Cleaning in the Chemicals Industry: Products to Clean Up Just About Everything
Cleaning can generally seem to be a routine activity that is worthy of little interest. However, a cleaning task can become quite a hassle and frustrating if the cleaning process does not work. In specific cases, cleaning is a lot like job selection: it is best to have the mindset of the right tool for the job approach. It would not be beneficial to clean a plastic part with a solvent cleaner only to see a deformation of the plastic. Also, it would be heartbreaking to wash your favorite orange shirt with bleach only to see the color fade or dissipate. Likewise, it would not be prudent to use a weak cleaner and spend hours attempting to scrub off a mess.
The correct cleaner selection can save time, unalter the object being cleaned, save money, and leave a nicely cleaned surface. At First Source Worldwide, we service a multitude of industries and have select cleaners for certain industries. We have designed our cleaners to meet the challenges of each industry with our customer’s specifications in mind.
Cleaning theory sometimes is broken down into the saying “like chemicals dissolves like chemicals”. While water is a great cleaner for simple cleaning tasks, there are limitations to the chemicals it can solubilize and clean. From the famous childhood water and oil experiment, we learn no matter how hard we mix or shake the oil and water, the two components will never mix. Water does not dissolve all oils or soils. Cleaning formulations are made to overcome water’s solubility limitations.
Cleaning formulations can be designed to enhance the solubilizing of the oils and soils which improves cleaning ability. Solvents and surfactants can have selective solubility characteristics that interact with soil using the like dissolves like properties. The solvents and surfactant materials are added to cleaning formulations to optimize the cleaning task, from removing grease or general all-purpose cleaning.
Cleaning product formulation accounts for the:
- Soil(s) Being Cleaned Away
- the Surface Being Cleaned
- Cost / Value
- Performance/ Time Cleaning / Use
- Health, Regulatory, Safety, and Ecological Factors
- Odor
FSW has extensive technical expertise and services a wide variety of industries. We have a broad range of cleaner offerings to assist with your cleaning needs. A short overview of the FSW cleaning product lines are:
- Soraclean – Remover or aggressive cleaner line that can be diluted to a milder cleaning solution.
- Meropol Soap – a ready-to-use cleaning solution line.
- Meropol BS – a degreaser or cleaner line for leather.
- Soralon – textile cleaners
- Sora Scour – a scouring Textile cleaner
Please click the picture below to contact us if you have further questions regarding cleaners, our cleaning products, or your company’s cleaning needs!
About the Author: Andrew Movrich
