid is exchanged.
⇒ The efficiency of high pressure water cleaning shows a saw-tooth-like behaviour.
Remark to points 2 – 4: The dependence of time of the efficiency of these processes could be moderated by continuous addition of cleaning liquid following a counterflow principle. That would cause high costs and therefore did not gain any importance in the industrial practice.