Aerosol Cleaning for Aerospace, Aviation & Military

Industrial-strength spray cleaning solvents using sustainable formulations

Today's increasingly-sophisticated systems for civilian and military aviation must perform reliably in the most extreme environments and operating conditions. At the same time, airlines, military services and defense/aerospace contractors who use solvent-based spray cleaners to maintain these systems are facing the same environmental and worker safety challenges as chemical users in other sectors.

This has created a degree of uncertainty surrounding the use of certain spray cleaning solvents for degreasing, de-fluxing and general cleaning of avionics, instrumentation, hydraulics and other precision systems. Some of these products are flammable; others raise concerns about their potential long-term health effects; still others face increasing regulatory restriction, due to their unfavorable environmental properties.

Nonflammable solvents for flux cleaning, degreasing, particulate removal, and contact cleaning

Now, you have a sustainable alternative to conventional aerosol spray cleaners. 3M™ Novec™ Aerosol Cleaners are a family of nonflammable, non-conductive solvent products – each optimized for specific aviation cleaning tasks, ranging from removal of light oils, dust and particulates to industrial-strength degreasing and flux cleaning.

Novec aerosol cleaners evaporate quickly and cleanly, leaving no residue that could lead to device malfunction or failure. They are also non-corrosive and compatible with most aerospace substrates, to help ensure system and airframe integrity.

What makes Novec aerosol cleaners unique is that they combine outstanding cleaning performance with favorable environmental and safety properties. For example, they are non-ozone depleting with low GWP. They have no nPB, HFCs or HAPs. They have a wide margin of safety for use in intended applications. And they are sustainable alternatives to ozone depleting substances such as HCFC-141b and HCFC-225. Because of these unique properties, Novec aerosol products help support U.S. DOD initiatives to procure environmentally preferable products.

Novec aerosol cleaners are ideal for use in a wide range of maintenance and overhaul spray cleaning applications, such as:

• Cleaning and degreasing engine and landing gear components
• Hand wipe and spray cleaning of hydraulic lines and spilled hydraulic fluid
• Flux cleaning of aircraft avionics after soldering rework
• Precision cleaning of electronics, avionics, electrical contacts, connectors, and switches
• Cleaning of liquid and gaseous oxygen lines and equipment
• Cleaning prior to inspection or fluorescent penetrant inspection testing

Plus – Novec Contact Cleaner and Novec Contact Cleaner/Lubricant meets all MIL-PRF 29608A requirements for performance, compatibility, safety and environmental sustainability.

With 3M Novec Aerosols, you get more of what you're paying for!

Every Novec aerosol product can contains over 95% active solvent – for more cleaning power and more cleans per can. Only 5% of the can contents is devoted to the propellant, which is ordinary CO₂.

Compare this to many competitive spray cleaners, which may contain only 75% active solvent in conjunction with propellants such as tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a) – a formulating technique these products require in order to be defined as "nonflammable" and/or to achieve VOC limitations.

Novec Contact Cleaner is exempt from the U.S. EPA's Aerospace NESHAP (National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants). Novec Contact Cleaner Plus, Novec Flux Remover and Novec Electronic Degreaser, because their formulations contain solvents that are VOCs, are classified as "Option 2" solvents under the Aerospace NESHAP. Option 2 solvents are allowable for aircraft cleaning applications, but must be used in conformance with specific housekeeping and recordkeeping procedures. For more details, download our Aerospace NESHAP technical bulletin.

Ready to buy 3M Novec Aerosol Cleaners? Let us help you find a distributor today!