skip to main content
Cargill Logo
Cargill
  • Our Stories
  • About Cargill

    About Cargill

    • Thrive Stories
    • Company Overview
    • Executive Team
    • 2022 Annual Report
    • Our History
    • Community Engagement
    • Research & Development
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Workplace Safety
    • Ethics & Compliance
    • Supplier Central
    • Contact Us
  • Sustainability

    Sustainability

    • Supply Chains
    • Sustainability Priorities
    • 2022 ESG Report
    • Reporting Hub
    • Newsletter signup
    • Innovation that Sustains
  • Products & Services

    Products & Services

    • Agriculture
    • Animal Nutrition
    • Beauty
    • Bioindustrial
    • Foodservice
    • Food & Beverage
    • Industrial
    • Pharmaceutical
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Risk Management
    • Supplements
    • Transportation
  • News

    News

    • All Press Releases
    • Company Statements
    • In The News
  • Careers
  • Worldwide
  • Contact
Home/Products & Services/Industrial/Winter Road Maintenance / Removing salt residue from plows for summer storage
  • Winter Road Maintenance
    • About Us
      • Cayuga Salt Mine
      • Customer Success Stories
      • Supply Chain Capabilities
      • Our Commitments
    • Brine makers
      • Brine maker dealers
      • AccuBatch brine maker
        • AccuBatch brine maker FAQs
        • AccuBatch Features
        • AccuBatch videos and animation
      • AccuBrine NXT-Gen
        • AccuBrine automated brine maker NXT-Gen FAQs
        • AccuBrine savings and benefits
        • AccuBrine Videos and Animation
      • AccuBrine Blend V2 truck loading and blending system
      • AccuBrine blend truck loading and blending system
    • Deicers
      • Bulk Deicing Salt
        • Bulk Deicing Salt FAQs
      • ClearLane enhanced deicer
        • ClearLane enhanced deicer FAQs
        • Costs & Savings
        • ClearLane Technology
        • ClearLane photos and media
      • CG-90 anticorrosive rock salt deicers
        • CG-90 Original anticorrosive deicer
        • CG-90 Surface Saver anticorrosive deicer
        • CG-90 anticorrosive deicers FAQs
    • Anti-icers
      • Enhanced salt brine
    • Pavements
      • SafeLane surface overlay
        • For Vehicle Traffic - HDX
        • For Pedestrian Traffic - CA-48
        • SafeLane surface overlay FAQs
        • SafeLane Technology
        • Cost Savings and Benefits
        • SafeLane Availability
        • SafeLane Photos and Media
        • SafeLane Videos and Animation
    • Ask Dr. Scott
      • About Dr. Scott
      • Video: Questions and Answers
    • Road Safety Knowledge Center
      • Winter Talk
    • Contact Us
 
hero plow

Removing salt residue from plows for summer storage

Removing salt from plows to prevent corrosion is relatively easy compared to other chemicals.

Frequent and thorough washing of deicer residues from your equipment is the best way to protect it from corrosion, and the good news is that deicer chemicals are pretty easy to remove. The most commonly used deicing chemicals are chloride salts; sodium chloride, calcium chloride and magnesium chloride.   It turns out that chloride salts are also the most corrosive to steel, but, again, the good news is that the chloride salts are also very water soluble.  In fact, they have to be.  That is what makes them such good deicers. 

A good deicer has to be able to dissolve very easily in water at cold temperatures.  We should assume then that we could, very easily, wash away deicer residues just by rinsing with water. This is true with the caveat that the water has to be able to actually reach the deicer residues. There can be some factors that make that more difficult.  There can be nooks and crannies in the equipment that makes it harder for the water to reach it. Deicer residues can get glued onto equipment surfaces by residual dirt and oil from the environment.  That can serve to coat it and insulate it from the rinsing water. 

There are a variety of commercial products that have been formulated to facilitate the rinsing and cleaning of deicer residues from equipment. These products typically contain an additive called a surfactant, and surfactants are the main active ingredient in detergent formulations.  Of course we use detergents to clean things, and the reason that we have a surfactant in detergents is that the things that we are trying to clean, typically dirt and oil-type residues, are often not very water soluble. 

Surfactants help to disperse these insoluble materials in the water and make it easier for the water to remove them.  That is one way that surfactants help to clean.  Another way is by increasing the wetting ability of water.  We have all seen that water can tend to bead up when it is on a surface, and this is due to a property of the water called the surface tension, and surfactants will lower the surface tension of water. This causes the droplets to spread out and coat the surface and do a better job of contacting it and rinsing it. 

 

Twitter Facebook Linkedin YouTube Instagram
Contact Worldwide
Privacy Notices Fraud Notice
Website Terms of Use Purchase Order Terms
© 2022 Cargill, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.