Fabric Softeners

Fabric Softeners, which can make your laundry as soft as the feathers of our young duck! But ...

Fabric Softeners, are they really necessary ?

In the past, the only way to wash clothes was with the use of soap. Soap itself gave a pleasant feel to the fabric, creating an invisible layer of insoluble Calcium or Magnesium Soap formed from the rinse of water salts.

Later, Soap Powders appeared, soap was mixed with soda or silicates to increase washing power. Strong disadvantage ; hand feeling of fabric became less pleasant. However our laundry became cleaner.

The latest development are Synthetic Detergents, specially designed for mainly automatic washing machines use. These detergents combine a higher cleansing powder but are more aggressive to laundry: fibers, especially cotton, are damaged and part of the inorganic Salts are deposited on the fibers. Fabrics become unpleasant to "feel" and sometimes irritating to the skin.

Synthetic fibers, tend to charge electro statically, causing clinging to skin and attraction of dirt particles.

However new problems lead to new solutions: following the Calcium Soap model, different molecules were designed. One part of the activities should be hydrophilic, to be attracted by the fibers, the other one hydrophobic, to give the soft feel.

As a result, Fabric Softeners were developed. To cater for Chemelco's unique markets, we offer the following products:

Brite® Soft Range

Dimethyl Distearyl Ammonium Chloride - still a very common softener, used worldwide (except E.U., USA, Japan). A very well performing molecule presenting some disadvantages: low biodegradability, metal corrosiveness and fiber rewettability decrease.

Advantage : very good viscosity building giving "rich, thick" softeners offering a possibility to manufacture low concentrated Fabric Softeners.

Chemelco's product : Brite® Soft DDAC (Tallowquat)

New market demands lead to Biodegradability, Low Toxicity and High Concentration. To satisfy these requirements, a range of cationics containing Ester groups (Esterquats) were developed, main chemistry nowadays being Triethanolamine Esterquats (TEA). These Esterquats show similar properties, being fully biodegradable and having low toxicity. However, TEA quats show the best performance/costs, as well as improved rewetting properties.

Resuming; our TEA Esterquats are marketed as Brite® Soft EQ 90, product advantages are:

• Fully biodegradable
• Very low toxicity
• Non irritant
• Quick dispersal
• High rewettability
• Non washing machine corrosion
• Excellent pricing !

Visco Brite®
Despite all its advantages, it is more difficult with an TAE to build a good viscosity, if desired. For this Chemelco developed two Acrylic based thickeners. Prices for traditional thickeners such as HEC are very high, our material is competitive and the percentage used in the recipe very minor.
Currently we are in the final stage of testing the samples and when final results are ready for publication we will inform you immediately.

The thickeners will be introduced under the label of Visco Brite® Thickeners

Trends
Latest trends using present Esterquat technology, formulators are looking for new real marketing advantages as natural raw material sources, "nature" based perfumes and new additives offering benefits such as Easy ironing, Long lasting perfume and Antibacterial properties.
The latest trend is "transparent" Fabric Softeners, based on Stearyl Trimethyl Ammonium Methosulphate which offer no residue and no pollution on clothes.

Chemelco offers a complete package, resuming :

• Brite® Soft DDAC (Tallowquat)
• Brite® Soft EQ 90 (Esterquat)
• Visco Brite® thickeners 
• Preservatives 
• Perfumes

Kindly contact us for additional recipe information, samples and pricing. During the visit of one of our staff we will gladly "brainstorm" with you about markets and possibilities for our Fabric Softener series.

 Please also see our Fabric Softeners Newsletter