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Trial Number 0

Trial Purpose:

To identify alternatives to methylene chloride for ink removal.

Date Run:

05/30/2003

Experiment Procedure:

Nine products were selected from the SSL's databases based on client supplied information. Even though the substrate to be cleaned was designated as a textile (cloth t-shirts) the initial testing was conducted on a metal substrate so that a quantitative assessment could be made on the selected cleaners. Six of the cleaners were used at full strength, one was used at 20% as recommended by the vendor and the last two were diluted to 10%. The dilutions were made using DI water. All nine products were poured into 600 ml glass beakers. All solutions were used at room temperature.

Twenty-seven preweighed stainless steel coupons were coated with one of the supplied inks, PolysOne Kennesaw Wiflex MX Mixing Colors -pink (85-68-7, 9002-86-2) using a hand held swab and allowed to dry. After drying, coupons were weighed again to determine the amount of ink applied to each coupon. Three coupons were immersed into each solution and cleaned for five minutes using stir-bar agitation. Coupons were rinsed in tap water at 120 F for 15 seconds and dried using a Master Appliance Heat Gun at 500 F for 1 minute. When coupons cooled to room temperature, final weights were measured and product efficiencies were calculated.

Trial Results:

Only one of the products tested removed over 80% of the ink using immersion cleaning alone.  However, several of the products allowed for the ink to be easily wiped off after soaking for five minutes. The following table lists the amount of soil added and removed for immersion cleaning and immersion and wipe cleaning.

Cleaner Initial wt Final wt % Removed
Soy Clear 1500 0.3350 0.3731 -11.37
  0.1579 0.1905 -20.65
  0.3726 0.4192 -12.51
Metabolix E3HB 0.5002 0.4223 15.57
  0.4014 0.3432 14.50
  0.3064 0.2163 29.41
Bio T Max 0.4396 0.0783 82.19
  0.4054 0.0365 91.00
  0.3312 0.0920 72.22
Misprint Stencil 0.3054 0.1947 36.25
  0.2610 0.1602 38.62
  0.5549 0.4100 26.11
EP 921 0.3303 0.2468 25.28
  0.5514 0.4690 14.94
  0.4398 0.3606 18.01
Ink Zapper 0.6794 0.6594 2.94
  0.6682 0.6452 3.44
  0.5475 0.5561 -1.57
California Parts Washer 0.4498 0.4254 5.42
  0.2631 0.2668 -1.41
  0.3906 0.3882 0.61
SC 1000 0.3911 0.3802 2.79
  0.4471 0.4379 2.06
  0.2728 0.2730 -0.07
Valtron SP 2201 0.3527 0.3487 1.13
  0.1992 0.1925 3.36
  0.6456 0.6370 1.33

Success Rating:

Results successful using TACT (time, agitation, concentration, and temperature, as well as rinsing and drying) and/or other cleaning chemistries examined.

Conclusion:

The successful cleaners will be evaluated on the second supplied ink.

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