1. What is actually on the surface, and how thick is it
"Grease" is a loose word. Cutting fluid residue, way oil, hydraulic fluid, graphite mixed with fine chips, and baked-on oil from a heat process all behave differently. A wet, recent film of cutting fluid comes off easily. Grease that has been repeatedly heated and re-cooled has polymerised into a lacquer that no rinse alone will lift. Ask the buyer to describe the last time the machine was cleaned, what was used, and whether the deposit is soft and smeary or hard and glassy.
This question changes the cleaning method, not just the effort. For soft oil and water-soluble coolant residue, machine tool steam cleaning with a hot-water pass followed by a dry-steam pass is usually enough. For polymerised lacquer we expect a slower pass, a closer nozzle distance, and possibly a mechanical wipe between passes. We would rather say "expect a longer cycle" up front than promise a clean machine on a first pass that physics does not support.
2. What is exposed, and what must stay dry
A machine tool is not one surface. Way covers, ball screws, linear guides, encoder strips, servo motors, electrical cabinets, pneumatic fittings and lubrication points all sit within reach of a nozzle, and they tolerate water very differently. We ask the buyer to tell us which parts are already sealed and which are open, and whether the manufacturer's manual restricts washing on the frame at all.
The honest answer shapes the proposal. Where open ways and readheads are nearby, wet steam is the wrong tool and dry steam — lower moisture, higher temperature — is the safer starting point. Where the machine can be masked and drained, a wetter pass does the heavy work and a dry pass finishes it. Our high-pressure steam cleaning machine line switches between dry and wet steam on the same gun for exactly this reason, so an operator can change behaviour mid-job instead of changing machines.
3. Can the machine be stopped, and for how long
Cleaning windows are the real constraint in a machining shop. A machine that can sit over a weekend can be cleaned slowly and thoroughly. A machine with a four-hour window between shifts has to be cleaned fast, which favours a machine with enough output that the operator is not waiting for steam to recover between passes.
We ask what the window is, who cleans, and whether the shift pattern repeats. If a plant runs three shifts and cleaning only happens on Sunday, a single fixed unit serving the whole shop is usually the right call. If cleaning happens nightly on different cells spread across the building, mobility matters more than raw output.
4. What utilities exist at the cleaning point
This is where proposals most often go wrong, because the shop floor rarely matches the drawing. We ask three specific things: the supply voltage available where the machine will actually stand, whether a water tap reaches that point, and how the spent wash water is collected.
On our fixed models, the working supply is 220 V and the water inlet takes tap water through a 4-point internal-tooth fitting, which is worth checking against the local hose before an order is placed rather than after delivery. Voltage in particular is a regional matter — what is normal at one plant is not available at another, and a unit specified on assumptions will sit idle while an electrician is scheduled.
Drainage is the second buried issue. Grease and coolant residue washed off a machine tool is not clean water. A shop that has no oil-water separation or collection channel will create a compliance problem by cleaning. If that is the situation, we would rather know before quoting so the buyer can budget for the collection side of the job.
5. What is being cleaned for
The purpose decides the acceptance standard, and the acceptance standard decides the specification. Some plants want factory machinery degreasing before an audit or a customer visit, where appearance is the criterion. Some want it before re-renting a used machine, where the buyer will look inside the enclosure. Some want it because oil has migrated into a measuring area and is affecting readings, where the criterion is functional rather than cosmetic. And some want it as part of preventive maintenance, where the standard is that the cleaning is fast and safe enough to be repeated.
Each answer leads to a different recommendation. A cosmetic standard can be met with a short weekly routine using a smaller, mobile unit. A functional standard usually requires that we discuss the surrounding process — coolant type, chip handling, how often ways are oiled — because the grease problem is often a symptom of something upstream.
6. What has already been tried, and what went wrong
This question saves the most money. A shop that has already pressure-washed a machining centre and paid for a controller replacement has a different conversation from one that has only used rags and solvent. Solvent wiping moves grease around and leaves a film; high-pressure cold water drives it into gaps and leaves standing water in places it should never be. If either has already happened, we ask what damage followed, because that tells us which precautions to write into the procedure.
Chemical detergents are the other common history. Many plants rely on strong alkaline cleaners because that is what the maintenance team has always used. Steam cleaning reduces or removes that dependency, which matters where the shop has to handle and dispose of detergent, where residue gets onto finished parts, or where operator exposure is a concern. If that is the buyer's motivation, we say so plainly and design the procedure around it rather than treating it as a side note.
7. How far the machine has to move
A fixed unit with an 80 L tank and 6 kW of heating power stays where it is installed and works outward. A hand-pushed unit travels. The distance between the cleaning point and the power supply, the width of the aisles, the presence of thresholds and ramps, and whether the unit has to go up a lift all determine which of these is realistic.
Our hand-pushed models move on battery and are built for moving between rooms rather than serving one fixed station, and the published dimensions — 1,150 × 520 × 1,030 mm on the HMW3 — fit most standard doorways but not all. We ask the buyer to measure the route, not just the room. A machine that cannot reach the cleaning point is a spec-sheet success and a practical failure.
What we send once these questions are answered
Not a catalogue page. A proposal that names the unit, states the supply requirements the plant must provide, describes the pass sequence for the specific deposit, and says what we expect the result to be and where it may fall short. If the answers tell us that steam is the wrong approach for that machine, we say that too, and the buyer is free to buy nothing from us.
If you are specifying cleaning for a machining shop or a production line and want that kind of answer rather than a price list, send us the machine type, the deposit you are fighting, the cleaning window you have, and the utilities available at the point of use. You can describe your situation on the customized steam cleaning equipment page and we will respond with a configuration and the assumptions behind it.
