Neutral Floor Cleaner Surfactant Blend for Residue-Free Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional neutral floor cleaners often sacrifice cleaning efficacy or leave residue to avoid damaging surfaces, necessitating the development of a composition that maintains high cleaning performance with minimal surface damage and residue.
Innovation Solution
A neutral floor cleaner composition incorporating specific blends of water-soluble and water-insoluble ethoxylated alcohols, sodium citrate as a builder, sodium xylene sulfonate as a stabilizer, and tetrasodium iminodisuccinate as a chelator, along with surfactants like Lutensol and Tergitol, to enhance cleaning efficiency and reduce residue.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If alkaline or acidic cleaning agents are used to improve cleaning efficiency, then soil removal capability is enhanced, but floor surface damage and residue increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the pH parameter from acidic/alkaline to neutral (pH 6-8), and modifies the surfactant composition parameters (specific HLB values and ratios) to achieve high cleaning efficiency without the harmful effects of extreme pH values on floor surfaces
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite surfactant system combining multiple surfactants with specific HLB values (including nonionic surfactants like alkyl polyglucosides and anionic surfactants like alkyl sulfonates) to achieve synergistic cleaning effects that match or exceed alkaline cleaners while maintaining neutral pH
2Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional neutral floor cleaners are used to protect floor surfaces, then surface damage is reduced, but cleaning efficacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the HLB parameters of the surfactant mixture and the ratio of different surfactant components to enhance cleaning performance within the neutral pH range, achieving cleaning efficacy that matches or exceeds alkaline cleaners
Solution Approach 2:
The patent assigns different functional roles to different surfactant components in the mixture, with specific surfactants targeting different types of soil (oily, greasy, organic) to provide comprehensive cleaning coverage while maintaining neutral pH
3Productivity
If high concentrations of surfactants are used to improve cleaning performance, then soil removal is enhanced, but residue on the floor surface increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent carefully controls the concentration parameters of surfactants in the formulation and optimizes the HLB balance to ensure that the cleaning composition provides effective soil removal while forming minimal residue on the floor surface
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and eliminates excessive surfactant residues through optimized formulation that allows complete rinsing, removing the harmful effect of residue while maintaining the beneficial cleaning performance
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The composition achieves improved cleaning efficacy with reduced residue and minimal surface damage, matching or exceeding the performance of alkaline cleaners while ensuring safety and environmental friendliness.
Implementation Method 1
The cleaning composition comprises water, a cleaning agent, a builder, a stabilizer, and a chelator
Implementation Method 2
a chelator
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
A composition for a neutral floor cleaner with optimal cleaning efficacy and leaving limited to no residue and/or streaking on surfaces applied thereto is disclosed. The composition may include water, at least two cleaning agents, at least one builder, at least one stabilizer, and at least one chelator. Further, one of the cleaning agents may be water-soluble and another of the cleaning agents is water-insoluble. The amount of the two cleaning agents may also have a hydrophilic- lipophilic balance ranging from about 10.5 to about 12.5.