JPS6111997B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a cleaning/stain-proofing agent for carpets whose surface has been treated with a fluorine-based compound. In recent years, carpets have been increasingly used in various areas such as general houses and buildings, but one of the problems with which carpets are used is that they tend to get dirty easily. Moreover, in the case of carpets spread in buildings and the like, it is impossible to remove them and wash them in a washing machine like with ordinary textile products, so a special method is used. Dry cleaning methods and wet cleaning methods are known as carpet cleaning methods. In the dry cleaning method, a powder or paste cleaning agent, in which a cleaning component consisting of an anionic or nonionic surfactant, an organic solvent, and water is attached to a particulate carrier, is sprayed onto the carpet surface. This is a method in which the dirt is brought into sufficient contact with the cleaning component, transferred to particulate matter, and then removed by suction. According to this method,
Although the carpet can be cleaned with almost no wetting, the cleaning effect cannot be said to be good because the cleaning agent does not always come into sufficient contact with the carpet surface. The wet cleaning method is a method in which a cleaning agent is applied to the carpet surface while foam is created using a rotating brush, dirt is absorbed by the foam, and the foam is subsequently removed by suction. The cleaning agent in this case is required to have high foaming properties and high foam stability, so anionic surfactants such as higher alcohol sulfates and sodium alkylbenzene sulfonates are used. Nonionic surfactants have low foaming properties and poor foam stability, so they have little cleaning effect. Although this type of cleaning method removes stains from carpets to some extent, the most pressing problem at present is that carpets after cleaning become more easily soiled than before cleaning, that is, they become more susceptible to re-contamination. This phenomenon is occurring. Therefore, a vicious cycle is created in which the cleaning cycle must be shortened each time the cleaning is performed. As a way to improve these shortcomings, the
No. 50-40403, Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-43115, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 56-90896 disclose a cleaning component consisting of an anionic or nonionic surfactant, an organic solvent, and water, and a stain preventive agent such as a fluorine compound. Wet or dry cleaning agents are known that are made of a mixture of hydrophilic polymer compounds, colloidal silica or alumina, and other water-insoluble inorganic compounds. However, when such a cleaning agent is used, the anti-stain agent remains on the carpet surface, and each time the carpet is washed, the stain preventive agent accumulates and becomes hard to the touch. Particularly in the case of high-quality carpets with long piles, there is a problem in that the quality is significantly degraded. Furthermore, it cannot be said that the recontamination prevention effect has been clearly improved. Moreover, if only the above composition containing no antifouling agent is used,
Needless to say, the recontamination prevention effect is extremely poor. Based on this knowledge, the present inventor conducted research on a cleaning/antifouling agent that not only cleans carpets but also has the effect of preventing recontamination, and as a result, the present invention was completed. That is, the present invention contains 0.01 to 0.4% by weight of a nonionic surfactant as a surfactant, and the balance is 25% by weight.
The surface is made of a fluorine-based compound that is composed of water and an organic solvent with a solubility in water of 2% by weight or more at °C, and that it does not contain substantially any substance that becomes solid after drying other than a nonionic surfactant. It is a processed carpet cleaning and antifouling agent. The present invention is a wet type cleaning/antifouling agent that is effective for carpets whose surface has been treated with fluorine compounds. Examples of fluorine-based compounds include fatty acids with perfluoroalkyl groups, their salts, ethers, alcohols, and fluorinated polyacrylic acid alkyl esters. Examples include polytetrafluoroethylene ( _-CF2 - _CF2 ) _-n . The present invention exhibits remarkable effects on carpets whose surfaces have been treated with fluorine-based polymer compounds. If the surface is not treated with a fluorine-based compound, dirt will penetrate to the bottom of the carpet and accumulate significantly, and as the detergent evaporates during carpet cleaning, the dirt at the bottom will seep out to the surface due to capillary action. , the effect of the cleaning/antifouling agent of the present invention is not exhibited. The cleaning and re-contamination prevention effect of the present invention is achieved by using an organic solvent (hereinafter referred to as
This phenomenon occurs only when a trinity of organic solvent (abbreviated simply as organic solvent) and water are combined, and this combination is particularly essential in achieving the recontamination prevention effect. If an ionic surfactant is used in combination with this, the cleaning effect may be improved in some cases, but the recontamination prevention effect is significantly reduced, which is inappropriate. Furthermore, the cleaning/antifouling agent of the present invention does not substantially contain any substance that solidifies after drying, other than the nonionic surfactant. The object of the present invention can only be achieved by setting the concentration of the nonionic surfactant to a low concentration of 0.01 to 0.4% by weight. This is an extremely important point. Preferably it is 0.01 to 0.3% by weight. As mentioned above, wet cleaning agents containing nonionic surfactants, organic solvents and water are known. All such known detergents contain 3% by weight or more of nonionic surfactants. This is the lower limit determined necessarily from above which provides a cleaning effect on contaminated carpets. However, when such a concentration of cleaning agent is used, the surfactant remains after cleaning, which causes recontamination of the carpet. The present invention solves the contradictory problems of cleaning carpets and preventing recontamination. In other words, by limiting the target of cleaning and recontamination prevention to carpets whose surfaces have been treated with fluorine compounds, extremely good cleaning effects can be achieved even at low concentrations of nonionic surfactants of 0.01 to 0.4% by weight. Since the amount remaining after cleaning can be extremely small, re-contamination is less likely to occur. Furthermore, even after washing, the fluorine compound is less likely to fall off, so its effectiveness is maintained even after washing. If the concentration of the nonionic surfactant exceeds 0.4% by weight, it is not effective in preventing recontamination. In this case, if you reduce the amount of cleaning agent itself used,
This is undesirable because the cleaning agent does not sufficiently reach the dirty areas of the carpet. Moreover, if it is less than 0.01% by weight, the cleaning effect will not be sufficiently exhibited. If the amount of cleaning agent used is increased, the carpet will be excessively wetted and deteriorated, which is undesirable. Oil-based stains on carpets are mainly removed using nonionic surfactants and organic solvents. It is believed that the organic solvent fluidizes the solid oily stain adhering to the carpet surface, and the nonionic surfactant acts to remove it from the carpet. Aqueous stains are similarly removed with water and nonionic surfactants. If another surfactant is used in place of the nonionic surfactant, a sufficient recontamination prevention effect will not be achieved. Further, a sufficient cleaning effect cannot be achieved using only a mixture of an organic solvent and water. Examples of nonionic surfactants include higher alcohol ethylene oxide adducts, alkylphenol ethylene oxide adducts, fatty acid ethylene oxide adducts, polyhydric alcohol fatty acid ethylene oxide adducts, higher alkylamine ethylene oxide adducts, and fatty acid amides. Ethylene oxide adducts, polypropylene glycol ethylene oxide adducts, ethylene oxide adducts of fats and oils, fatty acid esters of glycerol, fatty acid esters of pentaerythritol, fatty acid esters of sorbitol and sorbitan, fatty acid esters of sucrose, alkyl ethers of polyhydric alcohols, Examples include fatty acid amides of alkanolamines. In the present invention, ether type nonionic surfactants are preferred. Among nonionic surfactants, those having a molecular weight of 900 or more are preferable, and more preferably 1500 or more. As a material that satisfies these conditions, a block copolymer of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide is preferred. The organic solvent needs to have a solubility in water of 2% or more at 25°C. Solubility is 2%
If it is less than that, a sufficient cleaning effect due to the synergistic action with the nonionic surfactant cannot be expected. The organic solvent concentration is preferably 2 to 15% by weight. If the amount is less than 2% by weight, the cleaning effect will be reduced. Even if it exceeds 15% by weight, no improvement in the cleaning effect can be expected. Examples of organic solvents include alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol, tertiary-butyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, furfuryl alcohol, and dioxane. ethers such as, acids such as butyric acid, esters such as ethyl acetate, methyl lactate, γ-butyrolactone,
Examples include ethers and esters of polyhydric alcohols such as ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, monobutyl ether, dimethyl ether, and monoethyl ether acetate, such as methyl ethyl ketone, dimethyl formamide, and dimethyl sulfoxide. The nonionic surfactants and organic solvents may be used singly or in combination of two or more, if necessary. The present invention consists essentially of the above three components, and after drying, it does not contain any solidifying substances other than the nonionic surfactant. Substances that solidify after drying remain on the carpet even after the cleaning agent is applied, causing re-staining and changes in texture, and are outside the scope of the present invention. However, very small amounts of other components, such as ion sequestering agents such as EDTA, may be used in combination. A carpet whose surface is treated with a fluorine-based compound is manufactured as follows. The fluorine compound is attached at any stage, either in the form of a tow-like stable fiber or in the product state. As the attachment method, a dipping attachment method, a coating attachment method using a kiss roll or the like, a spraying method, etc. are employed. A common method that has been used in the past is to spray the product near the final step of the carpet manufacturing process. Generally, commercially available fluorine-based compounds are in the form of compounds with water and other substances, and the content of fluorine-based compounds is about 10 to 60%. Since it is difficult to uniformly adhere the compound to a concentration of about 20%, the compound is further diluted with water to a content of several %, and this diluted solution is sprayed at 20 to 60% by weight based on the weight of the pile fibers. Spray,
Ensure uniform adhesion. In the case of fluorine-based compounds that can be made into polymers, heat treatment is performed to form a strong film on the fiber surface. The heat treatment temperature varies depending on the properties of the fluorine-based compound, the type and form of the fiber, etc., but it is generally between 60℃ and above.
A temperature of about 200℃ is desirable. The heat treatment time may be longer if the temperature is low, and may be short if the temperature is high; for example, in the case of 130°C, about 5 to 10 minutes is appropriate. The cleaning/antifouling agent of the present invention is used by spraying the cleaning/antifouling agent on the entire surface of the carpet or on the soiled area, and then immediately wiping it off with a mop or the like or removing it by suction. If left for too long after spraying, the cleaning/antifouling agent will penetrate too far into the interior of the textile product, and a large amount will remain on the carpet even after wiping, causing recontamination, which is undesirable. The present invention will be explained in more detail below using Examples. Example 1 2400 denier nylon 66BCF thread, gauge 1/10 inch, pile height 4 mm, number of stitches 11
The content of oligomer-type perfluoroalkyl group-containing acrylic ester resin was 38% immediately before the dryer in the back bonding process, which is the final manufacturing process of level loop carpet using the tuft method with a pile weight of 600g/m2 ^and a pile weight of 600g/m2. 5 of the fluororesin compound
% aqueous dispersion to 40% of the pile weight, i.e.
240 g per square meter was sprayed onto the carpet surface, and immediately heat treated in a dryer at 145° C. for 14 minutes to dry the adhesive on the back of the carpet. This carpet was cut into 10 cm square pieces to serve as sample pieces. Sixteen sample pieces were lined up in four rows and fixed in the center of a hallway in a busy building for soil testing. The pieces were removed and washed every 7 days, and each time the pieces were randomly rearranged into four rows.
This operation was carried out for 5 cycles, and the degree of cleaning after the 6th cycle of cleaning and the degree of re-staining after being subjected to an actual soiling test for 7 days thereafter were measured. The results are shown in Table 1.

【table】

[Table] Example 2 2100 denier nylon 66BCF set yarn, gauge 1/10 inch, pile height 6.5
mm, number of stitches 12/inch, pile weight 900g/
In the wind reversal dyeing process of level-cut carpet using the ^m2 tuft method, a fluororesin compound with a content of 30% of polymer-type perfluoroalkyl group-containing acrylic ester resin is added to the compound relative to the pile weight of the dyed material. The dye and dyeing auxiliary were added together with the dye so that the total concentration was 3.5%, and 6 g of Glauber's salt was added per liter of the dye liquor in order to increase the adsorption of the fluororesin to the nylon. With such a recipe, increase the temperature from room temperature to 95℃ at a rate of 1 minute per 10℃ rise, and after reaching 95℃.
The temperature was maintained for 45 minutes and then slowly cooled. This carpet dyed gray fabric was dried at 100°C for 15 minutes, and then heat-treated at 160°C for 12 minutes in a dryer in the back bonding process to obtain a carpet product. This carpet was washed and contaminated repeatedly in the same manner as in Example 1, and the results are shown in Table 2.

【table】

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Use nonionic surfactants as surfactants
Contains 0.01 to 0.4% by weight, the remainder consists of an organic solvent with a solubility in water of 2% by weight or more at 25°C and water, and substantially contains substances that become solid after drying other than the nonionic surfactant. A cleaning/stain-proofing agent for carpets whose surface is treated with fluorine-based compounds.