GB2033421A

GB2033421A - Cleansing Composition

Info

Publication number: GB2033421A
Application number: GB7934498A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: SCHEIDEL GEORG GmbH
Current assignee: SCHEIDEL GEORG GmbH
Priority date: 1978-10-06
Filing date: 1979-10-04
Publication date: 1980-05-21
Also published as: GB2033421B; DE2843764C3; FR2438078B1; DE2843764A1; FR2438078A1; DE2843764B2; CH644396A5

Abstract

A cleansing composition for removing wet and dried paint from painting tools comprises, in addition to up to 25 parts by weight of an emulsifier, from 75 to 98 parts by weight of a solvent comprising from 40 to 70 parts by weight of a natural terpene and from 5 to 49 parts by weight of an alcohol which preferably is a glycol-type compound although diacetone alcohol or an alkanol such as butanol can be present. Optionally, compounds such as ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate are present.

Description

SPECIFICATION Cleansing Composition The invention relates to cleansing compositions which are mainly intended for cleaning undesired substances, possibly in a solid form, (more especially paint or the like) from painting tools such as brushes, rollers or the like. The cleansing compositions of the invention are furthermore compounded so that they may be used for removing tar or resin deposits which may or may not have taken on a solid form.

Previous cleansing compositions for this purpose have been composed of from 75 to 98 parts by weight of a solvent in the form of an aromatic and/or aliphatic hydrocarbon, optionally together with butanol or a glycol. By the use of such a solvent together with an emulsifier, of which a great number of different sorts are readily available commercially, it is possible to cleanse a brush or the like so that it may then be washed clean in running water.

In place of aromatic or aliphatic hydrocarbons use may furthermore be made of chlorinated hydrocarbons, it being best for them to be used under a layer of water so that there is less loss of such chlorinated hydrocarbons as vapor when used in open brush pots or the like.

Although it is true that some of these solvents are not as such unhealthy, they do not in general undergo biological degradation, that is to say it is against the law, at least in some countries, for them to be run off into the public drains or sewers after use. Furthermore they may not be run off into the earth or into public bodies of water such as rivers. For this . eason the directions of manufacturers of such cleansing compositions that brushes or the like which have been placed in the cleansing compositions should be washed out in water, may in fact be tantamount to a request for doing an unlawful act in view of regulations in force, because the running water goes by way of settlement tanks or the like, into the public sewerage system or may be run off into the earth.

Biological degradation has only so far been possible, if at all, when hydrocarbons with a generally poor solvent power are used, e.g. solvent naphtha together with generally high amounts of emulsifier.

The cleansing composition so made is however generally only capable of dissolving a small amount of normal paints if they have dried somewhat, i.e. such compositions cannot in most cases be used for cleaning off deposits in a solid form or, putting it differently, the compositions in question are not general-purpose cleaners.

In paint spraying works, for example for motor cars, dirty solvents are sent to commercial organisations for destruction. In the case of outdoor work on buildings however unused solvents are disposed of in some way or other on the spot. Peopie undertaking do-it-yourself operations generally, however, do not have any knowledge of commercial solvent disposal organisations so that, because of the ever-increasing desire to undertake painting and spraying operations and the like in the home, ever greater amounts of solvents which are unable to undergo degradation biologically, get into the public sewerage system.

The present invention seeks to provide a cleansing composition the components of which can in general undergo biological degradation so that the composition may be run into the public sewerage system while still keeping to public laws and regulations but on the other hand the solvent of which has a high solvent power and may be used unrestrictedly, that is to say for generally al! dry deposits produced by normal paints or the like cheaply and without any undesired effects on the surroundings.

According to the present invention there is provided a cleansing composition comprising from 75 to 98 parts by weight of a solvent and up to 25 parts by weight of an emulsifier, wherein the solvent comprises from 40 to 70 parts by weight of a terpene, especially a natural terpene, and from 5 to 49 parts by weight of an alcohol.

An especially suitable terpene is d-limonene, although other terpenes may also be used, alone or in admixture. In many cases it is preferred for the terpene to constitute from 48 to 70% by weight of the cleansing composition.

Preferably, the alcohol component, which may be a single compound or a mixture of two or more compounds, consists of or includes at least one glycol-type compound, by which we mean not only glycols (dihydric alcohols) but also glycol esters and, preferably, glycol ethers (which still contain a free hydroxyl group). Suitable glycol ethers include ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (methyl glycol) and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (ethyl glycol), which are both examples of lower alkyl monoethers of lower alkylene glycols. Desirably the glycol-type compound constitutes from 5 to 40% by weight of the cleansing composition.

Other alcohols may also be used, for example lower alkanols such as butanol. Especially when a glycol-type compound is also present the amount of butanol is suitably up to 20% by weight of the composition. However, if a glycol-type compound is omitted altogether, the amount of butanol may be increased to about 49 parts by weight, although in this case the cleansing material is likely to have a less powerful effect, that is to say it is less likely to be useful for removing dried paint deposits not readily acted upon by solvents.

The cleansing compositions of the invention are in general substantially free from aromatic and/or aliphatic hydrocarbons and/or chlorinated hydrocarbons but they may contain minor amounts of alcohol-related compounds, particularly glycol-ether-ester compounds which no longer have a free hydroxyl group. Thus, for example, they optionally contain up to 20 parts by weight of ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate.

The total solvent content of the cleansing compositions of the invention is suitably 75 to 90% by weight. The residual proportion is normally constituted by the emulsifier, which is thus suitably present in an amount of from 10 to 25% by weight, although smaller amounts may be used particularly amounts down to 5% by weight, especially in embodiments where the butanol content is high and glycol-type and glycol-related compounds are absent. Even lower amounts may be used in special cases.

There are generally no limits to the selection of the emulsifier and known, commercially available materials may be used, e.g. those already used in cleansing compositions for this purpose. For example it is possible to make use of Hoechst emulsifier Arkopal N-080; Hoechst emulsifier Saporenat A konz.

or Dehydag emulsifier Dehydol 100. Any other emulsifier with desirable properties may be used instead, particularly the more readily biodegradable emulsifiers.

It is well known that natural terpenes are solvents, see, on this point, "Seifen-Ole-Fette-Wachse103. Jg.-Nr. 16/1977" pages 470 and 471 in which Kunzmann gives an account of tests on the purposes for which terpene hydrocarbons may be used as solvents, it being said as well that dlimonene, which is nearly 100% chemically pure, may undergo biological degradation and that it has been used in the chemical industry with the desired effect.

It is however not said in that paper that d-limonene together with an emulsifier can furthermore be used as a cleansing composition for cleaning off deposits of paint or the like. This is furthermore not surprising because d-limonene is less readily emulsified and is more water repellent than aliphatic, aromatic or chlorinated hydrocarbon materials so far used in such cleansing compositions. Thus, although the solvent properties of this natural terpene are well known, an expert would have had no reason for believing that it could be used for a cleansing composition for achieving the aim of the present invention.This was more especially true because the amounts of the high-price emulsifier, designed to be biodegradable, have to be kept under a certain price level and a natural terpene such as d-limonene cannot by itself be used for dissolving more than a small number of normal paint types.

It is surprising that with the compositions of the invention, made up of the given amounts by weight of d-limonene or other terpene and of alcohol, especially glycol-type compounds. the solvent power can be increased to such an extent that, generally speaking, even dried deposits of all normal paints and single component varnishes may be removed without the high level of biological degradation for which the terpene (e.g. limonene) is responsible being lowered and without the cleansing composition of the invention being made dangerous to health.

A specially useful effect of the cleansing compositions of the invention is that, even with the high solvent power, evaporation takes place very slowly, so that only very small amounts of cleansing composition are needed in order to produce the desired cleaning effect. This decreases the expense involved in using the cleansing composition. Furthermore, the cleansing composition does not have any harmful effects on the environment, because only small amounts of the cleansing composition get into the public sewerage system, because of the ready degradation of the solvent.

In a further development of the invention diacetone alcohol, suitably in an amount of up to 10 parts by weight, is used in the alcohol component of the cleansing composition of the invention.

So far such a material has not been used, or even contemplated, as an ingredient in cleansing compositions for this purpose. However it has a two-fold beneficial effect; not only- increasing the takeup of water by the solvent mix but furthermore supporting the diffusion and motion of the solvent mix through dried paint coatings to a great degree. Accordingly, the resulting compounded composition becomes a very valuable cleansing composition, more especially a brush cleaner and brush softener, which may be used as a general-purpose cleanser.

With such a cleansing composition it is possible for deposits of two component paints or of varnishes to be cleaned off, which deposits are incapable of being dissolved by other cleansing compositions according to the invention so that they are lifted from the face under them and cleaned from brush hairs or the like.

Some examples of cleansing compositions according to the invention are given in the following Examples. In the Examples all figures are parts by weight. The emulsifiers used are not individually identified as any convenient emulsifier may be used as explained above.

Examples la--lh a b c d e f g h emulsifier 10 20 15 15 5 20 12 5 d-limonene 70 60 50 55 65 50 48 46 ethyleneglycol mono- 10 10 15 10 methyl ether (methyl glycol) ethyleneglycol mono- 10 20 5 20 20 ethyl ether (ethyl glycol) butanol 10 10 10 5 20 49 ethyleneglycol mono- 20 10 ethyl ether acetate Examples Ila--llh a b c d e f g h emulsifier 15 20 14 10 12 12 20 15 d-limonene 50 50 50 40 40 50 40 45 butanol 10 10 10 10 14 15 10 10 ethyieneglycol mono- 5 - 4 10 6 10 5 5 ethyl ether (ethyl glycol) ethyleneglycol mono- 1 5 10 16 20 20 10 20 20 ethyl ether acetate diacetone alcohol 10 5 6 10 8 3 5 5

Claims

1. A cleansing composition for cleansing painting tools comprising up to 25 parts by weight of an emulsifier and from 75 to 98 parts by weight of a solvent comprising from 40 to 70 parts by weight of a terpene and from 5 to 49 parts by weight of an alcohol.

2. A cleansing composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terpene is a natural terpene.

3. A cleansing composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terpene is d-limonene.

4. A cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the alcohol consists of or includes at least one glycol-type compound.

5. A cleansing composition as claimed in claim 4, wherein the glycol-type compound is a glycol ether.

6. A cleansing composition as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the glycol-type compound constitutes from 5 to 40 parts by weight of the composition.

7. A cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 4 to 6, wherein the alcohol component also includes butanol in an amount up to 20 parts by weight.

8. A cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the alcohol consists of butanol in an amount up to 49 parts by weight.

9. A cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the alcohol component also includes diacetone alcohol in an amount up to 10 parts by weight.

10. A cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the solvent also includes up to 20 parts by weight of an alcohol related-compound.

11. A cleansing composition as claimed in claim 10, wherein the alcohol-related compound is ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate.

12. A cleansing composition substantially as described in any of the foregoing Examples la to Ih and Ila to lih.

13. A process for removing undesired hydrophobic substances from equipment or materials comprising contacting the equipment or materials with a cleansing composition as claimed in any of claims 1 to 12 and subsequently rinsing it or them in water.

14. A process as claimed in claim 13, wherein the undesired hydrophobic substances are wet paint or dried paint present on a brush or other painting tool.