What a Site Assessment Is Supposed to Decide
A site assessment before cleaning industrial equipment exists to answer five questions: what the soil is, what the surface can tolerate, how the area can be accessed, where the water and run-off will go, and what has to be protected or isolated while work is underway. Quotations and schedules go wrong when these are guessed from a description instead of walked on the floor. This is also the document that decides whether a fixed or a mobile machine is the right choice, which is the most expensive early mistake.
1. Identify the Soil Before Choosing the Method
- Oil and grease: way oil, cutting fluid, hydraulic fluid, gear grease. These respond to heat; they are the reason industrial steam cleaning equipment is specified in machine shops.
- Carbonised and baked-on residue: found near ovens, heat treatment, and dryer exits. Needs longer heat exposure and often a repeat pass.
- Abrasive dust: foundry sand, stone and wood dust, metal fines. Its importance is what it does when mixed with liquid, so the dry-removal step must be recorded.
- Food and biological soil: in kitchens, breweries, and meat handling. Requires a stated hygiene standard and a defined sequence, not just a clean appearance.
Record the soil by area, since a single site usually has more than one type. The soil type determines mode selection, and mode selection determines whether the task takes twenty minutes or two hours.
2. Record Surface and Equipment Tolerance
For each surface, note the material and what it cannot take: painted sheet that will blister under prolonged heat, polycarbonate windows that haze, bearings and guideways that must not receive water load, adhesive-bonded flooring, insulation that holds moisture, and any electrical enclosure whose sealing condition is unknown. Anything not clearly sealed should be listed as a no-spray item.
This is the section that protects the operation later. A steam machine at 160 °C and 0.8 MPa, such as the PowerDe HW02, is effective on steel and stainless but is a specification mismatch for a surface that cannot take heat or a jet at that pressure. Record the machine to be used against each surface group.
3. Access, Travel Distance, and Machine Choice
- Distance from the nearest water point and power supply, measured, not estimated.
- Whether the equipment can be reached with a hand-pushed machine, or whether steps, thresholds, doors, and aisles prevent it.
- Whether the machine must move between floors — which decides the battery question.
- Whether the object to be cleaned can be moved to a fixed cleaning point instead, which is often cheaper than carrying the machine to it.
Write the answer as a machine selection with reasons: fixed unit at a permanent point, hand-pushed unit for spread-out work, or a driving-style unit where the working radius is too large for a pushed tank. PowerDe builds all three configurations, so the assessment can name a configuration rather than a single model.
4. Water Supply, Run-Off, and Drainage
Record where water will be drawn, whether the inlet fitting matches the machine (PowerDe's fixed units take tap water through a 4-point internal-tooth joint), and where run-off will go. Note floor slope, drains, gullies, and any area where run-off carries oil or food solids and therefore needs containment. Also record whether the feed water is hard, since scale affects both output and service interval.
5. Protection, Isolation, and Production Impact
- What must be covered or sheeted: panels, drives, open bearings, electrical cabinets, stock in process.
- What must be locked out, and who authorises it.
- Whether the area must be vacated, and for how long, including drying time.
- Whether cleaning happens in a planned window or while neighbouring lines keep running, which affects noise, steam visibility, and walkway control.
6. Acceptance Criteria and Sign-Off
Agree the passing condition during the assessment, not after the work. State it in checkable terms: no oily transfer on a wipe test, no packed residue in a track with the guard cycling freely, viewing windows clear enough for inspection. Name the person who signs and the area each signature covers.
What the Assessment Should End With
A usable site assessment closes with four outputs: the soil list by area, the no-spray and protection list, the named machine configuration with its reason, and the acceptance criteria with the sign-off route. Anything not written in one of those four sections will be re-argued on the day.
Where the layout or duty is awkward — limited access, a fixed bay with no water point, or a cleaning task that the standard machines do not fit — PowerDe's engineering team handles customised cleaning solutions, and it is worth sending them the assessment rather than a description.
