The necessary precursor to a proper and durable finish is the preparation of the active aluminum surface to receive the desired protective finish that will allow it to have a long and attractive service life. This article helps those who work with aluminum in the many varieties of applications of such products. It describes the two main categories of cleaning that can be used with most any metal, namely, mechanical cleaning and chemical cleaning. The article provides a discussion on the laboratory evaluation of cleaners, field testing of cleaners, and cleaner types and procedures. It also describes the special cleaning procedures for aluminum alloys, such as steam cleaning and rotary wire-brush cleaning. The article reviews the use of temporary coatings and the use of maintenance coatings on aluminum. It provides information on the handling and storage procedures of aluminum alloys and the cleaning of specific applications of aluminum.

Metal surfaces must often be cleaned before subsequent operations to remove unwanted substances such as pigmented drawing compounds, unpigmented oil and grease, chips and cutting fluids, polishing and buffing compounds, rust and scale, and miscellaneous contaminants. The article describes common cleaning processes, including alkaline, electrolytic, solvent, emulsion, molten salt bath, ultrasonic and acid cleaning as well as pickling and abrasive blasting. It also explains how to select the appropriate process for a given soil type and surface composition.

Passivation; pickling, that is, acid descaling; electropolishing; and mechanical cleaning are important surface treatments for the successful performance of stainless steel used for piping, pressure vessels, tanks, and machined parts in a wide variety of applications. This article provides an overview of the various types of stainless steels and describes the commonly used cleaning methods, namely, alkaline cleaning, emulsion cleaning, solvent cleaning, vapor degreasing, ultrasonic cleaning, and acid cleaning. Finishing operations of stainless steels, such as grinding, polishing, and buffing, are reviewed. The article also explains the procedures of electrocleaning, electropolishing, electroplating, painting, surface blackening, coloring, terne coatings, and thermal spraying. It includes useful information on the surface modification of stainless steels, namely, ion implantation and laser surface processing. Surface hardening techniques, namely, nitriding, carburizing, boriding, and flame hardening, performed to improve the resistance of stainless steel alloys are also reviewed.

This article describes the basic attributes of the most widely used metal surface cleaning processes to remove pigmented drawing compounds, unpigmented oil and grease, chips, cutting fluids, polishing and buffing compounds, rust and scale from steel parts, and residues and lapping compounds from magnetic particle and fluorescent penetrant inspection. The cleaning processes include emulsion cleaning, electrolytic alkaline cleaning, acid cleaning, solvent cleaning, vapor degreasing, alkaline cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, and glass bead cleaning. The article provides guidelines for choosing an appropriate process for particular applications and discusses eight well-known methods for determining the degree of cleanliness of the work surface.

This article addresses surface cleaning, finishing, and coating operations that have proven to be effective for molybdenum, tungsten, tantalum, and niobium. It describes standard procedures for abrasive blasting, molten caustic processing, acid cleaning, pickling, and solvent and electrolytic cleaning as well as mechanical grinding and finishing. The article also provides information on common plating and coating methods, including electroplating, anodizing, and oxidation-resistant coatings.

Zinc and zinc alloys require surface engineering prior to coating or use to improve adhesion and corrosion resistance. Die-cast zinc parts, in addition, must be trimmed and finished to remove flash and parting lines. This article covers zinc cleaning procedures as well as coating and finishing processes. It explains how to remove parting lines and presents several mechanical finishing methods, including surface polishing, brushing, controlled shot peening, and buffing. It also provides information on solvent cleaning, emulsion cleaning, aqueous detergent or alkaline cleaning), electrocleaning, acid dipping, and zinc conversion coating treatments.

Solvent cleaning is a surface preparation process that can be accomplished in room temperature baths (cold cleaning ) or by condensing vapors of a solvent on a workpiece (vapor degreasing). This article provides a detailed discussion on solvents, equipment, process limitations and applications, and safety and health hazards of cold cleaning and vapor degreasing. It also includes information on control of contamination, conservation and recovery of solvent, and disposal of solvent wastes.

Emulsion cleaning is an industrial cleaning process that uses an organic solvent as the main active agent. This article provides information on the applications, concerns and limitations, and process parameters of emulsion cleaning. It describes the processing variables and equipment for three main stages of emulsion cleaning: immersion cleaning, secondary cleaning, and spray cleaning. In addition, the classifications, composition, and selection criteria are also discussed.

The chemicals that have been used in traditional vapor degreasing have serious health and environmental hazards that have prompted the search for modified and alternative techniques. This article provides a detailed discussion on the regulatory mandates that affect the use of industrial degreasing methods. It describes the aqueous degreasing technique, which forms an attractive alternative to the traditional vapor degreasing process. The article includes information on the materials and equipment used in the process, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of hot and dip tank systems of aqueous degreasing. It explains how to convert an existing vapor degreaser to an aqueous cleaning system.

Wipe solvents are used to remove contaminants from a workpiece before it undergoes manufacturing operations that require clean surfaces, such as bonding, sealing, painting, welding, plating, specialized surface treatment procedures, and others. This article describes the evaluation parameters for wipe solvent cleaners, including methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethylene, acetone, toluene, dichloromethane, benzene, xylene, and other alternate wipe solvent cleaners. It contains a table that lists the compositions and properties of wipe solvent cleaners.