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Comprehensive guide of cleaning aids Detergent manufacturer H

Guide for selecting cleaning aids 

For challenges in cleaning agent development: a guide page on designing cleaning agents to support your formulation work!

Daily Use Materials Environmental/ Water Treatment
Dispersion / Aggregation Environmental Friendliness

Mr. A is a member of the research and development department at H, a detergent manufacturer. Previously, he was in charge of laundry detergents, but this time, for the first time, he was involved in the development of industrial detergents. Because industrial detergents and laundry detergents differ greatly in the "objects to be cleaned," "types of soil," and "conditions of use," it was necessary to completely rethink the detergent formulation, which required him to acquire basic knowledge and go through trial and error.

* This is a hypothetical example posted as a reference for those with similar challenges

Challenges

Developing industrial cleaners requires selecting the right cleaning ingredients depending on the type of soil and target to be cleaned. Combining surfactants and cleaning aids can be difficult.

Mr.A is working on developing an industrial cleaning agent for a specific industry. His superiors have instructed him, "This project is important, so it's especially important to design the concept, build a hypothesis about the cleaning mechanism, and incorporate it into the formulation, so I want you to work hard on it," and he has been working on the development with the help of those around him.

First, in the concept design, they set the object to be cleaned and the type of soil, and then determined the target performance of the cleaning agent based on usage conditions such as cleaning temperature, time, and water quality, as well as constraints such as protection of the material surface and safety.

Next, they formulated hypotheses regarding the cleaning mechanism of soil lifting, peeling (separation), removal, dispersion, and prevention of soil redeposition and investigated which cleaning process had issues, as well as the synergistic effects with mechanical force under the conditions of use.

When Mr. A reached the stage of considering a detergent formulation, he was confused by the fact that the types of surfactants and cleaning aids, as well as the compounding stability, were significantly different from what he had experienced before. He was racking his brains, not knowing how to optimize the formulation.

"In our past experience, we hadn't encountered many of the performance and challenges required of this cleaner, such as the need for low foaming to prevent excessive foaming that can disrupt the process, and the poor dispersion stability caused by surfactants. Restrictions on the use of certain chelating agents also made it difficult to select the cleaner ingredients..." (Mr. A)

After much effort, he managed to combine several types of surfactants and come close to meeting the required characteristics, but he was unable to reach the target performance. As the deadline for submission approached, Mr. A felt anxious, but he continued to search for clues to master the use of the cleaning aids.

Solutions

Solution Summary

  • A researcher developing cleaning agents, Mr. A, was struggling to develop an industrial cleaning agent. One day, he heard about a website by Nippon Shokubai, that provides a guide to designing cleaning agents, so he decided to check it out.

  • The cleaning agent guide page contains information that can be learned from the basics of cleaning agent design. There is also a wealth of information on cleaning aids, which was helpful for Mr. A in developing his cleaning agent.

A useful guide page introduced to me by a senior colleague. Learn how to use cleaning aids...

Mr. A was interested in the information provided by senior employees at the weekly workplace meeting.

A senior employee announced, "Yesterday, I found a page that provides a guide to cleaning agents on the Nippon Shokubai website. It has a lot of information about cleaning aids and looks useful, so I will share it with you by email after the  meeting."

As soon as the meeting ended, Mr. A went to Nippon Shokubai 's website to look for a guide page on cleaning aids. There, he found information that taught him the basics of cleaning agent design, and the types of cleaning aids that Mr. A wanted to know about, as well as key points to consider when designing a cleaning agent, all clearly organized.

"The article also included easy-to-understand examples and mechanisms for how cleaning agents remove soil, which helped me to gain a deeper understanding. I contacted Nippon Shokubai that same day to explain my project and discuss samples. Although I was in a tight schedule, it looks like I'll be able to start prototyping right away by adding the cleaning aids I received." (Mr. A)

Once the prototype was ready to be submitted to the client, Mr. A immediately reported the details to his superior. His superior responded favorably, much to Mr. A's relief.

Visit our Guide page to see the details