Degreasing as pre treatment
In order to be able to carry out a good pickling treatment, the material must first be degreased. This prevents that a layer of oil, grease or organic contamination blocks the pickling agent. By degreasing first, the pickling agent can pickle the entire stainless steel surface homogeneously (etching). If oil, grease or organic material were still present locally on the surface during the pickling, this would cause staining on the surface because the pickling agent cannot pickle the material uniformly everywhere.
An additional reason for properly degreasing the material before pickling, is that the contamination present on the surface can form a floating layer on the pickling liquid. The material will then be dragged through this floating layer during removal from the bath, as a result of which the material will again be contaminated by this floating layer.
The removal of grease, oil and organic contaminants can be done by means of an alkaline degreasing bath. If the material is only slightly contaminated as a result of assembly, it can also be degreased with a steam cleaner such as Steam Clean HPC-NF or Multicleaner.
Degreasing as final treatment
When material is too contaminated by oil and grease, problems can arise in the welding process. To prevent these problems, Vecom can also perform degreasing as a treatment.