Residue on Soap-drawn Stainless steel

[BMccarthy81]

At my company we precision grind 304, 316 stainless steel wire (.125 to .011) to tolerances of +/-.0002 of an inch with #2 cincinnatti centerless grinders (om/ae). the material that we use for inventory and most of our customer supplied material is soap drawn stock. We've always had a problem with the residue/soap that is on the surface of our wire. It gums up our machines and gets on the surface of our grinding wheels. I'd Like to know if there is a cleaning process that could remove this residue from our material without altering the physical attributes of our wire. Any input would be great. thank you.

 

[sundrop139]

Without knowing the specifics of the soap, cleaning recommendations are difficult. As I see it, you have three options: a) contact a company specializing in cleaning; b) contact your customer to provide guidance; or c) try to figure it out yourself.

Generic cleaning methods available to you are physical (wipe, scrape, etc.), chemical (solvent or detergent), steam (low or high pressure).

As a note, I work for a chemical company that makes liquid detergents/cleaners. We used to make a hard soap stock that our old-timers remember as being damn near impossible to clean.

Is the soap truly needed?
Can you remove the soap earlier in your process?