Particle-Assisted Textile Cleaning With Lower Water and Detergent Use
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aqueous cleaning processes for textile fibers face challenges in reducing energy, water, and detergent consumption while maintaining effective mechanical action, which is essential for efficient soil removal, and also need to prevent fabric damage and facilitate the reuse of cleaning particles.
Innovation Solution
The use of a combination of non-polymeric and polymeric particles in a cleaning system, where the non-polymeric particles, such as glass and metals, enhance mechanical action due to their higher density, allowing for improved cleaning performance at lower temperatures and reduced detergent levels, and the particles are designed for efficient separation and reuse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If higher water usage levels are used to improve mechanical action, then cleaning performance is improved, but energy consumption and water consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces particles as an intermediary substance between the water and fabric. These particles concentrate the mechanical action of the water, providing enhanced cleaning performance with reduced water consumption. The particles act as mediators that transfer and focus the cleaning action, allowing less water to be used while maintaining or improving cleaning effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the cleaning system by introducing particles with specific properties (size, shape, density). This transforms the cleaning mechanism from direct water-fabric interaction to particle-mediated cleaning, fundamentally changing how mechanical action is delivered to the fabric surface.
2Productivity
If higher detergent dosage is used to improve cleaning, then cleaning performance is improved, but environmental harm and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The particles serve as an intermediary that enhances the mechanical cleaning action, reducing the reliance on chemical detergents. By concentrating the physical cleaning effect through particle-fabric interaction, the system achieves effective cleaning with lower detergent dosages, thereby reducing environmental harm from detergent discharge.
3Productivity
If polymeric particles are used for cleaning, then cleaning performance is improved, but particle removal from fabric becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges polymeric particles with non-polymeric particles in a composite cleaning system. The non-polymeric particles (such as glass or metal beads) provide the mechanical action and are easier to remove from fabric due to their inert nature and different surface properties. This combination allows the system to maintain the cleaning effectiveness of polymeric particles while benefiting from the easier removability of non-polymeric particles.
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
This approach achieves significant reductions in energy, water, and detergent consumption while minimizing fabric damage, enabling effective cleaning with improved mechanical interaction and efficient particle recovery for subsequent use.
Implementation Method 1
non-polymeric particles, such as glass and metals, enhance mechanical action due to their higher density
Implementation Method 2
enhance mechanical action due to their higher density, allowing for improved cleaning performance
Implementation Method 3
particles are designed for efficient separation and reuse
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention provides a method for the cleaning of a soiled substrate comprising treating the substrate with a non-polymeric solid particulate cleaning material and wash water, the treatment being carried out in an apparatus comprising a drum comprising perforated side walls and having a capacity of between 5 and 50 litres for each kg of fabric in the washload, wherein the solid particulate cleaning material comprises a multiplicity of non-polymeric particles at a particle to fabric addition level of 0.1:1-10:1 by mass, each of the particles being substantially cylindrical or spherical in shape, and wherein the drum comprising perforated side walls is rotated at a speed which generates G forces in the range of from 0.05 to 900 G. The non-polymeric particles may comprise particles of glass, silica, stone, wood, or any of a variety of metals or ceramic materials.