Post Number 200!

With this post, I have reached 200 in what may be an infinite series of blogs.  So far, it has been a very interesting adventure – not only because I’ve been able to share a lot of information with you people who read this blog but because I’ve learned as well.  Having been in the industrial parts cleaning business since 1968, I’ve seen so many changes, so many ideas, so many theories, so many “waves” of technology come and go that I have lost count.

I have always seen the blog as a vehicle, an opportunity, to share a life’s worth of knowledge that otherwise might end with me.  In fact, every time I sit down to write, I question if what I think I know is really so.  Because I feel an obligation to not let my personal belief or concept or “bent” on a topic mislead anyone, I have spent may hours of research on blogs which I could easily have written “off the top of my head,” to make sure that the information contained in them is accurate.  I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this research has frequently altered my views or increased my understanding of things which, earlier, I had taken for granted and had not questioned.

Although the blog hasn’t become the interactive “forum” I had initially hoped for, I have been told that it has spawned some lively conversations in many circles.  Interestingly, the fact that there has not been significant feedback to the blog may indicate that I am getting a few things right??  People are less likely to respond in a positive way than in a negative way.  Hopefully, some of you who have initially been in disagreement with what you’ve seen in the blog have been redirected by it to increase your understanding of topics related to industrial parts cleaning.

For now, my plan is to continue to add blog entries as long as I am able and as long as the Cleaning Technologies Group allows me the opportunity to do so.  As those of you who read the blog regularly have probably noticed, the overall blog structure is quite open, meaning that blogs may not follow any logical progression.  For this reason, I would suggest that if you have particular interest in any blog topic that  you use the “Search” feature to check for more information on the same or related topics.  If you need more, please send me an email to jfuchs@ctgclean.com.  I will do my best to either provide the information to you directly by return email or with a blog entry, or, at minimum, suggest where you might find the information you need.

As I embark on the 3rd century of blog entries, I hope that those of you who read the blog will continue to be enlightened by the topics covered here.  I would also hope that the blog will serve as a universal data base that is useful to those who enter the industrial cleaning field in the future.  The need to clean is not going to go away anytime soon and, unfortunately, I don’t see schools teaching even the most basic course in cleaning technology.  Even if they did, I’m not sure what the syllabus for that course would look like.

Finally, don’t be shy to interact.  I DO read the comments every day.  Also, please spread the word.  There is good information here for anyone who wants to partake.  Thanks for your interest and support.  Here’s to the next 100!

F. John Fuchs