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By Robert P. Barker, President, Penflex

How could companies benefit from a flex hose with a truly clean ID? How much time and money would be saved using a hose that comes off the machine without moisture, oils or grease?

Throughout the semiconductor supply chain, high purity gases play a key role in supporting clean and precise operations. The purity of these gases must be ensured at each step of shipment, storage and delivery, a task that relies on the cleanliness of the conduits themselves.

What Traditional Hose Manufacturing Processes Leave Behind

Making metal hose begins with thin strips of material. The edges are brought together to form a straight tube. Corrugations are then introduced to deliver a hose that can bend and flex in response to the needs of many applications.

Various processes are used to create corrugations. Hydroforming uses high pressure water to “push” the material from the inside into dies surrounding the hose. The shape of the dies determines the shape of the corrugations.

Mechanical forming uses either dies that are split into two sections of a ring, which squeeze the tube and move towards one another to form a corrugation, or a series of dies that rotate around the tube progressively creating deeper indentations that ultimately form the corrugations.  

Both production methods produce a quality hose for most applications. However, for the most stringent use cases, like those seen in semiconductor manufacturing, they may be unsuitable. The important question for high purity gas applications is: “Will a hydroformed hose ever truly be rid of moisture?”

Earlier mechanical forming processes relied on a sizing ball on the inside of a hose to help maintain the shape of the tube before corrugations were created. To prevent wear, a small amount of lubrication oil was often used.

Required Post-Production Cleaning, Draining and Drying

Hoses transporting high purity gases must be adequately cleaned to remove such harmful contaminants. This often means specifications requiring post-production cleaning and further testing accompany purchase orders for metal hose assemblies. 

These specifications describe how to clean a hose with a spar nozzle or interior mandrel using various aqueous solutions and detail how they then must be drained and oven dried. Each process requires a high degree of labor.

Then, to confirm cleanliness, these instructions lay out additional testing procedures to confirm the absence of hydrocarbons and particulate. Though a requirement, these processes themselves can sometimes lead to recontamination. Cleaning agents may remove the oil, but they may also leave behind solvent, acid or alkali residues.

Draining, drying and multiple rounds of testing contribute to the added costs and long lead times users have come to expect, but it may be time to rethink those expectations. All this post-production work and testing is unnecessary. Mechanical forming can now produce a hose without the need for lubrication.

An Innovation in Metal Hose Forming Technology

Consistent refinements have led to the removal of internal tooling in Penflex’s new CL3 mechanical forming process. The sizing ball is no longer needed thanks to greater precision and the result–the new Clean ID product line–is a hose devoid of any oils or tooling marks.

Current post-production requirements can be removed. In a process that uses neither water nor lubrication on the inside, there is no need for additional cleaning, draining, drying and retesting that layer in costs and extend delivery times. And, as an added benefit, with less risk of moisture exposure to the test equipment, CL3 enables faster, more reliable mass spectrometer leak testing.

As anyone working in the semiconductor space would be quick to note, a truly clean inside presents opportunities for streamlined supply chains and greater efficiencies in operation.

Streamlined Supply Chains and More Efficient Processes

One leading US manufacturer of cryogenic coolers found that switching to Clean ID allowed them to eliminate a time-consuming cleaning process, meaning hoses could be installed sooner and the team of five responsible for cleaning the inside of the hoses could be reassigned.

Made from 316 or 321 stainless steel, Clean ID is currently available in sizes ½”, ¾” and 1”. With a lightweight construction and design that prioritizes flexibility, the hose makes for easy handling and installation.

With the projected increase in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, companies that find ways to shorten their supply chains and maximize the efficiency of their processes will be best-placed to capitalize on that growth. Albeit a small one, Clean ID has an important role to play in helping these companies succeed. After all, you can’t take out what was never there!