The president of an electrical components injection molding company in the Northeast recently called in and commended Asaclean®’s marketing efforts. Their goal was to find a purging compound that didn’t have an offensive smell like their current (acrylic-based) purging compound. He said that his search on the internet quickly led him to Asaclean®.
To be sure, when comparing commercial purging compounds, typically it’s the cleaning power and residue characteristics that are judged first. The product’s odor may or may not always be considered, but for many companies, this could be an important characteristic. Such companies may have technicians that are particularly sensitive to production fumes. Or perhaps the facility may not have proper ventilation.
Some “categories” of purges are often associated with greater odor or fumes. For example, chemical purges release a strong odor when processing. Acrylic-based purging compounds, whether 100% cast-acrylic or blended with a polymer carrier, also often have a strong characteristic odor. If ever asked what “smell” ASACLEAN has while processing it, our response is that it either has a “styrenic” or an “olefinic” smell, depending on whether the customer is using a styrenic-based or olefinic-based grade. For the majority of processors, neither of these types of odors are objectionable.
Further, we constantly strive to make improvements to our product formulations. For example, high-temperature resins may inherently generate more smoke simply due to the fact of high-heat processing. This holds true for high-temperature grades of purges. However, our newest generation of high-temperature grades have been designed specifically to have less smoke and offensive odor.
If you’re experiencing any issues with excessive smoke or odors with your current purge, please do not hesitate to contact us!