Standards Development

Scope

WARNING — The use of this document can involve hazardous materials, operations and equipment. This document does not purport to address all of the safety problems associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this document to establish appropriate safety and health practices and to determine the applicability of any other restrictions prior to its use.

This document specifies requirements for applying and documenting methods for determining particulate contamination on functionally-relevant components and systems (cleanliness inspection) of road vehicles.

A cleanliness inspection comprises the basis of an assessment of technical cleanliness, which is performed, for example, under the following circumstances:

—     Initial inspection and evaluation

—     Inspection of incoming and outgoing components

—     Quality control or monitoring of manufacturing processes relevant to cleanliness (e.g. cleaning, surface treatment and assembly processes)

—     Root cause analysis (e.g. in cases of damage)

This document serves to make inspection results meaningful and comparable and regulates the standardized representation of cleanliness specifications and cleanliness inspection results in the quality chain of the automotive industry.

The following topics are not covered:

—     Filmic and ionic contamination (oils, anti-corrosion agents, hand sweat, solder flux residues, etc.)

—     Application of non-quantifiable particulate detection methods on test objects (e.g. visual assessment, wipe test with clean cloth, etc.)

—     Characterization of operating fluids (fuel, oils, coolant, brake fluid, etc.), see VDA 19 part 2:2010 [1]

Moreover, this document does not state any specific cleanliness limit values for specific components or systems. The degree of cleanliness required for a specific component or system depends on several highly individual factors. Guidance on deriving limit values can be found in Annex F.