TESTING DETERGENT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29480, 5 April 1961, Page 2

TESTING DETERGENT

One of the surest ways of testing a detergent is to wash up dirty dishes, just as a housewife has to do. Here a white-coated laboratory technician gets down to the job with plates supplied readily by the staff at his canteen. First, as in the picture, he checks the temperature of the detergent solution, which has already been through a series of more complicated checks. Then he washes the dishes one after the other until the solution loses its strength. The number of plates washed up to this point is one factor by which the performance of the detergent is measured. In this laboratory, operated by Shell Chemical Company at Egham, Surrey, England,

such practical tests are helping manufacturers of finished detergents to develop and improve their processing to maximum efficiency. Most detergents are based on chemical derived from petroleum sources. Chemicals from petroleum are increasingly providing the new ' materials not only for detergents but also for plastics paints, and a number of other products. With the rapid expansion complex problems of application inevitably arise. Much of the up-to-date equipment used to study and solve these problems in the Egham ' laboratory is identical to that used In industrial production, so it is possible to recreate the conditions of large-scale operation.