1.1 This guide is intended to assist design engineers, manufacturing/industrial engineers, and production managers in selecting the best fit cleaning agent and process. This guide takes into account environmental pollution prevention factors in a selection process.

1.2 This guide is not to be considered as a database of acceptable materials. It will guide the engineers and managers through the cleaning material selection process, calling for engineers to customize their selection based on the cleaning requirements for the cleaning tasks at hand. If a part can be cleaned, and kept clean, it can be cycled through several process steps that have cleaning requirements. This eliminates extra cleaning process steps during the total process. A total life cycle cost analysis or performance/cost of ownership study is recommended to compare the methods available.

1.3 This guide is for general industry manufacturing, equipment maintenance and remanufacturing operations, and to some extent precision cleaning of mechanical parts and assemblies. It is not intended to be used for optical, medical, or electronics applications, nor is it intended for dry-cleaning or super-critical fluid cleaning.