Supercritical fluid extraction cleaner application. 1994.

TURI Technical Report No. 21. Texas Instruments Incorporated, Materials & Controls Group (TI), with headquarters in Attleboro, MA, has been actively pursuing alternatives to halogenated solvent vapor degreasing since 1984. Aqueous, semi-aqueous, and "no-clean" technologies have been implemented to reduce solvent usage by more than 60%. However, several manufacturing production units have been unable to find a technically feasible and cost-effective alternative to vapor degreasing. In 1990, TI qualified the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent capable of cleaning mineral oil residue from temperature sensitive metal parts. The conceptual design of the cleaner equipment included a large cleaning chamber capable of meeting TI'S cleaning requirements for an entire shift. The high capital cost of such a system prevented TI from employing supercritical fluid extraction technology in its routine cleaning operations. In 1992, TI engaged with CF TECHnologies (CF TECH) to evaluate the application of a smaller scale SFE technology to clean organic residues from metal parts assembled into motor protectors.

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