When you wash clothes at home in the washing machine, water is the solvent used to do the cleaning. Many types of fabric, however, do not handle water very well. For example, wool and water just don't mix. There are also many types of stains that water is not particularly good at removing.
In dry cleaning, a petroleum solvent is used instead of water. It is "dry" only in the sense that it is not wet with water. In the early days of dry cleaning, this solvent was often kerosene or gasoline. Today the industry uses a solvent called perchloroethylene almost universally.
The clothes are washed in this solvent, and then the solvent is recovered in an extractor so it can be reused (and so that it does not evaporate into the air and cause pollution). Once the clothes are cleaned, they are pressed so they look like new.
There is a fair amount of controversy around perchloroethylene and its health effects at the moment. Several of the links below talk about the problems it can create. Some dry cleaners are now using CO2, called GREEN EARTH.
Don't sweat it. Those yellow stains in the armpits and around the collar of your favorite white T-shirts aren't a sign that you're sweating too much or not cleaning properly.
These areas are just harder to get clean and are made up of more than just old perspiration and dirt.
Undissolved deodorants may be a culprit, too. If you have hard water, the deodorant residue (and soap and perspiration) can't wash out properly. Here is a method for removing those sweat stains.
Mix 1 quart water with 4 tablespoons salt. Sponge this mixture onto the stained area, then repeat until the stain disappears. Wash as usual.
Photo courtesy of Midwest Trim Inc. "Why do most zippers say YKK" on the pull-tab?"." 15 September 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. 25 August 2008.
YKK is a huge company that makes zippers!
Here is a bit of zipper history. The "clasp locker" as it was called, was invented in 1891 by Whitcomb L. Judson. The clasp locker was an assemblage of hooks and eyes that Judson thought would save people time and sore backs fastening their shoes with one hand. Later, in 1913, Gideon Sundback of Sweden developed the predecessor of today's zipper that used metal teeth, and patented it in 1917. Sundback's design was the first design that saw practical use. Sundback's "separable fastener" had more fasteners per inch than the earlier clasp locker. Later, the B.F. Goodrich Co. used the separable fastener in some rubber boots and came up with the name "zipper" because the boots could be fastened with one hand. Today, zippers are also made of plastic as well.
Founded in Japan in 1934, YKK was called Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, but 60 years later the company changed its company name to match its brand name. The privately held YKK Co. is headquartered in Japan and is made up of 80 companies at 206 facilities in 52 countries. YKK makes the entire zipper including the dyed cloth and the brass used to make the zipper.
A YKK factory site in Macon, Ga., produces 7 million zippers a day, in a total of 1,500 styles in more than 427 standard colors. It's the largest zipper factory in the world. The Macon site produces its own brass to make the teeth and slider parts of a zipper. The same factory also produces and dyes the yarn that is woven into the fabric portion of a zipper. And YKK also produces the machines that make the zippers! YKK has leveraged its knowledge of working with metals to form an aluminum building products division that now accounts for two-thirds of YKK's worldwide sales.
Advantages and Disadvantages The final wrinkle-removing step, in addition to the time you spend pre-treating clothes and waiting for the dryer cycle to end, make home dry cleaning a pretty time-consuming endeavor! This is one benefit of professional dry cleaning -- all the hard work is done for you.
However, if money is a concern, you might help your budget by using the kits. With home dry cleaning, you can clean 16 garments for about what you'd pay for one garment to be professionally dry cleaned. As long as you're not trying to remove large, set-in or greasy stains, these kits can be used to freshen garments and stretch the time between visits to the cleaner. You have to weigh the money you could save using the kits against the time you'll lose actually doing your dry cleaning at home.
One big plus of home kits is that they do prevent you from being exposed to the solvent, perchlorethylene, used by commercial cleaners. This does make them a good alternative for people with chemical sensitivities (not including perfume) or those who are looking for a process that's less harmful to the environment. Perchlorethylene can damage your liver, kidneys and brain, and is a contaminant in up to 25 percent of the U.S. water supply. The chemicals used in home dry cleaning don't accumulate in the environment, and, compared to perchlorethylene, they are fairly safe.
In the end, home dry cleaning kits don't represent a major step forward in cleaning technology. The kits simply take advantage of some pretty basic chemistry (the generation of steam from water, for example). Whether you choose to use them or not depends on the relative importance of their advantages and disadvantages to you.
Inside Your Dryer What actually happens inside your dryer is the "black box" of this process for most people. All three kits instruct you to place one to four articles of clothing inside their respective "special" dry cleaning bag. Then, you add the dryer-activated cloths, seal the bag and put it in the dryer for 15 to 30 minutes (depending on which kit you're using). At the end, you remove your newly home-dry-cleaned clothes.
Clothes are placed in a nylon bag with a dryer activated cloth.
So what's really going on inside that bag? It's actually an incredibly simple system, involving only steam, perfume and an emulsifier.
Here's how it works:
* The dryer-activated cloth holds a small amount of water, as well as perfume and an emulsifying agent. This emulsifying agent keeps the water and perfume dispersed within the cloth. When you turn on the dryer, the heat generated raises the temperature of the liquids inside the cloth. This increase in thermal energy allows the molecules to bounce around more rapidly than usual. When the molecules reach a high enough temperature, they overcome their attraction to one another and leave the surface of the liquid. The molecules form a dense, high-pressure gas (steam/vapors).
* The vapors are contained within the nylon or plastic bag. When the vapors penetrate the fibers of the clothing, some of the water and perfume condenses within the fabric. This is the secret behind how these kits "freshen" your clothing; they simply infuse it with a fragrance! If you are allergic to perfumes or the kinds of fragrances that manufacturers typically put in cleaning products, you may want to avoid these kits. Clothes cleaned with them smell strongly of the scents used, even weeks after cleaning.
* The same steam vapors are used to remove wrinkles from the clothes. The kits operate under the same principle as steam irons. When you press clothes on an ironing board, the steam carries its heat through the fabric. The combination of the water molecules and the heat temporarily breaks weak attractions between the fibers. This unlocks the fibers from the wrinkled state they have been in, and you can then press the fabric flat with the iron. The kits are slightly different, because you don't have the weight and additional heat of the iron to press wrinkles out. The home dry cleaning kits rely on gravity to help wrinkles "fall out" from your clothes once you've removed them from the dryer and hung them up. This is why the kits emphasize getting your garments out of the dryer as soon as it clicks off. Outside the dryer, the clothes quickly cool down, and the fibers become less pliant. So, given the limited window of opportunity for gravity to do its job while clothes are still hot, clothing that is heavily wrinkled will most likely still be wrinkled after home dry cleaning. The FreshCare kit even advises you to launder dress shirts professionally, given their propensity to wrinkle.
The Life Miracle® Magnetic Laundry System works under a unique means of water maintenance through direct application of magnetic force. Water has long been known as the "universal solvent". The Laundry System incorporates powerful, specially calibrated magnetism to help alter the basic nature of water and increase its natural solvency.
In the 1950's, It was found that chemicals could change the molecular structure of water with the world's first laundry detergent. It was understood that you needed to reduce the surface tension of the water to help it to clean better. The concept behind the Life Miracle Laundry System is that you can achieve similar results with our unique magnetic technology without chemicals. On an atomic level, everything is affected by magnetics. The Life Miracle® Laundry System cleans garments by utilizing these principles rather than harsh and expensive laundry detergent chemicals. laundry detergent
First of all, we need to dispel a commonly held myth, the myth that laundry detergents are natural soaps. You need to know that you are not washing your clothes with soaps, and you probably never have in your lifetime. Detergents are not soaps. They are actually petrochemicals derived from crude oil. Water is the universal solvent. Water is what ultimately cleans your clothes whether you use laundry detergents, or the Magnetic Laundry System. All these products do is help water to clean better.
The concept behind the Life Miracle Laundry System is that you can achieve similar results using a chemical-free, completely renewable magnetic basis, without using non-renewable petrochemicals. Magnetic force is one of the most powerful forces on earth. In fact, the earth itself is like a giant magnet with a north and south pole. It is an amazing source of natural energy. Even the weak magnets on your refrigerator defy the force of gravity without batteries or being plugged into any power source. They will stay on your refrigerator, doing work and holding up papers for decades with no external power source. Where does all this natural power come from? From the environment around us. It is completely renewable and totally free. We are simply harnessing that amazing force and focusing it in your home washing machine to affect the water. At an atomic level, everything is affected by magnetics.
There are many different methods to sorting. Some people sort by color. Others sort by fabric type. There are some adventurous souls who actually never sort clothing. Here are some of the sorting categories that may demand special attention.
Whites- Whites go separate because we want them to stay white. One red sock that isn’t colorfast can turn an entire white load pink. More often than not whites need a warmer water temperature than other clothing to ensure proper cleaning.
Reds and or Bright Colors- Colorfast pinks, purples, reds, and oranges can be mixed together to make a full load. Warning, red clothing is notorious for losing its color and bleeding onto other fabrics. When in doubt wash reds separately. Other bright colors can fade or lose their color onto other lighter clothing.
Towels- Towels are lint producers. The lint they give off sticks to other types of clothing. You can wash towels with blankets, sheets, and robes as long as everything is colorfast.
Specialty Items- These are things that have to be washed separately, are not colorfast, can’t be dried, or have otherwise special instructions that keep them separate.
Some people like to sort everything else into its color category to get a nice mix of small and large items for each load. For example, with a large family you may end up with a blue load, green load, khaki load, black load, etc. If your items are colorfast, (most clothing will be) you can combine colors together.
This is not by any means the only way to sort clothing. I know of families who sort clothing by the owner to make it easier to put away. They pull out problem and specialty items, but on the whole one child’s green shirt, khaki pants, blue shorts, etc are all colorfast and can be washed together. This can be a great time-saving method for families that seem to have all of their clean laundry piled in one place. As long as your method gets your clothes clean and keeps them intact, it’s best to develop a system that fits your family.
Follow these six steps at the beginning of a laundry session and you avoid most of the common pitfalls that can ruin your clothing.
ATLANTA -- The technology behind cleaning clothes has spun through more than a few cycles over the last century, from clunky hand-cranked machines to today's gleaming appliances that can detect a load's size and even how much grime is ground into the fabric. Soon, those who delight in living the clean life could be awash in an even newer twist. Washers and dryers that link wirelessly to internet-connected home networks are being tested by consumers who are receiving updates on their dirty laundry by cell phone, computer and TV set. Messages not only indicate when a wash is complete but also can warn that a lint filter is clogged or a load is too large. Users can remotely command the machines to fluff dry clothes or start a load from a distance after being told -- oops -- they forgot to start the wash. Peggy Spencer, a 57-year-old teacher whose family is involved in a trial of the system launched by the Internet Home Alliance, hopes to use it to monitor the wash from the comfort of a lounge chair -- at her neighborhood pool. The technology test, dubbed Laundry Time, recently began evaluating how three Atlanta families use the devices over six weeks. "When you think about it, it's just laundry," said Tim Woods, an Internet Home Alliance vice president. "It's not exciting. But this isn't about technology. It's about the emotional impact of the technology," The project, which involves Whirlpool, Panasonic and Microsoft, relies on a wireless network, two TV tuners and Microsoft Media Server software to send the details to devices across the home network and beyond. It could be at least a year from the marketplace, depending on how the pilot and other studies iron out. And company executives said they haven't yet discussed how they'd price such appliances if they actually release them. Whirlpool says modifying its latest models won't be tough if the company decides to offer the technology to the masses. "It's really not rocket science," said Rich McCoy, Whirlpool's lead engineer. "But it's something new to our industry. We're slowly adopting things that make sense." Even without the network capability, the latest washers and dryers are part of a wave of new household products that work more efficiently thanks to complex systems of electronic sensors. The newest dishwashers, for instance, rely on dirt-sniffing electronics -- not timers -- to shut off. Vacuums can now determine how much soil and grime is on the floor, so suction levels can be adjusted accordingly. State-of-the-art microwaves can detect the weight of popcorn and then apply the right amount of heat to get the perfect pop. Companies have long envisioned a day when these appliances can be linked to the same home network that connects a family's computers, printers and other electronic devices. But some observers are skeptical. "I think this is a great example of people using new technology to solve a problem that doesn't exist," said Laura Champine, a home products analyst for Morgan Keegan. "I've done my own laundry for four decades and I've never been away from my home and wondered how it's doing. Until the cell phone can load the dryer, I don't know how this technology will work for me." The system's backers disagree. In the realm of laundry alone, the technology could allow Laundromat operators to notify customers remotely when their loads are done, rather than forcing them to wait for the buzzer to sound. A handful of college dorms have already warmed up to similar technology for students who no longer have mom nearby to wash their dirty clothes. At Georgia Tech, a program called LaundryView allows students to get cell phone calls and e-mails when their laundry's rinse cycle is done. They also can find out which washers and dryers are available through a website. Laundry Time, though, would even allow folks to start an extra cycle even when they're on the road. "The number one thing consumers say they want is a laundry robot. But Laundry Time gets them one step closer to not having to run up and down the stairs anymore," said Carol Priefert, a Whirlpool senior product development manager. Spencer's washer and dryer are lodged in the bowels of her suburban Atlanta home, where the buzz at the end of each cycle is just a faint blip to the rest of the house. "By the time I got down there, it'd be two or three hours later," she said. "Then it's a bag of wrinkles." With the help of the new technology, she can control laundry cycles from her home's five computers and three TV sets. And she said the pop-up notices can have the added bonus of making laundry a more communal chore. "If my husband sees a message," she said, "maybe one day he'll actually help out."
Nanotech Fabric Grabs Airborne Bugs -- and You Don't Even Have to Wash It
Would you like a coat that can snatch viruses out of the air before they can give you a cold?
How about a shirt that eats smog, letting you breathe clean air? Or a dress that destroys harmful bacteria and even protects you from toxic gases?
And wouldn't it be nice if you never had to wash your duds again?
Well, guess what? Scientists and engineers and a clever design student at CornellUniversity have come up with clothes that do all of that and more.
"Initially we were just doing this for fun," said chemical engineer Juan Hinestroza, who specializes in fiber science. But as soon as a couple of outfits designed by Olivia Ong hit the runway during a fashion show at Cornell, it became a lot more than just fun.
Protective Clothing Could Be Priceless, Literally
"We didn't think this was going to make a big noise, but it has," Hinestroza said. He's already been called in to brief the military on the project, because clothes that protect against all kinds of poisons could be priceless during chemical or biological warfare.
Unfortunately, at this point priceless is pretty much where it stands. The two outfits created by Ong cost thousands of bucks, but once the technology is perfected that should come down.The garments are unique in that they are coated with microscopic nanoparticles designed to capture viruses and bacteria, but you wouldn't know that if you just looked at them. They look like glitzy outfits that expand the realm of "functional clothing."
The project began when Ong, who will graduate in December, approached Hinestroza with what he first thought was a "crazy idea." Ong said that she was familiar with nanotechnology and that she wondered whether it could somehow be incorporated into her fashion line, which she calls Glitterati. The idea sprang from the years when she lived in Los Angeles and had to breathe all that smog.
Inspired by Smog
"There's a lot of pollution and smog, and I thought it would be interesting if we could use technology and clothing to prevent it," she said. So she took her request to Hinestroza's lab.
Out of that came what Hinestroza calls a "personal air purification system," but he took it much further than Ong had asked.
Now, Hinestroza is working on nanoparticles that can decompose gases, like ozone, thus truly reducing the smog. And he's even produced colors without the use of dyes, by creating nanoparticles that are just the right size to reflect the desired color.
The trick, he said, is to use nanoparticles that are about the same size as the viruses and bacteria he wants to capture.
"You wouldn't try to kill a mosquito with a gun," he said.
The particles he uses are a mere five to 20 nanometers in size. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. They cling to the surface of the cotton fabric because the particles and the fabric have opposite electrostatic charges. The particles are metals that can recognize specific viruses or bacteria, and thus trap them.
Silver, for example, is a natural antibacterial agent.
Particles Smaller Than Light Waves
The particles are much smaller than a wavelength of visible light, which averages around 400 nanometers, so they can reflect only part of the light spectrum, thus producing colors with the precise wavelength that matches their size. For now, that means red, blue or yellow.So when Ong joined the team, she didn't have all the colors she would normally use in her Glitterati.
"They pretty much told me what I was going to get," she said.
So she plunged in, fighting a two-week deadline to get the garments ready for the fashion show.
"The first time it was really a mess," she said. "I had to use the fabric they already had in the lab, and it came out splotchy."
The second time, though, was a charm. The denim jacket has material coated with nanoparticles strategically placed around the neck, on the ends of sleeves, around the hem, and on a hood and scarf. The dress is coated around the neck and on the sleeves.
Not sure how they would show at New York Fashion Week, but to a science writer, they look smashing.
And it's not over yet. Hinestroza has gotten into the flow now, and he's looking toward the future. He wants to come up with a way to move the particles around on the fabric, rearranging them so that he can change colors.
So you could go to the office with a blue shirt, and you have a party at night and you don't want to go home," he said. "You supply an electric field [thus moving the particles] and your shirt becomes black and you can go to your party."
Sound fabulous? Hinestroza admits that's a ways away right now. But give him a couple of weeks.
And what's that bit about never needing washing? The size of the particles makes it harder for the fabric to absorb stains, the scientists say, so there's less need to wash the garment.
But if that catches on, maybe Hinestroza's lab ought to come up with a nanoparticle that captures odors.
Removing stains can sometimes seem like a complex algebra problem. By the time you determine the stain type, origin of the stain, fabric type and color schemed you can feel pessimistic about stain removal. Try these 10 simple stain removal rules to get your laundry in shape.
1. Act quickly.
Fresh stains make stain removal an easy task. Give yourself the upper hand by treating stains as promptly after they happen as possible. If your stains are on a non-washable fabric, take them to the dry cleaners as soon as possible. Be sure to point out the stain to the dry cleaner and describe the nature of the stain. This makes the likelihood of stain removal success greater.
2. Follow the directions.
Follow the directions on any stain removal products you use. Don't forget to follow washing directions on the stained clothes. Getting the stain out, won't make much difference if you ruin the clothing in the process.
3. Test in a hidden area.
Don't forget to test any stain removal methods on a hidden seam or other inconspicous spot. You want to check for colorfastness before applying a treatment to a large or noticeable area of the clothing. Do not use if the color changes.
4.Remove stains from the back.
Place the stained garment with the stain upside down on top of a clean white cloth. Apply stain treatment to the back of the stain. Our goal is to remove the stain from the clothing instead of making it travel all the way through to the other side. Make sure to move the stained clothing to a fresh spot as the stain begins to remove itself from the clothing and onto the cloth.
5. Be careful with dry cleaning solvents.
Make sure to rinse thoroughly, and allow to air dry any garment that's had dry cleaning solvents used on it. These solvents can be a fire hazard in a washing machine. Remember never to put dry cleaning solvents directly into the washing machine.
6. Be wary of even color removal with bleach.
Bleaching only one stained spot on a garment may result in uneven color removal for the entire garment. Consider using the appropriate bleach listed in the garment tag to bleach the entire garment.
7. Don't mix stain removal products.
Mixing different chemicals can cause toxic odors and mixed results on your clothing.
8. Wash stain treated items.
Remember to thoroughly wash items that have treated with stain removal products to remove product residue and also the stain residue.
9. Be patient.
Stain removal can take time. Sometimes repeat treatments may be required. Be sure to thoroughly check the garment before drying to determine if a repeat treatment is necessary. Drying will cause a stain to set.
10. Some stains won't leave.
For some stains, no stain removal idea or tip can get rid of them without damaging the clothing or its color. But take heart in the fact that the other 9 general stain removal tips will give you a fighting chance against all the stains in your laundry basket. Just a few simple guidelines can take the guesswork out of stain removal.
Clothing Care for Kids! Stains on baby clothing and the stains that leak through on to mom’s clothing; breast milk, formula, and all forms of bodily functions! First, it’s important to know that most of these stains are easier to remove from washable clothing than dryclean-only clothing. “Protein” stains can play havoc with rayon, silk, acetate and other fine fabrics, so always protect your better clothing from babies and toddlers.
While most of the above-mentioned stains are water-based stains and are best pre-spotted, soaked, washed and sometimes bleached, many drycleaners know how to remove them. It’s often the fabric that compromises and limits the removal, opposed to the stain itself. So, today let’s look at what you can do at home.
Clearly, responding quickly to stains always helps. For mom’s clothing, knowing to never put water and stain removers on dryclean-only clothing is paramount. Blot the stained area with a dry, white cloth; take the garment to the cleaners in a day or two, point out the stain, and let them do their work.
For baby’s clothing, apply soapy water to the stain, pre-spot the stain with Zout, Spray & Wash or Oxi Clean for Laundry, soak if necessary, wash in the hottest water possible, and AIR DRY any stains that were not removed before washing. If stains remain after washing (and tumbling or air drying), then consider soaking in an all-fabric bleach. More later …
Diffusion is the movement of molecules from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Osmosis is a special case of diffusion in which the molecules are water and the concentration gradient occurs across a semipermeable membrane. The semipermeable membrane allows the passage of water, but not ions (e.g., Na+, Ca2+, Cl-) or larger molecules (e.g., glucose, urea, bacteria). Diffusion and osmosis are thermodynamically favorable and will continue until equilibrium is reached. Osmosis can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed if sufficient pressure is applied to the membrane from the 'concentrated' side of the membrane.
Reverse osmosis occurs when the water is moved across the membrane against the concentration gradient, from lower concentration to higher concentration. To illustrate, imagine a semipermeable membrane with fresh water on one side and a concentrated aqueous solution on the other side. If normal osmosis takes place, the fresh water will cross the membrane to dilute the concentrated solution. In reverse osmosis, pressure is exerted on the side with the concentrated solution to force the water molecules across the membrane to the fresh water side.
Reverse osmosis is often used in commercial and residential water filtration. It is also one of the methods used to desalinate seawater. Sometimes reverse osmosis is used to purify liquids in which water is an undesirable impurity (e.g., ethanol).
Would you like to know more about diffusion, osmosis, and reverse osmosis? Here are a couple of additional resources:
