OA Fluxes – Avoiding Foam in Your Tank!

Do batch machines and inline machines work the same in terms of dealing with foam?
That’s a really good question. Both of them, from a 30,000 ft view, work the same. They’re taking water, they’re replacing water, they’re making sure that they’re controlling that. There are some differences that go on inside. In a batch machine it’s all done within one chamber. Whereas within an inline machine it’s kind of being moved along, there is more space for that to be done. Overall, the concept is the same. We just want to make sure that if we’re doing an OA with just water that there is some replacement of water. Otherwise the foam will occur unless there is a chemistry or saponifier added to the process.

What settings should I check to make sure my machine set up for an OA application?
With the settings, let’s have those conversations with the machine manufacturers because I don’t want to say across the board. All the machines are setup a little differently. You can either reach out to us individually about what machine it is, and we can advise on that or you can reach out to the machine manufacturer. What to look out for with different machines is a tricky step across the board.

What is the lowest concentration I can run to alleviate any foam issues if I’m using chemistry?
We have some chemistries that can run really low in the 1-5%. If you’re running more of the popular chemistries, we want to make sure that those chemistries run higher than this. It depends on which chemistries, some of them are in 8-10%, but where we’re going to see issues is if we get below 5% on the concentration of some of those. The A4625 and A4627, which are more traditional cleaning chemistries and then with some of the chemistries that are built just assist an OA application, need to be kept at 2-5%.

I know you said foam is a cleaning four letter word but is some foam in my process ok?
What we’re really looking for is an excess of foam. There is always going to be some foam. What can be done is if you want to send us a picture or short video of what you’re seeing, we can advise and determine if that’s enough or if it’s too much. Then we can walk through the process to come up with the solution for that excess foam.