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Trial Number 0

Trial Purpose:

To evaluate biobased floor strippers.

Date Run:

10/07/2004

Experiment Procedure:

Four products were selected from the lab's inventory of biobased products. These products were specified by vendor information as being designed for floor stripping. The client's current product was included for comparative purposes. Two of the products were diluted to 10% as suggested by the manufacturer. Two others were used at full strength. The current product was used at a 25% dilution.

Fifteen preweighed plastic composite tiles were coated with Johnson Wax Professional Show Place floor finish (40861-29-8, 78-51-3, 34590-94-8, 111-90-0) using a hand held swab. The finish was dried using a hand held heat gun for two minutes at ~300 F. Once the finish/coupon had cooled, three more coats were applied following the same procedure. Coupons were reweighed to determine the amount of finish that was applied.

Three coated coupons were placed in a BYK Gardner abrasion tester used to apply uniform manually cleaning. The coupons were sprayed with a cleaning product. The formulation was allowed to sit on the finish surface for 5 minutes. A cotton rag was placed on the cleaning sled and sprayed with the same cleaning product as the coupons. The cleaning lasted for 30 cycles (50 seconds). At the end of the cleaning, the coupons were wiped once to remove any cleaner residue. Final weights were recorded and efficiencies were calculated.

Trial Results:

Only one alternative product, Solsafe 245, performed similarly to the current product under these conditions. The other three products removed only a small amount of the floor finish. The table lists the amount of finish applied, remaining and the percent effectiveness for each coupon cleaned.

Cleaner Initial wt Final wt % Removed
Johnson Wax 0.1188 0.0597 49.75
  0.1189 0.0232 80.49
  0.1173 0.0254 78.35
Eco Natural Flr Stripper 0.1190 0.1163 2.27
  0.1340 0.1309 2.31
  0.1257 0.1231 2.07
SC-EZ Solv 0.1450 0.0909 37.31
  0.1247 0.1200 3.77
  0.1541 0.1308 15.12
SC-Supersolve 0.1335 0.1218 8.76
  0.1210 0.1060 12.40
  0.1223 0.1097 10.30
SolSafe 245 0.1272 0.0731 42.53
  0.1173 0.0781 33.42
  0.1068 0.0272 74.53

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 alternative products will be retested under several different conditions (time, temp) in order to determine whether or not they should be considered a viable alternative.

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