Nine products were selected from the lab's on-line database, www.cleanersolutions.org, based on past testing results matching client supplied information. Two of these products were diluted to 5% using DI water in 400 ml beakers. The other product was used at full strength as recommended by the vendor. All nine products were used at room temperature.
Peweighed steel coupons were coated with the Dykem Black Staining Color ink (123-86-4, 64-17-5, 71-36-3, 9004-70-0, 141-78-6, 109-60-4, 67-63-0, 1333-86-4) contaminant using a handheld swab. The contaminant was allowed to dry for about an hour. Once dry, the coupons were weighed a second time to determine the amount of ink applied.
Three coupons were placed into a Gardner Straight Line washability unit (designed for manual cleaning testing). The cleaning solutions were applied to the three coupons and allowed to sit for one minute. Simulated manual cleaning was run for 40 cycles or about one minute. Following cleaning, the coupons were dried 30 seconds using air blow off with dry compressed air at room temperature. Final weights were measured and efficiencies were calculated for each coupon cleaned.
Several of the selected products caused the final weights of the coupons to increase. Some of these left a residue behind on the surface, resulting in the increased weights. There were four products that were able to remove the ink from the steel coupons using manual wiping. The table lists the initial weight of the ink, the final weight and the cleaning efficiency for each coupon cleaned.
| Cleaner
|
Initial wt
|
Final wt
|
% Removed
|
| Soyclear 1500
|
0.0159
|
0.0213
|
-33.96
|
|
|
0.0442
|
0.0542
|
-22.62
|
|
|
0.0367
|
0.0448
|
-22.07
|
| Ink Zapper
|
0.0230
|
0.0103
|
55.22
|
|
|
0.0375
|
0.0144
|
61.60
|
|
|
0.0338
|
0.0216
|
36.09
|
| Citrus Soy Solvent C&D
|
0.0373
|
0.0386
|
-3.49
|
|
|
0.0429
|
0.0474
|
-10.49
|
|
|
0.0323
|
0.0386
|
-19.50
|
| Graffiti Remover SAC
|
0.0491
|
0.0288
|
41.34
|
|
|
0.0372
|
0.0179
|
51.88
|
|
|
0.0336
|
0.0200
|
40.48
|
| Inproclean 4000 T
|
0.0387
|
0.0469
|
-21.19
|
|
|
0.0457
|
0.0520
|
-13.79
|
|
|
0.0352
|
0.0467
|
-32.67
|
| Smartsolve 605
|
0.0412
|
0.0086
|
79.13
|
|
|
0.0351
|
0.0102
|
70.94
|
|
|
0.0377
|
0.0006
|
98.41
|
| SC Aircraft & Metal
|
0.0226
|
0.0246
|
-8.85
|
|
|
0.0280
|
0.0280
|
0.00
|
|
|
0.0175
|
0.0183
|
-4.57
|
| Micro 90
|
0.0107
|
0.0105
|
1.87
|
|
|
0.0457
|
0.0415
|
9.19
|
|
|
0.0380
|
0.0365
|
3.95
|
| EP 921
|
0.0262
|
0.0030
|
88.55
|
|
|
0.0122
|
0.0008
|
93.44
|
|
|
0.0510
|
0.0126
|
75.29
|