Microfiber cloth
A microfibre cloth is a cleaning cloth that can be made from fabric , knitted fabric , woven fabric or non-woven fabric .
material
Most microfiber towels do not, as their name suggests, consist of individual fibers , but of multifilament yarn , which is then processed into knitted, knitted or woven fabrics with a high number of stitches (number of stitches / cm²), while a small proportion of microfiber towels actually made of individual fibers connected to one another as a non-woven fabric . Microfilament yarns and microfibers have an average diameter of around 5 µm and are therefore only half as thick as cotton fibers. Polyester has proven to be particularly suitable as the starting polymer for the production of microfilament yarn or microfiber . The comparatively high cleaning effect that can be achieved with microfiber cloths arises on the one hand from the relatively high number of points of contact ("papillae") between the textile body and the surface to be cleaned, and on the other hand from the large number of capillaries that arise from the spaces between the adjacent meshes and the Gaps between the individual fibrils within the mesh results.
A classification feature of microfiber cloths is the weight per unit area , which is measured in grams per square meter, abbreviated to GSM, i.e. grams per square meter.
application
Microfiber cloths have a greatly increased cleaning efficiency for various types of soiling. Microfiber cloths can also be used to clean relatively residue-free and in almost all applications without the need to use cleaning agents; water is sufficient to moisten the cloth. The cloths can be used for stubborn soiling with a solvent (alcohol-water mixture, benzine, etc.). If microfiber cloths are soaked in solvents for use, they should only be kept slightly damp. This often results in the best cleaning effect. By using microfiber cloths, the time required for many cleaning procedures can be shortened while at the same time reducing the amount of contamination left on the surface.
In some areas of application, due to the relatively high degree of hardness of the polyester material, there is a risk of micro-sanding marks occurring during long-term use. So z. B. Plastic glasses of glasses can be irreparably damaged by cleaning with microfiber cloths. For laboratory use, it should be noted that due to the high material density of the microfiber cloths, triboelectric charges can occur when used in a dry state . The price of microfiber cloths has fallen sharply recently, which means that they can often be the cheapest option due to their high efficiency in the total cost analysis of a cleaning procedure in industry.
Microfiber cloths are often used in commercial cleaning (building cleaning, health care, gastronomy), in private households, but also in cleanroom-related branches of industry such as semiconductor, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, micromechanics , optics and the transplant industry . Cloths used in households are mostly hand-sized, medium-weight structures with bound edges. They are used to clean all types of dirt, from house dust to grease encrustations in the kitchen area, often without the aid of surfactants . In addition to their practical handling, this is an environmentally relevant advantage of these wipes.
If microfiber cloths are used in the cleanroom-bound industries (cleanroom wipes), there is often a need for a multi-stage decontamination in order to remove the ingredients that are undesirable for the intended use. These are mainly spinning and knitting oil residues as well as surfactant residues from the spinning and knitting processes in yarn and textile manufacture and the downstream chemical finishing processes. In these industries, there is often a special requirement for low-particle delivery quality and reduced particle release during use. In such cases, the cut edges of the wipes must be sealed so that fibers and particles cannot be released from them during use. The cut edges are usually sealed by laser cutting , ultrasonic cutting or thermal processes. There are a number of established specialist companies that manufacture decontaminated precision cleaning wipes from microfilament yarns. A DIN standard exists e.g. Z. (2008) does not apply to these products. However, the industry has published test methods for such wipes that are based on a specially developed test instrumentation.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.mission-hochglanz.de/autopflege-glossar/gsm-flaechengewicht/
- ↑ see Lodevicus Hermans, Win Labuda - ReinraumTechnik 1–3 / 2005 GIT-Verlag Darmstadt
- ↑ see Labuda et al. "The costs of wiping cleaning in clean room operations" ReinraumTechnik 1–2 / 2000 GIT-Verlag Darmstadt
- ↑ see Clear & Clean - Research Laboratory for Wiping Cleaning Processes, “Test Methods for Cleaning Cloths and Pure Papers for Clean Working Techniques” as of 2007