The different industrial cleaning techniques

Professional cleaning services may be required for everything from post-construction restoration to post-disaster cleanup.

This is called industrial cleaning. This article presents the business of these specialized companies and the fundamental techniques used.

Summary :

• What is industrial cleaning?

• Industrial cleaning: which methods?

• Cleaning or cleaning-disinfection

• Dry steam cleaning

• Bio-cleaning

• Dry ice cleaning

• Ultrasonic cleaning

• Hydroblasting

Industrial cleaning is a profession in its own right adapted to the problems of each client in connection with the regulations in force (AFNOR standards, HACCP system, Food Codex, RABC, specific regulations in terms of confidentiality).

What is industrial cleaning?

Industrial cleaning refers to an outsourced service carried out by specialists to permanently or periodically maintain professional premises:

offices, equipment, furniture, machinery.

Its fields of application are numerous (communities, buildings, shopping centres, factories, laboratories, etc.)

If the objective of hygiene and cleanliness is common to all types of interventions, in fact, cleaning techniques, equipment, processes, chemicals used and regulations differ from one sector to another. .

In addition, some areas require the application of strict and precise protocols where the disinfection stage plays an essential role, particularly in the agri-food sector.

The agents will therefore be trained by the competent organizations according to the typology of their sectors of intervention.

Industrial cleaning: which methods?

A variety of cleaning techniques are offered by industrial cleaning professionals, including routine or specialized cleaning for tertiary industries and more complex processes for heavy industry and specialized industries:

cleaning of production equipment, degreasing of machine tools, stripping, deslagging, decontamination, etc.

We will retain the following six methods.

Cleaning or cleaning-disinfection

It concerns all simple cleaning or maintenance services for business premises or places open to the public:

stripping of floors, cleaning at the end of construction sites, removal of bulky items and garbage cans, but also cleaning and washing of floors and surfaces, maintenance of walls and textile coverings, dusting, window cleaning.

These services can be supplemented by specific and one-off services such as insect control, maintenance of green spaces or deratization.

For day-to-day maintenance, depending on the surface to be cleaned, professional industrial cleaning companies will equip their cleaners with cleaning trolleys with brooms and mops or will use industrial processes (high-speed single-disc machine, thermoplastic single-disc machine, etc.) 

Dry steam cleaning

This new technology makes it possible to clean, degrease and disinfect surfaces, machines and equipment while preserving the environment and health.

It combines steam with/without detergent under high pressure and high temperature.

The disinfecting power of steam is very high. It removes the bio film left by the manual actions of cleaning and chemical disinfection as well as the dirt.

The method also makes it possible to obtain very rapid drying of the surfaces.

Bio-cleaning

It is defined as a process intended to reduce the biological contamination of surfaces and is obtained by combining three operations which are carried out in three stages:

• 1 – cleaning with detergent,

• 2 – rinse with clean water to remove dirt and detergent,

• 3 – application of a disinfectant or detergent-disinfectant

Dry ice cleaning

It is similar to sandblasting and refers to a technology that aims to remove certain coatings on different supports.

The non-abrasive process involves projecting solid dry ice (or dry ice) and requires machines specifically designed for this type of operation.

This technique is suitable for cleaning production lines, machine tools, pianos, extractor hoods, etc.

Ultrasonic cleaning

This professional cleaning technique uses the principle of ultrasound,whose action is based on the physical phenomenon of cavitation.

When sound waves encounter a solid surface, they implode, releasing high pressure and forming micro-jets.

The effect produced makes it possible to take off dirt. The method is very effective on encrustations (blood, albumins, amalgams, cements) and allows the reprocessing of medical devices.

Hydroblasting

Hydroblasting consists of projecting water at very high pressure by means of jets.

It is intended for the treatment of surface problems such as road surfaces or pedestrian surfaces (floor markings, stains, chewing gum, graffiti, etc.).

The technique applies to all types of substrates without altering them (asphalt, concrete, granite, etc.).

It offers an alternative to sandblasting, sanding, shot-blasting, etc., and allows residues to be removed, dirty supports to be refurbished and surfaces to be adhered to be restored for greater safety.