The SOLVETEX VIII benchmark study, available on WOPCOM

The Solvetex projects are executed by TKT on behalf of CINET. They provide an independent overview of the cleaning performance for professional textile cleaning processes.

During the last years, many chemical and detergent suppliers have developed their own solvent. In Solvetex VII, the following solvents were evaluated in a benchmark study: HiGlo (Cole&Wilson), Intense (Seitz), K4 (Kreussler) and Sensene (SafeChem). To provide an up-to-date benchmark, these solvents were evaluated at a testing location by TKT to determine the cleaning performance according to the Solvetex procedure. This enabled updating of the Solvetex benchmark study with the current state of the art cleaning technologies. The results of this set of measurements were compared with those for PERC and HCS as measured in the Solvetex 1 project. The testing conditions in the project Solvetex 1 were however not identical, as these tests were conducted at dry cleaners with their standard process and their normal cleaning load and not at a testing location.

To enable a better comparison of the solvents tested in Solvetex VII with the performance of a state-of-the-art PERC cleaning process, in Solvetex VIII, the performance of a modern PERC-cleaning process was determined. The testing conditions in Solvetex VIII were identical to those in Solvetex VII to allow optimal comparison. The results of this set of measurements were compared with those of Solevetex VII and those of HCS as measured in the Solvetex 1 project.

Conclusions

All tested solvent systems perform quite well and the differences between the performance of a modern PERC-cleaning process and the 4 solvent systems tested in Solvetex VII are relatively small.

With regard to the cleaning performance, it appears that the performance of Higlo is comparable with the performance of PERC. The other solvents outperform PERC slightly. Furthermore, table 4 indicates that the removal of the lipstick stain in PERC is better than in the 4 solvents tested in Solvetex VII. As said before, the plastic cover on this stain was not removed prior to cleaning for all measured solvents apart from the HCS measurement from Solvetex I. Removing this plastic cover, would however have probably lead to an even better score for stain removal of the solvents tested in Solvetex VII and VIII. PERC shows a significantly better stain removal than HCS. Overall, the differences in stain removal between the solvents tested in Solvetx VII and Solvetex VIII are relatively small. When comparing the results of these solvents with those for HCS from Solvetex 1, it must be kept in mind that the process conditions in Solvetex 1 were not identical.

With regard to greying, the differences between the solvents tested in Solvetx VII and Solvetx VIII are relatively small, with the greying for the cotton cloth being more severe than for the woollen cloth. The greying of the solvents tested in Solvetex VII and VIII is less than that of the HCS as tested in Solvetex 1.

Also, with regard to the dimensional change of the test fabrics ISM C1 and ISM W1, the results of the solvent systems tested in Solvetex VII and VIII are quite comparable, the dimensional change of the woolen test fabric being smaller than that of the cotton test fabric. The dimensional change of the test fabrics cleaned with HCS in Solvetex 1 is however lower.

With regard to the dimensional change of the garments as measured in Solvetex VII and VIII, it is clear that the dimensional change for the knitted pullover (100% wool) (3-4 %) is significantly higher than the dimensional change of the jackets. The dimensional change of the jacket (wool/polyester) (0-1%) is smaller than that of the 100% woollen jacket (0,3-1,5%). The dimensional change was measured without finishing. PERC showed a very low level of dimensional change on the jackets, especially the 100% woollen jacket. Concluding however, also with regard to the dimensional change of the garments, the results for the solvents tested in Solvetex VII and Solvetex VIII are quite comparable.

The visual assessment results are quite positive.. However, even after 3 cycles without finishing in between, no bad results for the visual appearance were achieved. It was furthermore concluded that the minor deviations in visual appearance can be corrected without any problem by finishing.

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