改变您的零件清洁过程，以满足新的EPA规则

Tim Pennington: Let’s discuss the recent announcement by the EPA on changes regarding what will be allowed regarding cleaning processes.

杰夫•戴维斯杰夫•戴维斯: I initially planned on going through the updates that we’ve seen on all the different solvents, 是否被氯化, 氟化, 溴化, 以及目前的情况. But I think what has happened most recently is we had the EPA administrator announce that for trichloroethylene, 或吨标煤, 为了控制使用量，将会有一个评论期, eliminate as best they could the use of trichloroethylene in consumer 和 industrial applications.

最近, the EPA sent through a plan to eliminate trichloroethylene in all applications without exception. 现在, they’re saying they would typically give people a year to change to something else or eliminate the use of trichloroethylene. 但也会有一些工业问题, 商业, 和 federal applications — whether it be 军事 or things like that — related to electric vehicles or whatever that may have an extended period to make changes.

I think it’s going to be something that they’ll continue to put more 和 more pressure on some of these solvents, 和 trichloroethylene is just the one that is most current 和 the most recent updates 和 elimination, 如果你愿意, 这是我们在过去两三年中看到的.

TP:这是每个人都预料到的. And I know you all have been trying to educate people about losing some of these things they have been using. 

杰夫•戴维斯: The Toxic Substance Control Act in 2016 identified ten potentially hazardous chemicals. The ones of most note are the classification of chlorinated solvents as trichloroethylene perchloroethylene or PCE 和 methylene chloride or MEC. 那些, 还有n -丙基溴或1-溴基丙烷, 哪种溴化溶剂与氯化物同属一类, 都在环境保护署的评估范围内他们称之为对人类健康的不合理风险. 这通常是职业安全与健康管理局的职责范围. And now we see that OSHA always regulated worker safety over an 8-hour time-weighted average.

现在环保局说这些溶剂对人类健康有不合理的风险. So, they’ve proposed what they’re calling Existing Chemical Exposure Limits over eight hours, 与OSHA相比，它们的数量大大减少了, who will take the lead from the American Conference of Industrial Hygienists for exposure levels. 所以历史上, 例如, trichloroethylene’s most recent threshold limit value for 8-hour exposure is 25 parts per million. EPA的ECEL将其降至0.百万分之0.004，这几乎是不可能达到的. And we will see similar classifications for all four of those 溴化 or chlorinated solvents.

What we’re seeing is probably the elimination in the not-too-distant future of the use of these chemicals in open-top degreasers. That means there’s a larger air solvent interface; even if they’ve got refrigeration, 可编程的起重机, 或者自动闭包, 这些不是废气或无气机器, 所以它们暴露在环境中. 我看不出他们如何在任何设备上达到这些门槛, 坦白说, 包括敞篷的.

美国环保署加速清洁改革

TP:你提到了OSHA、EPA和其他一些组织和法规. They all move in different ways sometimes, but it does seem like the EPA has accelerated this action.

杰夫•戴维斯: 这对我们都不陌生. I think we’ve been preparing for the different solvents changes over the past 30 or 40 years, 在过去的20年里，设备有了很大的改进. 话虽如此, 有些溶剂是可以替代的, 和 we’re always urging our customers to constantly be on the lookout 和 to test 和 trial different solvents that you potentially can drop into a machine. 你可能需要改造, or you may need to purchase new emission-less degreasers where there is very limited exposure to some of those solids.

TP: Hubbard-Hall has been doing a lot to prepare the manufacturers 和 industries for this, 看起来每个月都在接近. What are some things that you would advise manufacturers 和 shops to do if they’re facing this? And certainly, if they haven’t already started looking at alternatives, what can they start doing?

杰夫•戴维斯: It’s interesting because I’d first recommend people not to put their heads in the s和. 它不会消失，所以让我们正面解决它. 几年来，我们一直在为客户提供一些帮助, 最近, 我们建议他们进行一次清洁审核, 如果你愿意, 或者是脱脂审计. 让我们看看. 你需要你现在使用的溶剂吗? 还有其他选择吗??

我想说90%的情况下，都有合适的选择. 这是有权衡的, 然而, 潜在的清洁问题, 处理时间, 和, 很明显, 经济的权衡. There’s the value of some of the new solvents — the designer solvents —that are blends or fluorocarbons with some other chlorinated solids. 在某些机械和某些基质和土壤中工作得非常好.

我的意思是, there are always those caveats; don’t go it alone, 这是我想说的吗, 不要忽视这样一个事实:它不会很快找上门来, 我们已经准备好了, 愿意, 并且能够帮助我们的客户进入下一个阶段. Whether it’s equipment or solvents — or even water-based cleaning —we currently recommend to many of our customers to find some alternative to providing that industrial 和 suitable cleaning alternative.

TP:我知道你们一直忙于与终端用户和其他制造商合作, 你们可能已经知道底物是什么了, 污染物是什么?, 你基本上已经想出了一个对很多人都有效的解决方案. So, it might be something that could be almost a turnkey solution that you all have already dealt with before. 如果有人打电话告诉你这是底物, 这是污染, 你们可能已经看到了.

杰夫•戴维斯: 我们已经见过很多了, 和, 可能会有更多的外来土壤, 或者对清洁有更多的要求. 如果你在寻找精密清洁应用-医疗, 军事, 航空, 或者航空航天——总会有一些挑战.

但我认为新设备的可用性往往会减慢人们的速度. It’s going to be hard to replace those thous和s of degreasers out in the field quickly, 我认为这将是一些替代方案的成本. So, that 很明显 will slow people down; I don’t want to put a new solvent in an old machine if it won’t be as efficient.

That is part of one of the metrics we’re trying to measure for customers: can we clean it? 我们能确保它是可持续的吗? 溶剂的美妙之处在于它们是无限可回收的, 意思是你不需要引入水. 这是一种, as long as you’re maintaining the solvents with stabilizers 和 testing the equipment, 您可以使用相对多年而无需更换溶剂.

现在就寻找清洁替代品

TP:一个店主告诉我要更换或升级, “最有效的设备是笔和纸,意思是最好记下他想做的事情，并计算出一些成本. He can figure out what things are costing him 和 where he can either save money or save additional money by spending it because he knows they’ll get a good return on investment. 这是你在与许多客户打交道时看到的情况吗?

杰夫•戴维斯: 这是一个很好的观点. 我认为人们总是低估了自己的需求. 几年来，我们一直在努力提倡，你需要考虑其他选择. 但人们会想，“如果它没有坏，为什么要修理它。?“但现在有外部力量, 他们要求你考虑替代化学，不管出于什么原因, 无论是溶剂还是你无法处理的废物, 不管是什么问题. 但是当我们和很多顾客交谈时, 看来我们提供的可能是令人大开眼界的坏消息, 如果你愿意:我们正试图给他们一个现实，这是你的选择, 这些都没有吸引力，因为他们没有为此做预算. 就像你说的, 这要花很多钱, 但从长远来看，它可能会有所帮助，因为你不会使用那么多资源, 或者机器将持续几十年.

问题是，一旦我们提起这个话题, 把它挂在电话上, 告诉他们真相, 他们去, 有些顾客会因为太过拥挤而关门. 然后两到三年后, they want to go 和 revisit it 和 — like we said earlier — ask how long it will take for me to get the equipment in place. 修改我的流程需要多长时间? 它变成了一个势不可挡的前景. So, I think you’re right, sitting down 和 trying to plan what your needs are today on pen 和 paper. 他们将来会是什么样子, 我总是建议, to share that with your vendors because they can help you kind of get to that point in time, 你可以进行这些投资.