EP0500554A1

EP0500554A1 - A cleaning composition

Info

Publication number: EP0500554A1
Application number: EP19900914792
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bror-Erik Steen
Original assignee: LB-Kemiprodukter AB
Current assignee: LB-KEMIPRODUKTER AB
Priority date: 1989-10-18
Filing date: 1990-08-23
Publication date: 1992-09-02
Also published as: SE8903432D0; SE8903432L; SE500588C2; WO1991005843A1

Abstract

Composition de nettoyage comprenant du diéthylèneglycol.Cleaning composition comprising diethylene glycol.

Description

A cleaning composition

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART

The present invention relates generally to cleaning composi¬ tions and particularly to the ones for removing unwanted paint deriving from graffiti or scrawling from surfaces, such as house walls, the interior of underground wagons and so on.

Although the problems of removing scrawl will be discussed below, the invention is not in any way restricted to this field of use, but it concerns all types of cleaning, such as for example removal of marks created on a floor by rubber soles, removal of paint stains or blots unintentionally produced when painting and so on.

For the removal of scrawl paint it was until today necessary to use cleaning compositions based on petroleum, which however have a number of serious disadvantages. It is bad for the health to inhale them because of their poisonousness and they also attack the skin of the cleaning person, if they come into contact therewith. This means that a considerable protective equipment will be required, which also will comprise such an uncomfortable member as a protective mask. This makes it not only unpleasant to carry out these cleaning works, but they also require more time as would be the case if a cleaning composition may be handled comparatively freely. The cleaning compositions of this kind already known do not possess the desired cleaning ability. This fact also lead to a prolongation of the time consumed for a certain cleaning work.

Since "scrawling actions" have been carried out more and more frequently during the past and costs for removing scrawl accordingly have run away, it has become very important to solve the problem to produce a cleaning composition for this purpose being more efficient and more kind to the environment.

It is once again pointed out that the cleaning composition according to our invention is not restricted to the field of use discussed above, and that cleaning compositions hitherto known intended for other cleaning purposes, especially removal of paint, also have similar disadvantages as far as it concerns poisonousness, demand for protective equipment and a lower cleaning efficiency than would be desired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning composition which to a great extent reduces the disadvantages mentioned above of the cleaning compositions already known of the kind described above.

According to the invention this object is obtained by providing a cleaning composition comprising diethylene glycol. Thus, the invention is based on the understanding that the diethylene glycol otherwise only used as solvent could be suitable as cleaning composition. This understanding has led to a cleaning composition with a very high cleaning capacity. The cleaning composition according to the invention is very kind to the environment with respect to the cleaning compositions of the above mentioned type already known, since it does not contain any petroleum or other dangerous components, and the handling thereof requires the use of tight protective goggles and plastic or rubber gloves and boots. Accordingly, no protective mask is required, so that the cleaning work may be carried out in a more comfortable and rational manner. In addition thereto, the cleaning capacity thereof is amazing and by far exceeds the one of the cleaning compositions.of this kind already known.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the cleaning composition comprises a mixture of diethylene glycol and water, said water content leading to a reduction of the evaporation rate of the cleaning composition as well as the inflammability thereof, and the cleaning composition becomes almost free from smell at a distance of a few decimeters. Furthermore, the water content of the cleaning composition makes it easier to handle it, since it may be brought into contact with water without the occurrence of anything serious. However, in using a cleaning composition comprising exclusively diethylene glycol one has to be careful, since the pure diethylene glycol reacts briskly with water while creating heat, which has to be considered when washing the surfaces cleaned by the cleaning composition with water.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention the cleaning composition also comprises SiO -powder mixed with the diethylene glycol, which gives the composition a good adherence to surfaces and thereby enables an effective cleaning of surfaces from which the gravity tends to remove the cleaning composition, for instance walls, ceilings, other vertical surfaces and the like.

The invention also concerns the use of a composition comprising diethylene glycol as a cleaning composition. The advantages of such a surprising use have been mentioned above. Further pre¬ ferred features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description and the other dependent claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention a cleaning composition comprises 7% by weight of water, 0,005% by weight of SiO_-powder and the rest is diethylene glycol. Diethylen glycol is provided by among others Mataki Kemi AB and has the formula C_H_.OCH₂CH₂OCH₂CH₂OH. Its name is according to chemical nomenclature in fact 2-(2 ethoxy ethoxy)ethanol. The ^si°₂- powder is the one provided by Mataki Kemi AB with the desi¬ gnation HDK T-30, which has turned out to be particularly efficient to give a mixture containing diethylene glycol the capability to adhere to vertical walls and the like.

In the production of the cleaning composition according to the invention the water constituent is slowly added to the diethy¬ lene glycol on supervising the temperature of the mixture, since an admixture taking place too fast will result in a brisk reaction. When the water has been added to the diethylene glycol the Si0₂-powder is admixed while stirring.

The cleaning composition according to this embodiment has a very high cleaning capacity. It is preferably applied by spraying onto the surfaces to be cleaned. After that one has to wait a while, which can be from some seconds to some minutes depending upon the type of impurity or paint to be removed from a surface. The cleaning means will during this time completely dissolve the impurity or paint stain or blot, and when this has taken place a dry rag is taken and one wipes and rubs over the stain until it has disappeared. The cleaned surface is there¬ after washed with water. Since the cleaning composition is easily and rapidly dissolved in water it may be efficiently removed from the surface in this way.

An advantage of the cleaning composition according to the invention consists in that it dissolves the stains or blots to be removed from the surface, but it simultaneously keeps the dissolved stain in its original form and prevents it from flowing out and be spread over the surface in question. This implies that the continuous unit formed by the cleaning composition together with the impurity it dissolves may be easily removed without unnecessary smearing of clean surface portions adjacent to the impurity.

Thanks to the addition of water to the diethylene glycol the cleaning effect will be a little bit lower, so that it is possible to remove paint stains existing on an underlaying paint layer, since the rate at which the paint stain in ques¬ tion is dissolved will not be higher than to let the dissolved paint stain be removed before the cleaning composition has managed to act also upon the underlaying paint layer.

The capability of the cleaning composition to dissolve stains or blots of paint and other impurities has turned out to be very high. When using it for removing stains being not too difficult to solve a water content of about 10% by weight can be accepted, but experiments have shown that a higher water content leads to a too low cleaning capability of the cleaning composition. Experiments have shown that when more difficultly soluble stains are removed, the water content should not be higher than 7%. Thus, the water existing in the cleaning composition slightly reduces the cleaning composition, but this reduction is comparatively small in the interval 0-7% by weight of water. However, the presence of water in the cleaning composition leads to a number of positive characteristics of the same. The water reduces the evaporation of the composition, it removes the smell, which only may be perceived by the user in putting his nose very close to the cleaning composition, and it reduces the inflammability of the cleaning composition. The lowest temperature, the flash point, at which the cleaning composition having the proportions described above (water 7%, HDK T-30 0,05% and diethylene glycol for the rest), which has been set to fire, burns on its own after the removal of the ignition means is approximately 60°C. Furthermore, the water proportion of the cleaning composition makes it possible to bring it together with water without causing brisk, explo¬ sion-like reactions. Experiments have shown that the SiO -powder HDK T-30 is parti¬ cularly suited to give the cleaning composition an ability to adhere to surfaces, such as vertical walls and ceilings. Tests have shown that the content of SiO -powder of this kind mixed with the diethylene glycol should be at least 0,005% by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition. When the content of the SiO„-powder is lower the cleaning composition will not adhere sufficiently well to for instance a wall, but it tends to flow downwardly thereof. However, higher contents of SiO -powder than 0,005% by weight are possible, but the composition tends to become too gluey for contents over 1% by weight. Different types of SiO -powder have been tested, and among this HDK T-30 produced by Mataki Kemi AB in Malmό has been found to be the most efficient one.

The cleaning composition according to the invention has turned out to be very efficient in removing spray paints and drawing ink deriving from graffiti from for instance concrete walls, underground seats, interior walls in underground wagons and so on. However, the cleaning composition according to the inven¬ tion is adapted to remove all kind of stains. It is for example very efficient in cleaning floors and removing stains there¬ from.

On reading the appended claims 5 and 10 it shall of course be understood that the total proportion of the other components of the mixture amounts to 100% by weight reduced by the proportion of SiO ___-powder therein. This means for example that in reading claim 5 in dependence of claim 4, the total proportion of diethylene glycol and water in the composition has to be 100% by weight reduced by the proportion of Si0₂-powder. This results in the impossibility of the combination of 93% by weight of diethylene glycol and 7% by weight of water, but any of these proportions has to be reduced in correspondence with the proportion of Si0₂~powder in the composition. The invention is of course not restricted to the preferred embodiments of the cleaning composition described above, but it would also be conceivable to provide it with smaller amounts of additional components, without necessarily considerably redu¬ cing the cleaning features thereof. Such smaller admixtures may be made so as to give the cleaning composition any particular characteristic, which makes it particularly suited to a certain field of use.

Claims

1. A cleaning composition, c h a r a c t e r i z e ^' in that it comprises diethylene glycol.

2. A cleaning composition according to claim 1, c h a r a c ¬ t e r i z e d in that it comprises a mixture of 90-100 percent by weight of diethylene glycol and 0-10 percent by weight of water with respect to the total weight of the composition.

3. A cleaning composition according to claim 2, c h a r a c ¬ t e r i z e d in that the proportion of diethylene glycol is 93-98 percent by weight and the proportion of water is 2-7 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

4. A cleaning composition according to claim 2 or 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the proportion of diethylene glycol is 93-95 percent by weight and the proportion of water is 5-7 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

5. A cleaning composition according to any of the preceding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that it comprises Si0₂-powder mixed with the diethylene glycol to a proportion of at least 0,005 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

6. Use of a composition comprising diethylene glycol as a cleaning composition.

7. Use according to claim 6, wherein said composition comprises a mixture of 90-100 percent by weight of diethylene glycol and 0-10 percent by weight of water with respect to the total weight of the composition.

8. Use according to claim 7, wherein the proportion diethylene glycol is 93-98 percent by weight and water 2-7 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

9. Use according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the proportion diethylene glycol is 93-95 percent by weight and water 5-7 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

10. Use according to any of the claims 6-9, wherein it compri¬ ses SiO_-powder mixed with the diethylene glycol to a propor¬ tion of at least 0,005 percent by weight with respect to the total weight of the composition.

11. Use according to any of the claims 6-10, wherein the composition is used for removing unwanted paint from surfaces.

12. Use according to claim 11, wherein the composition is used for removing paint deriving from graffiti or scrawling.

13. Use according to claim 12, wherein the composition is used for removing paint from concrete surfaces.

14. Use according to any of the claims 6-10, wherein the composition is used within the cleaning sector for removing stains from floors, walls and pieces of furniture.