In winter, many of our clothes are labeled with the words "dry cleaning"? So what is dry cleaning? What materials of clothes must be dry cleaned?
1. What is dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is to wash clothes without water. It only uses solvent to remove oil or stains. Because the solvent contains almost no water, it is called dry cleaning.
2. Basic steps of dry cleaning
The first step, pretreatment, is to remove stains. It uses artificial auxiliaries to treat contaminated dirt and stains insoluble in dry cleaning solvents (if juice, nail polish, paint, ink, etc.) are processed in advance.
The second step is main washing. Put the pretreated clothes into the dry cleaning machine, wash them thoroughly with dry cleaning solvent and dry them.
The third step, post-treatment, the main purpose is to remove the residual dry cleaning solvent and ironing plastic.
3. Some specific problems about dry cleaning
a. What kind of clothes is not suitable for dry cleaning?
Polypropylene clothing (including rainproof silk, etc.), rubber products (including elastic belt), artificial leather, paint ornaments (such as lacquer flower), ornaments with metal, and cashmere products bonded with glue.
b. Does regular dry cleaning shorten the life of clothes?
No, on the contrary, regular dry cleaning will prolong the service life of clothes. This is because, first of all, water washing makes the fibers of clothes expand, so that when washing, detergent will penetrate into the fibers, which is difficult to clean, and the residual detergent will corrode the fibers, making the fibers brittle from the surface, leading to the decrease of the service life of clothes. The dry cleaning will not make the fiber of the clothes expand, the dry cleaning agent, especially the petroleum solution agent, will not penetrate into the fiber, so it will not cause the brittleness of the clothes, and will not affect the reduction of the life of the clothes. Moreover, the long time that the stains are on the clothes will affect the life of the clothes, and once the fine dust or other small particles are stuck on the clothes, the fiber of the fabrics will be quickly worn like sandpaper Dimension. In addition, spores and other bacteria attached to the dust will further damage the clothing.
c. Can dry cleaning kill bacteria?
Yes, but not all bacteria. Generally speaking, microorganisms on clothing can be divided into bacteria, caterpillars, spores and parasites. In the process of dry cleaning, due to the effect of dry cleaning agent, germs, caterpillars and moth larvae can be killed. For spores, they can be separated from clothes by mechanical force, and then separated by filter. For lice, it can be killed, but because of its strong adhesion, it can not be separated from clothes.
d. Does dry cleaning shrink?
Can't. Only in the dry cleaning process is normal and appropriate, the clothes will not shrink. If there is shrinkage, it is because the original clothing manufacturer did not do a good job in pre shrinkproof processing, and the dry cleaning agent mixed with water.