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- Surface Chemists of Florida has been developing and evaluating products for household
and industrial cleaning markets for over 30 years. We are particularly experienced and
proficient at devising methods to evaluate new concepts, and can also perform most
standard evaluations.
The SCF laboratory is fully equipped to carry out testing and evaluation of essentially
all household, industrial, and institutional detergents and cleaners. Our facilities
include:
 | Tergotometer and launderometer equipment for evaluating laundry products
on a laboratory scale |
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| Household horizontal axis washer and dryer for evaluating detergents under use
conditions, and also for evaluating fabric softening and antistatic activity |
| Hunter D-25 PC-2 Delta colorimeter for quantifying detergency, soil redeposition,
dye transfer, yellowing, hard surface detergency, optical brightening, bleach performance,
and the like |
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| Gardner straight line washability and abrasion machine for evaluating hard
surface detergents or determining scrubability or abrasion resistance of finished surfaces |
| Household mechanical dishwasher for evaluating autodish products |
| Apparatus for the CSPA test procedures for carpet cleaning and soil repellency
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| Standard laboratory equipment for determining physical and chemical properties of
surfactants and polymers, such as viscosity, surface tension, foam properties, chlorine
stability, emulsion stability, and the like. |
Specific areas where we can evaluate products either by using existing test procedures
or modifications thereof, or by devising new procedures or soils include:
| Laundry detergency. This can be evaluated under U.S. or European conditions,
using standard soils from Scientific Services, U. S. Testing, Testfabrics, or others, or
we can devise specific soils or stains for testing specialized products. For routine
evaluation of heavy duty laundry products we use Scientific Services Dust-sebum soiled
fabrics for evaluating detergency against oily soils, and Scientific Services
Ground-in-clay soiled fabrics for evaluating particulate detergency. Enzyme activity and
bleach activity can be evaluated using specialized soils. |
| Laundry Soil Redeposition. Our test procedures are multi cycle (usually 5
cycles), and can be performed under any conditions of detergent concentration,
temperature, fabric loading, and agitation. We have devised an emulsified pigmented sebum
soil, a clay soil and a carbon black dispersion which we routinely use for evaluation. We
can use standard soils, or we can devise others for specific applications. |
| Calcium salt deposition or encrustation. Multicycle tests are performed under the
conditions of interest. To quantify the build-up we routinely extract the hardness ions
from the laundered fabric and titrate to either an electrometric endpoint with a calcium
specific ion electrode, or a colorimetric endpoint with Eriochrome Black T. We can also
perform ash determinations. We can also evaluate the harshness of the laundered fabric,
which gives information regarding the size and shape of the deposited particles.
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| Hardness ion sequestration. We are experienced in specific ion techniques, and
can determine calcium binding efficiencies under varying conditions of concentrations and
solution compositions. |
| Softening and static protection. These properties can be evaluated on detergent
or rinse cycle or dryer applied softeners. Softening is evaluated by panel testing with
cotton terry towels, and static is measured with a hand held static voltmeter. |
| Dye transfer inhibition. We have devised a number of procedures using
commercially important fabric dyes to show this effect with various detergent formulations
and fabric types. Effects tend to be quite specific to dyes, formulations, and fabrics. |
| Bleaching and bleach activation. We are familiar with procedures and analytical
methods for determining package stability of both chlorine and oxygen bleach products. We
can evaluate bleach activators both by assessing perhydrolysis rates and by laundry
methods using standard stains. |
| Antisoiling. We routinely use the CSPA procedure with modified used motor oil as
the soil. |
| Hard surface detergency. We can run the CSPA & ASTM procedures or
devise tests specific to the application. |
| Mechanical dishwashing products. We use the CSPA method for evaluating
detergents. Modifications in the conditions can be made to show specific effects. |
| Carpet shampoos and Antisoiling products. We routinely use the CSPA procedure for
determining detergency and antisoiling effects. |
SCF has a well equipped laboratory for lab scale synthesis and testing.
See Facilities for more
information.
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