CLEANING COMPOSITIONS FOR USE IN CLOSED LOOP CLEANING MACHINES

• US 20110088722A1
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Safechem Europe GmbH (Dow, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dow Global Technologies LLC (Dow, Inc.)
• Inventors: Geissler, Konrad
• Granted Patent: US 9,034,108 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 134/12
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 3/08 the liquid having chemical or dissolving effect substances used, see the relevant classes
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 3/14 Removing waste, e.g. labels, from cleaning liquid; Regenerating cleaning liquidstreatment of water in general C02F
• CPC Class Codes: C11D 7/263 Ethers
• CPC Class Codes: C11D 7/5022 containing oxygen
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 43/007 Dry cleaning methods
• CPC Class Codes: D06L 1/02 using organic solvents
• CPC Class Codes: D06L 1/10 Regeneration of used chemical baths

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure include cleaning processes, closed loop cleaning machines, and methods of cleaning an article. The cleaning process includes contacting a surface of an article with a cleaning composition in a cleaning chamber, where the cleaning composition includes at least about 85 percent by weight organic solvents, based on total weight of the cleaning composition, and where at least about 5 percent by weight of the organic solvents is propylene glycol, based on total weight of the organic solvents, to clean the surface of the article, collecting the cleaning composition including contaminants, and recovering the cleaning composition via distillation, where a distillation apparatus removes the contaminants from the cleaning composition and is connected to the cleaning chamber by a process stream.

Claims

1. A closed loop cleaning process, comprising:

contacting a surface of an article with a cleaning composition in a closed cleaning chamber, where the cleaning composition includes at least about 85 percent by weight organic solvents, based on total weight of the cleaning composition, and where at least about 5 percent by weight of the organic solvents is propylene glycol, based on total weight of the organic solvents, to clean the surface of the article;

collecting the cleaning composition including contaminants from the article;

recovering the cleaning composition via distillation from contaminates in the cleaning composition, where a distillation apparatus removes the contaminants from the cleaning composition; and

recycling, by a process stream in the closed loop cleaning process, the cleaning composition recovered via distillation back to the closed cleaning chamber.

3. The closed loop cleaning process of claim 1, including flowing the recycled cleaning composition to a storage tank connected to the cleaning process.

4. The closed loop cleaning process of claim 1, where the organic solvents in the cleaning composition include propylene glycol in a range of about 5 percent by weight to about 99 percent by weight, based on total weight of the organic solvents.

5. The closed loop cleaning process of claim 1, where the organic solvents in the cleaning composition include propylene glycol in a range of about 15 percent by weight to about 35 percent by weight, based on total weight of the organic solvents.

6. The closed loop cleaning process of claim 1, further including

vaporizing the cleaning composition;

condensing the cleaning composition vapor on the surface of the article into liquid to flush the surface of the article.

7. A closed-loop cleaning machine to perform the process as described in claim 1.

2. (canceled)

8. A method of cleaning an article in a closed loop cleaning machine, comprising:

providing the article including soils on an article surface, where the soils are to be removed;

contacting the article surface with a cleaning composition within a closed chamber of the closed loop cleaning machine, where the cleaning composition includes more than 85 percent by weight organic solvents, based on total weight of the cleaning composition, and the organic solvents include at least 5 percent by weight propylene glycol, based on total weight of the organic solvents, to remove the soils;

collecting the cleaning composition including the soils from the article;

distilling the cleaning composition, including the soils, to separate the cleaning composition from the soils; and

recycling, by a process stream in the closed loop cleaning process, the cleaning composition recovered via distillation back to the closed cleaning chamber.

9. The method of claim 8, where the soils on the article surface have a polarity and the cleaning composition has a polarity, and where the method includes dissolving the soils on the article surface by adjusting the amount of propylene glycol included in the organic solvents of the cleaning composition to give the cleaning composition a similar polarity as the soils on the article surface.

10. (canceled)