US1715855A - Process of cleaning fabrics - Google Patents

Description

- and resistance a) perspiration.

Patented June 4, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IORD H. MOBERTY, 0F POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE DE LAVAL SEP- ARATOR COMPANY, on NEW YORK, N.

Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS or CLEANING FABRIGS,

No Drawing. Application filed May 19,

My invention relates to the cleansing of fabrics and more particularly to the cleaning of fabrics by the so-called dry cleaning process wherein the fabrics are SubJected to the action of' gasoline or other solvent. In this process, the solvent, with use, hecomes discolored,- and it is subjected to treatment adapted to eflect its decolorization;

While such processes are superior to older cleaning processes in important respects, 1t is found that, after cleaning, and particularly after cleaning several times, certain valuable qualities possessed by new fabrics become lost or seriously impaired.- Among these qualities are that appearance and feel knownas sheen, ability to hold a crease,

These qualities are dependent on the fabric containing small amounts of fatty or wax-like substances. 1

-In dry cleaning. processes these substances are wholly or largel with the resultant loss 0 the desirable -qualities specified. It is known, however,

to add to the cleaning solvent varying amounts of soap containing freefatty acids and fats. Since these are relatively non-volatile, they would, to some extent, remain in the fabric after drying and tend to preserve, to a degree, the desirable qualities of the new fabric. The ordinary gasoline that is commonly used as a solvent also contains a small percentage of high boiling sub stances that would remain in the fabric after drying.

Those processes, however, wherein the solvent, such as gasoline, is subjected to a decolorizin treatment are not well suited for the use 0 cleaners soaps or fats as additions to the solvent, because such substances are destroyed or removed by the treating agents,-

usually sulfuric acid and alkalies, used to dissolve color. Furthermore, the new so-. called safety solvents have none of the high boiling substances, and in the use of these safety solvents this possible source of sub stances adapted to preserve the qualities of new fabrics is eliminated.

Inasmuch as the use of safety solvents and their decolorization for re-use are demanded by those engaged in commercial dry cleaning and afford, in material respects, cleaning agents of superior efliciency, it is important, if possible, to render them dissolved out, a

1921. 'Serial No. 192,794.

incapable of destroying or seriously impairing desirable qualities of new fabrics. This is the object of my invention.

I have discovered that if a small amount of paraflin wax (between one and ten per cent) be added to gasoline or to any other equivalent cleaning solvent in which parafiin wax is soluble, it will accomplish the desired object. Parafiin wax is inert toward the chemicals ordinarily used for decolorizing the solvent. It therefore is always present in the solvent, no matter how often it has been subjected to chemical decolorizingtreatments. When the fabric is subjected to centrifugal extraction, a small amount of the solvent always remains in the fabric.

When this absorbed or adhering solvent stantial proportion thereof, remains in the fabric after the solvent has evaporated, and this Wax imparts to the fabric the qualities of sheen, capacity to hold a crease and resistance to perspiration, that would otherwise be lost.

As an example of a process and apparatus 5 for dry cleaning to which my invention is applicable may be specified the process and apparatus set forth in the Flowers Patent No. 1,545,091, dated July 7, 1925,.

The invention is adaptable to any cleaning fiuid having a boiling point that is low rela tively to that of paraffin wax and in which the parafiin wax is soluble. Low boiling mineral oil hydrocarbons such as gasoline and. cleaners naphtha, coal tar derivatives such as benzol; hydrogenation solvents such as dekalin, hexalin' and tetralin; turpentine; the chlorinated solvents, such as iloroform. carbon tetrachloride, tetrachlorethylene and trichlorethylene; and solutions of which any low boiling hydrocarbon is a constituent: are examples of cleaning or washing solvents in which, in my process, the paraffin wax may preparatory to using the' fluid comprises washing a fabric with a solution of cleaning liquid and paraflin wax.

2. The process of cleaning fabrics which comprises washing a fabric with a solution of cleaning liquid and parafiin wax, expelling from the fabric a substantial proportion of the solution, and then expelling from the fabric by evaporation substantially the remainder of the cleaning liquid, leaving in the fabric a substantial amount of parafiin wax.

3. The process of cleaning fabrics which comprises washing a fabric with a solution of -a comparatively low boiling hydrocarbon liquid constituting. the major part of the solution and paraflin wax constituting a minor part of the solution.

4. A liquid for Washing fabrics the dominant properties of which comprises a cleaning liquid having a boiling range not substantially higher than that of commercial gasoline, the liquid carrying in solution from one to ten per cent of paraffin wax.

5. The process of cleaning fabrics which comprises washing a fabric with a cleaning liquid carrying in solution not less than one per cent and not more than ten per cent of paraflin wax.

6. The process of cleaning fabrics which comprises washing a fabric with a solution at least ninety per cent of which comprises a cleaning fluid having a boiling range not substantially higher than that of commercial gasoline, the remaining part of the solution being )rincipally paraflin wax.

7. The process of cleaning fabrics which comprises washing a fabric with a solution of a comparatively low boiling cleaning liquid and between one and ten per cent of parafiin wax, mechanically expelling from the fabric a substantial proportion of the entire solution, and then expelling from the fabric by evaporation substantially the remainder of the cleaning liquid, leaving in the fabric substantially only the parafiin wax not mechanically expelled.

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at Poughkeepsie, Y., on this 14th day of May, 1927. FORD H. MCBERTY.