Abstract:
Recent report of an automotive oil tube manufacturer case study indicated that the cost of oil cleaning process was high and tended to go up. Additionally, the chemicals used in the oil cleaning process could be a common source of fire hazards and increase related health and environmental risks. The purpose of the current study was to determine the factors and levels of a new alkaline substance that used in the process. The two-factor with three-level factorial design was used. The two most important factors were thought to be the temperature and the volume concentration of the alkaline substance. Temperature at 50°C, 55°C, 60°C, and volume concentration at
3%, 5%, and 7% were studied. A factorial experiment with three replicates was performed to investigate the effect of three different levels of temperature and three different volume concentration of alkaline substance on the time it took to clean the oil tube. Findings indicated that the alkaline substance of 5% volume concentration at 60°C allowed the shortest time, which was less than 5 minutes for the oil tube cleaning process.