The Science Lab
Is the METALNOX Family Right for You? (Spoiler: YES)
You’ve heard us say it before, but we truly mean it when KYZEN says we care about clean. If you’ve had the chance to drop by our headquarters or had any insight on what goes on here, you’ll know that our experts are in the lab spending countless hours creating products that not only clean, but also work in the field. We have been doing this for over 30 years and we don’t plan on stopping any time soon. In fact, our efforts have not been fruitless as over the course of those years we have won award after award for several products, including those in the METALNOX line.
If you haven’t heard of this product line before, it is a family of concentrated aqueous cleaning chemistries designed for the Electronic Assembly, Aerospace, and Automotive industries. Each product in the line has been specially formulated for a variety of cleaning processes and soils centered around the reliability of printed circuit boards and electronic assemblies. This includes the best seller for several years M6386. And while this is great, you might be wondering about the other METALNOX products and whether they might be the right fit for you. Chance are, they are! Take a look at the whole family below and get to know what they can do for you.
M6381 – Precision Hydrocarbon Solvent Cleaner
M6920 – VOC Free Solvent Cleaner
M6310 – Mild Alkaline Cleaner with Aluminum/Brass Protection
M6060 – Iron Phosphatizing Solution and Cleaner
Keep in mind these are just a glimpse at the many products in the METALNOX line. If you want to learn more about what we offer, your Regional Manager will be more than happy to give you the inside scoop.
Want to take a look at all of these products and more? Click here.
How Are You Handling the nPB Ban?
If you are cleaning parts using solvent, pending future changes in state and federal laws governing the use of hazardous cleaning solvents such 1-Bromopropane (commonly called nPB) will require you to rethink how your company can effectively meets your parts cleaning requirements when this solvent is phased out due to regulatory action.
If you are not sure what type of cleaning solvent you are using, check the chemical data sheet and safety data sheet. Verify if n-propyl bromide or 1-Bromopropane are listed, or check for this chemical formula: CH3CH2CH2Br. You can also identify nPB by its CAS number: #106-94-5
EUROPE BAN: As of July 4, 2020 – nPB also known as 1-Bromopropane or 1-BP was included in Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Annex XIV (PDF, 344 KB) to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 set out in Article 57(c), and will be sunset accordingly.
CANADA RESTRICTIONS: nPB Replacement Deadline Looms as Ontario Imposes New Worker Safety Rules on Users (Regulation 833 and O. Reg. 490/09). The previous chemical regulations allowed for an occupational exposure limit of 10 parts per million. Under the amendments, the maximum exposure to nPB will drop to just 0.1 parts per million – 1% of the previous exposure limit.
USA – EPA TSCA: On June 2018, 1-Bromopropane (commonly called nPB) EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0741 was listed number 2 on the first list of ten (10) problem formulations for EPA’s systemic review and a significant new use rule (SNUR) proposal. That review has been completed with results to be issued to public in near future.
GLOBAL BAN? With non-preferred environmental characteristics, this solvent is being phased out and replaced on a global basis. Will a total ban (like Freon 113 or 1-1-1 Trichloroethane) occur in the near future?
Don’t get caught waiting until the last minute to make the change to a new solvent.
Download the 5 Steps How to Successfully Handle the nPB Ban to get educated on how to handle the ban, and while you’re at it, learn about upcoming EPA Restrictions in Joe McChesney’s Tech 2 Tech here.
Meet Your Regional Manager
Eric Bromley – Northeastern Regional Manager
Eric began his journey with KYZEN at the Hudson, NH office in 1995 as Inside Sales Support, eventually moving to the New England Regional Sales position, and finally to the Northeast Regional Manager. When he’s not hard at work, he enjoys spending time with his wife of 39 years, Cindy, and their two daughters (and five grandchildren!) He also spends time tinkering with almost anything mechanical, working in his yard and cooking with his wife. There are many things about working for KYZEN that Eric loves, especially meeting new people, and being able to help our customers with process challenges.
Scott F. Cain – Western Regional Manager
As a veteran in the electronics assembly industry, Scott brings more than a decade of experience working with customers across the country for both InsulFab PCB tooling and Aqueous Technologies. He has served on numerous boards within the SMTA at both the regional and national levels. He is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and experience with the KYZEN team as the Western Regional Manager.
What 30 Years of Care Looks Like
KYZEN’s renown for connecting science and care began in 1990 with founders Kyle Doyel and Dr. Mike Bixenman. They knew that scientific excellence was crucial for creating successful cleaning solutions in demanding industry applications. They also knew that when science converges with caring, passionate people with persistent curiosity to solve complex problems, breakthrough innovations are born.
“Great science is crucial, but alone it takes innovation only so far,” said Dr. Bixenman. “Breakthrough solutions require passion, commitment, and care to take the science to the next level…to test longer, to validate outcomes under all situations, and to leave no stone unturned. We wanted an environment where care and science came together to create breakthrough environmentally responsible solutions. And, while we were at it, we dreamed of creating a great place to work…where people are treated well and want to come in every day. Quite simply, that was our vision, and it worked!”
Under the guidance of Kyle and Dr. Mike, this environment has been nurtured through to every employee for 30 years. Today, young engineers and technicians work directly with the company leaders to devise breakthrough award winning chemistries and technologies for industrial cleaning. They plan to continue this for many years to come.
Read more about the journey here.
Putting You First, Even During a Pandemic
Tom Forsythe, Executive VP
KYZEN Corporation Nashville, TN, USA
Running clean takes on new meaning in the spring of 2020.
Cleaning is always important of course, but during these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it just seems like we are cleaning everything important in our lives. Of course, many electronic assembly shops run with No-Clean soldering materials, but even here there are stencils, reflow ovens, and misprints that need the benefits of high-performance cleaning materials.
Some high-reliability operations clean all of their product, of course, these days that often coincides with facilities that are deemed essential operations: sites that supply and support medical and military operations must operate. That is the reason why KYZEN’s manufacturing sites around the world have also been deemed essential and are operating today.
Of course, being essential makes it legal to operate, but like our customers, KYZEN facilities are a veritable ballet of talented production staff, logisticians, laboratory technicians, and a whole array of suppliers: raw materials, packaging, lab supplies, power, utilities not to mention broadband connections to tie the world together. Due to our strong presence in China, led by our local facility on the outskirts of western Shanghai, KYZEN had an early wake-up call about the risks and challenges COVID-19 could present.
We created a global, cross-functional team that analyzed our supply chains, suppliers, and the emerging needs of our customers across the 50 countries where we operate. This all started back in January. We were able to get masks to our team in China and their families early while encouraging them to be “smart” as they all stayed safe during the challenging times after Chinese New Year.
It was not long before our sites in Malaysia, Europe, and the USA had an opportunity to apply the lessons learned from our colleagues in China. We have been fortunate to keep all our staff and their families healthy and virus free while maintaining operations at all sites.
For our high-reliability customers, surety of supply is critical. Being out of stock is simply never the right answer for mission-critical materials. For these reasons, KYZEN’s always ample inventories were increased around the world to meet the challenges likely to pop up while moving products across oceans and borders during the pandemic.
Fortunately, not only has our staff been able to keep themselves and their families’ safe, but also we have been able to ship every order requested since the pandemic began. Our customers have had their own operations impacted by the virus, and we have adapted to make sure we can continue to meet their needs.
Connect with our Cleaning Experts at the following events.