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SMART PARTS CLEANING RAISES PRODUCTIVITY


In 2013, entrepreneur Tom Sands developed a unique and highly competitive industrial parts cleaning fluid, designed to replace condemned trichlorethane and other hydrocarbon solvents. He launched a new company to market and sell it,


Safe Solvents (SSEL). He also designed a machine to commercially exploit the invention and help raise process productivity and throughput on the shopfloor. Manufacture is outsourced within the UK to a full-service contractor, ICEE Managed Services. The company provides a complete design for manufacture, prototyping and volume


production resource, but has proved to be more than simply a passive contractor. SSEL regards it as a highly valued innovation and technical production partner, actively collaborating and contributing to product and process improvements


A


parts cleaning facility may seem mundane, but try running an engineering or


manufacturing business without one. Whether a small autosport workshop or a major global manufacturer, operators must have somewhere to thoroughly clean parts ready for the next process, whether assembling an engine, or preparing to apply a protective surface coating. Use of traditional cleaning methods based on


hydrocarbon solvents and heated detergents are increasingly unacceptable. To protect the environment and reduce harmful global warming, both these options are being condemned, with growing restrictions placed on use. In classic disruptive technology terms, Sands


devised a better solution. He comes from a third-generation line of entrepreneurs involved in development and commercial application of speciality chemicals. He graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in product design, an education centred on design innovation and manufacturing, including a keen awareness of marketing. His passion has always been mechanical engineering, manifested by actively competing in motor racing. Regularly stripping, cleaning and rebuilding big and small mechanical items for his race car (a 1969 BMW 2002ti) gave him a keen practical sense of cleaning parts and assembly imperatives. Leaving Leeds, he became a partner in a small but highly successful new product development consultancy, specialising in devising and bringing to market chemical-based cleaning products, from concept through to production and


Tom Sands 6


launch. Clients included big automotive manufacturers and well known retailers of all types of household products.


APRIL 2020 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS Safe Solvents cleaning systems in use at Carwood Motor


Units, a remanufacturer of diesel fuel injection, electrical, and turbocharger systems for all types of vehicles


NEW PRODUCT BREAKTHROUGH In 2013 he left to pursue his own interests, in particular a ground-breaking product he conceived, supported by a new company he founded, SSEL. Designed to replace traditional and harmful processes, his APWF product range is an advanced water-based, non-toxic, non-flammable, non-carcinogenic cleaning system. Designed to deliver maximum efficiency at ambient temperatures and with a volatile organic compounds (VOC) level of just 6.5%, the fluid requires no heating, fume extraction or ventilation. Without any negative side effects and providing


the same level of performance as traditional high contact solvents, it can be used for manual and cavitation cleaning. Development work on the new product led to SSEL applying for a patent on a unique, break-through


process it calls Ambimization - the active splitting or separating of all waste particulates and oils. The result, claim SSEL, is longer effective fluid life and reduced waste. The business base was a small and draughty


barn in Berkshire where he brought together a group of colleagues. Although the new cleaning product could be used in existing cleaning machines designed for competitors’ products, it soon became clear only best results would be obtained in those designed exclusively to exploit the novel advantages of APWF. Sands and his team designed and developed


prototypes of a range they call Typhoon, comprising three versions. Designed for ease of use and to raise productivity, the machines’ performance combined with SSEL’s APWF began to set a new standard in the market. A Midlands- based SME manufacturer was first contracted to


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