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February, 2017
Are All Cleaning Wipes Created Equal? W
By Mike Jones, MicroCare Corp.
ipes are used across almost every type of industry for a huge variety of cleaning tasks. In fact, wipes are so widely avail-
able that it is all too easy to take them for granted and to treat them as little more than a throwaway commodity. Like Rodney Dangerfield, wipes are not given the respect they deserve. Tech - nicians and operators cannot do their jobs without the right tools, and wipes are sim- ply one of them, but there are many differ- ent types on the market, and they are defi- nitely not all created equal.
Types of Wipes In general, there are three broad cate-
gories of wiping products. There are non- woven flat wipes, woven or knitted flat wipes, and swabs. In each case, the clean- ing surfaces are made from paper, cloth or synthetic materials. The best place to start when selecting the optimal product for a particular job is to look at the absorbency of the application’s contamination. Then, down-select based on the cleanliness (lint and particulate) requirement. These two issues usually will define the best wipe at any given price. These numbers should be on the prod- uct spec for the wipe. Absorption usually is expressed in milliliters
of water (or alcohol) absorbed by one square meter of the material. But there’s a trick in that number: some wipes work well with solvents or lacquers but will not absorb water. For example, polyester is petroleum-based, so polyester wipes are easily able to absorb gasoline, oils or grease, while cellulose wipes are good for water-based contamination. The cleanliness of the wipe is also crucial to
the end result, measured in particles per square meter. Cleanliness is inversely-related to ab -
sorbency. The cleanest wipes may be less porous and unable to absorb as much, while more absorbent materials may leave fibers or residues. It’s often a tough call. Packaging is also a special factor with wipes. Most cleanrooms require a special “double-packag-
Non-Woven Paper Wipes Flat wipes are generally made from either
paper or fabric, though a few companies make flat wipes from foam. Paper (more precisely termed “non-woven”) products are usually single-use dis- posables, like paper towels in a kitchen. Fabric wipes are woven or knitted materials that use a wide variety of fibers. At the bottom of the wiping food chain
are cheap cellulose wipes. The cheapest non- wovens, like facial tissues and kitchen tow- els, use glues (also called “binders”) to hold the fibers in place. Binders can be 30 percent of the weight of some non-woven products. The most common binder is a water-based latex such as polyacrylate. Most binders will dissolve when
A pre-saturated wipe made of polyester fabric is used to hand-clean a stencil.
ing.” The packaging itself deserves some scrutiny, free of particulates, with no fibers, plasticizers, sili- cones or ionics. Another feature appreciated by engi- neers is static-dissipative wrapping which will not attract dust. For maximum purity, wipes and swabs must be assembled and packaged in a cleanroom. These products work very well but cost the most. In general, fabric wipes tend to be more
absorbent, stronger and durable. Although they may be more expensive to buy, they generally work out to be less expensive to use. Paper wipes are often found in applications where re-contamina- tion cannot be allowed, such as electronics and medical applications.
exposed to solvents, so wipes made with binders are undesirable in critical applica- tions. They will leave adhesives, lint and fibers on the surfaces being cleaned, espe- cially when wet. Most cellulose wipes simply are insufficiently strong, clean and absorp- tive to handle anything but the simplest cleaning tasks. Their only positive attribute
is their low price. In the middle price range are non-wovens
made from synthetic fibers. Polyester, polypropy- lene and rayon are popular choices, according to Mike Myers, product manager for OEM automo- tive products at Contec, Inc. “Polyester non- wovens are ideal for pharmaceutical companies because they minimize the ‘bioburden’ trapped in the wipe,” he says. “But for cleaning grease and heavy oils from car parts and even under your fin- gernails, nothing beats textured polypropylene wipes pre-saturated with a d-liomene solvent.”
Continued on next page
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