Apr 30, 2003 The electrochemical manufacturer's Australian office supplied over 3000 litres of its high-powered, water-based Safewash cleaning solvent on short notice to the New South Wales Road Traffic Authority (RTA) to remove superficial glue residues from the walls of the tunnel.
Safewash was developed and is manufactured at the company's UK headquarters in Derbyshire.
The RTA had originally employed a contractor to reclad the walls of the tunnel with acrylic, a process that involved bonding panels using PVA adhesive.
However, the contractor did not clean away residues from the panels and a second contractor was only able to suggest a solution containing strong and toxic acids.
"The RTA has specific stipulations regarding the chemicals that can be used for such jobs", states Terry Duff, Sales Manager at Electrolube's Australian operation.
"It was concerned for the safety of the workers in the tunnel and so the solution had to have low VOC qualities and be nontoxic.
It also had to be biodegradable, as run off from the cleaning process would unavoidably go into drains".
The organisation approached Electrolube having previously worked with the company on graffiti removing projects.
100% ozone-friendly, nonflammable, completely biodegradable in just ten days and with a lower toxicity than conventional solvents, aqueous Safewash was the ideal solution.
Initially designed for use in the electronics and associated industries, the Safewash range has products equally as effective on screens, stencils and PCBs as on acrylic panels.
Fully approved by all the major electronics manufacturers worldwide, it was developed to replace CFC-based PCB cleaners when the Montreal Protocol was ratified, banning all CFC-based materials.
Originally formulated to rapidly remove the most hardened adhesive and paste deposits from PCBs, the Safewash range has expanded to include Safewash X, a screen and stencil cleaner that result in swift and efficient screen printing with fewer misprints and reduced wastage.
The performance of the multipurpose Safewash range has been comprehensively verified on most leading brands of solder paste and adhesives in a range of ultrasonic and pressure wash automated cleaning systems.
In concluding, Duff explains the rush that occurred once the RTA had approved Safewash: "They needed to get hold of an estimated 3000 litres of the product in a short time, but we only had 100 litres in stock.
As a result, we mixed it at our Australian facility and completed the job in just a few, hectic days.
People can now travel through a clean tunnel without any health or environmental concerns".
Electrolube
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