Hansen Cleaning Solvent Research

Environmental regulation will force current baseline  precision cleaning solvent (AK-225) to be phased out starting 2015; we plan to develop  a new solvent or solvent blend that will replace the current baseline solvent (AK225). This project  will attempt to develop  a solvent  around NASA's contamination needs, by using  Hansen  Solubility Parameters  to identify those solvent  blends most compatible with  NASA's  known contaminants, and then test those identified solvents.

The Plan is to test at least  3 solvent blends for cleaning efficiency on coupons exposed to known contaminants. The project has already created a test process that can tie results back to work done in the 1990's. We will use this data to support the Precision Cleaning and Contamination Control  (PC3) efforts over the next few  years.