Chemical for cleaning printed picture on plastic material?

[david_lim]

Hi all,

I'm david from indonesia. Sory for my english.

Can you help me to found a chemical that I can use to cleaning printed picture on plastic material?

This is for recycling, means in big volume...

Thanks before

 

[RocketSci5KN]

Hi David,

Best to do some testing with samples that you don't care about ruining. Start with warm water, then perhaps with a little soap added (try Dawn or equivalent). If that doesn't work, I'd try Isopropyl Alcohol. A lot depends on what material you are trying to remove from the plastic material. For large amounts of material, ultrasonic degreasers may be appropriate.

 

[david_lim]

Thx for your reply...

isopropyl alcohol doesn't work, also alcohol will evaporation faster.

May i know what chemical when we use ultrasonic cleaner?

Wondering i can found a chemical, maybe acid or something like that which can easy clear the printed from plastic

Anyway, thanks for your reply...

 

[RocketSci5KN]

You'd need to experiment - the items I've mentioned are known to be non-toxic. There are many toxic options, but you would be risking the health of the personnel. If you want to go the ultrasonic route, best to contact the companies who sell these units and ask for their recommendations. As mentioned, it largely depend on what contaminant is on the plastics to remove, and finding a solvent that won't attach the item itself.

 

[RocketSci5KN]

Forgot to say this: NEVER use acids...

 

[david_lim]

Its for big volume, so i need chemical that easy to use.

Can you recomended to me the name of chemical that possible to remove the ink?

 

[RocketSci5KN]

Sorry, I have no recommendations specifically for 'ink'.

 

[christopher.s]

You need to know what kind of ink you are working with, solvent based or water based inks. This will govern what kind of process you want to use to deink the bottles. I think the process is similar for both inks but uses some different chemicals, usually a mixture of surfactants at different pH and temperature. I have attached links to two papers detailing ink removal.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00396-005-1421-3

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11743-002-0235-8

 

[david_lim]

You need to know what kind of ink you are working with, solvent based or water based inks. This will govern what kind of process you want to use to deink the bottles. I think the process is similar for both inks but uses some different chemicals, usually a mixture of surfactants at different pH and temperature. I have attached links to two papers detailing ink removal.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00396-005-1421-3

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11743-002-0235-8

thx for the reply...

i think that's solvent based, I'm not a chemical specialist...may u explained this quotes more simple...?

"Complete deinking was achieved at concentrations about 3, 8, and 24 times of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of CTAB, TTAB, and DTAB, respectively. For CTAB, ink removal started at a concentration close to or less than its CMC and increased appreciably at concentrations greater than its CMC, while for TTAB and DTAB, significant deinking was only achieved at concentrations much greater than their CMCs."

 

[christopher.s]

Most simply it means they had the best results using higher concentrations of soap. They are also saying that they had the most luck with CTAB, which looks like it is some sort of cationic surfactant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_micelle_concentration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetrimonium_bromide