Challenges of inter-operation cleaning in industrial settings

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Since taking over NGL Cleaning Technology SA in 2009, the new management of this company specialized in precision cleaning sets significant resources, which enabled it to increase its staff and to bring numerous innovations to the market. Emphasis is given to efficiency and lowest ecological footprint.

The customer service took also many advantages with the development of several concepts aimed at strengthening the role of the company as an essential technological partner.

To share knowledge
The “NGL Academy” concept has several objectives aimed at offering global solutions including chemistry, training, monitoring tools and laboratories. The company is continuously adapting its products to meet the human health criteria, the changes of materials as well as the emergence of new processes and is thus gradually abandoning the solvents in favour of water-based detergents. To fulfil these requirements, it can rely on a team of scientists, which represents approximately 15% of the staff. For its part, training is mainly addressed to the customers but also to the employees and distributors in order to ensure a corporate culture based on excellence and customer service. Promoted by the organizationof seminars or the participation in trade fairs, the trainigprovides real added value to the company’s activities.
The third part of the “NGL Academy” concept relates to the monitoring and process management tools such as for example the UPC 3000 used to measure the quality of the ultrasounds and the conductivity of the detergent baths and demineralised water.

What about residual waters ?
The division “water treatment”, created four years ago, is expanding rapidly. Its specification firstly includes the development of solution for the recycling of residual waters (deburring or rinsingwaters) in conformity with the environmental legislation. Two treatment methods are proposed: the physicochemical method, which uses chemical reactants and concentrate contaminants in the form of settleable and/or filterable sludge and the physicalmethod, which operates by membrane filtration, centrifugation orevapo-concentration. The second aspect is the pre-treatment of the water. Various parameters, including the seasons, the regions or the sources of supply can affect the quality of the water and deliver results which differ from one operation to another. However, it is essential to ensure the quality of the water on a regular basis, what the company achieves thanks to its solution NANONCLEAN EW.
Lastly, this division offers several service provisions, which range from the on-site assessment to the treatment process proposal and the compliance for existing treatment installations.

Application Centre
Thanks to its laboratory, NGL provides various technical services such as preliminary tests, checks, process validation and approvalor guidance and assistance in preparing specifications for anequipemnt investment.
For a variety of reasons, it might happen that preliminary testsare carried out at client locations and not in-house. NGL thus setup the concept “of Application Center”, a service aimed at better identifying the customer needs and defining the adapted products and processes. This service, which forms a global network, makes it possible to quickly meet the technical needs through the free of charge provision of engineers who are sent on request.

Presence at the core of markets
Like many other companies, NGL Cleaning Technology suffers the effects of the unstable world economic situation but succeed showever in progressing, thanks in particular to its strategy to increaseproximity to its customers. The company exports approximately 65% of its production and is well aware of the importanceof a presence within its various markets. It thus set up over thepast four years a network of subsidiaries in France, Denmark, Germany, Shanghai, Singapore and since January of this year, in Chicago.
CEO Jean-Michel Balmelle shows confidence: “Swissquality is still an export hit and areas such as Asia and the United States will be significant growth relays in the near future”. Each subsidiary is organized to provide logistic and technical service and houses a laboratory adapted to the specific needs of the local market. The Swiss laboratory is mainly dedicated to the watch, jewellery and medical industries while that in China for example serves the optical industry. All in all, the company from Nyon covers some twenty industries and offers customized solutions with specific processes for each of them. The subsidiaries are all supplied from Switzerland, where production is concentrated.
The laboratories in the various subsidiaries are available to customersfor free. This corresponds to the company’s philosophy which wishes to offer all customers the knowledge they need andgive them access to the various processes in full transparency.“We are receiving positive feedback on the customer relationships we have been developing for several years and will continue our efforts to strengthen these new concepts within the next two or three years”, Jean-Michel Balmelle concludes.

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