Ultrasonic Cleaning Saves Time, Labor & Quality
BUSINESS TYPE:
✓Fire and Water Disaster Restoration
PART/PRODUCT CLEANED:
✓Glass, China, Toys, Figurines, Porcelain, Electronics, Collectibles, Stuffed Animals
SUBSTANCE(S) REMOVED:
✓Soot, Corrosion, Mold, Rust
OMEGA CHEMISTRY USED:
✓OmegaSmoke, Omega DeScaler, Omega Aqua Clean LPH, Omega Deodorizer, Omega Rust Protectant
OMEGASONICS SYSTEM USED:
✓Omega® 5200 PW, Omega® 5224, Rinse-Detail Station, Omega® 2300E, Omega® 6500
MONEY/TIME SAVED:
✓Increased recovery, 400% Increase in production, 50% Reduction in personnel
The City That Never Sleeps
To most of the world, Las Vegas is known as the city that never sleeps. Casinos line the world famous Las Vegas Strip and dot the surrounding landscape.
But what many forget is Las Vegas also has a huge base of commercial businesses that have nothing to do with gaming and has one of the fastest growing residential communities in the United States. Casinos, commercial business and homeowners are not immune to fire and water damage disasters, even in this famous city of lights.
Business In-Laws
Mark Keller and Ken Lehman, co-owners and brothers-in-law, started Steamatic of Northern Las Vegas to help casinos, commercial businesses and homeowners in the Las Vegas market recover from fire and water damage disasters since 2001.
Mark and Ken have lived in Las Vegas their entire lives and have seen the town change and expand substantially over the years. Their lifelong insight has given them a keen perspective of how the town operates and what business, homeowners and insurance companies are looking for.
Over the years, Steamatic used the old, tried and true method of cleaning damaged small content by hand, one laborious piece at a time. “We used to have to clean everything by hand using toothbrushes, Q-tips, fingertips and rags” says Mark. “We had six people in there cleaning and we would do probably 14 to 15 boxes of contents per day.” But no matter how hard they tried, getting delicate figurines clean and odor free was virtually impossible.
Finding Omegasonics
Mark Keller discovered Omegasonics at the Crawford Connections Trade Show in Phoenix, AZ. Working with Omegasonics and his design consultant Barb Jackson, CR of Total Contentz, Mark put together a state-of-the-art, Assembly-Line Cleaning Process.
The Omegasonics Restoration Pro System® consisted of a pre-wash station, an ultrasonic unit, a rinse-detail station, an electronic cleaning station and an electronic hot air drying system.
Omegasonics Restoration Pro System®
Ultrasonic cleaning creates millions of high frequency, cavitation vacuum bubbles that search out and implode, reaching areas unable to be cleaned by hand or other devices. The process gently, but effectively removes dirt, soot, mold, scale, rust and other residue from virtually any surface.
Where ultrasound shines is in the precision cleaning of a variety of household items. Not only is the method more cost effective, saving time and labor, Steamatic has also found it to do a better job of cleaning.
Objects are unpacked, placed in metal mesh baskets and submerged into the pre-wash tank to remove gross ash and soot using a high volume filtration pump. From there the baskets are moved to an ultrasonic tank for deep-cleaning.
The baskets of content are then finished in the rinse-detail station with clean owing rinse water removing any soap residue from the previously damaged items and then into the drying room. This entire process is operated by 3 people instead of the old crew of 6, and produces ten times the volume.
More sensitive electronic items such as computers, televisions and industrial electronics that cannot be submerged in water are placed in an electronic cleaning station. The Omega® 2300E uses a combination of finely directed de-ionized water and soap mixed with pressurized air to propel soot from surfaces without saturating the items in water.
This method is extremely accurate, thorough and most importantly safe, removing 100% of the fire damaged contamination. Once cleaned, items are placed into the Omega® 6500 electronic drying chamber for a thorough drying out.
Saving Time and Money
Since implementing the Omega® Restoration Pro System, Steamatic has found multiple benefits. “It expedites our process over doing it free-hand, probably tenfold” says Keller. “That is how fast you can clean with this system.
We went from doing 14-15 boxes per day to 60 boxes per day. I was able to reduce the cleaning crew down from 6 to 3 or 4 people.” In addition to speed, quality has also risen greatly.
Prior to ultrasonics, Steamatic was able to recover 65% – 70% of the items they took in to clean. That level has risen to over 90%. This saves insurance companies significant money on cash-outs, thus making Steamatic of Northern Las Vegas a market leader in their community.
