Throughout the ROwasher R&D period, Rozone has worked with a Smethwick-based specialist in the hire and sale of temporary power equipment, such as generators, hybrid power, fuel tanks and fuel management, cabling and distribution.

Keeping their hire equipment looking clean and ready to go is essential for the Hire Industry. Through the trial period, the team tested both the existing washer and the ROwasher and, whilst first scoring both as Excellent, they changed their scorings to only awarding the ROwasher as Excellent.

No identifiable smell was detected from either machine and they used the washers weekly, mainly on oily parts within plant hire. The washers were used around 60 times through the trial.
The workshop technicians had not previously used solvent based cleaners and were therefore unable to make a comparison. No corrosion on any parts was detected.
As our own team have been working with the existing formulation for over 12 years, we asked the University of Wolverhampton to develop and enhance our formulation via wet chemistry through to analytical chemistry.

Their task was to find a degreasing solution that:

• Provides the best cleaning performance
• Is compatible with the microbes to guarantee their long-term survival
• Requires no hazardous labelling

Our scientists have formulated ROwash - a degreasing solution that is as powerful as solvent but without the hazards. We screened multiple surfactants, 25 formulation variants, conducted microbial compatibility trials and cleaning trial assessments on multiple contaminants

This was narrowed down to four different surfactants and we then adjusted the ratios of the surfactants to optimise the cleaning potential. They were narrowed down further via the cleaning trials and we determined the critical micelle concentration of surfactant by spectrophotometric analysis which works out the optimum concentration level of the surfactant.

During the extensive formulation process, a wide variety of industry contaminants were used to test over 25 surfactant formulas to ensure the final fluid solution met our industry sector demands.

Interesting facts from The Prof: “To develop ROwash, it has taken 384 hours of work and we have conducted 288 tests. To look at one fluid against all contaminants involved 144 hours of work and eight tests per fluid. For the compatibility tests, it took 10 hours for one formulation. So, in total, we conducted 250 tests. For Micelles size measurements, this took 80 hours in total and for Critical micelle concentration, 40 hours of work were required.

The ROwasher has a fully-removable electronics module for ease of maintenance and service. This also minimises the amount of WEEE disposal, and reporting. There are money-saving benefits, and this considerably reduces the customer’s carbon footprint.

To view the ROwasher's health and safety credentials and benefits, click here.