Dry cleaning is one of the most common laundry service in most laundry pick up and laundry delivery shops in Singapore, but not everyone knows what happens during the process and why it’s the fastest way to get you clothes washed.
Let’s look at the process of dry cleaning and what makes it ideal for cleaning certain types of clothes, linen, and upholstery.
The Origins of Dry Cleaning
Dry cleaning is not a new process in most commercial laundry services like laundry first/ from Singapore. In fact, there is evidence that the dry cleaning process goes as far back as the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The technique is quite different from the one the laundry service uses today, because they used a type of clay to remove dirt from the fabrics, although it was still essentially a cleaning process that did not use water.
Most wash and fold laundry services shops in Singapore, however, model their process to the use of dry cleaning solvents which became popular in the mid-1800s. Over the years, the dry cleaning technique and the products used continued to improve as the demands for safer alternatives were considered. Most of the concern focused on the search for solvents that were less flammable, and by the 1930s, the most popular type of dry cleaning solvents in most laundry service shops was created.
The idea of using a solvent to remove dirt from fabrics is based on the extraction of compounds by using non-polar chemicals. Delicate types of fabrics that are not supposed to be soaked in water could get damaged, because most of the stains can only be removed in high temperatures and water-based detergents. The non-polar dry cleaning solvent will not interact with the fabrics and will avoid stretching, shrinking, and distorting the fabric. Not only is dry cleaning ideal for delicate fabrics, but for almost any type of fabric including uniform laundry that is prone to wear and tear.
The Dry Cleaning Solvent
There are various dry cleaning solvents that www.laundryfirst.sg in Singapore have been using in their 24 hour laundry service. These includes solvents like turpentine spirits, kerosene, benzene, camphor oil, petroleum solvents, white gasoline, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, glycol ethers, n-propyl bromide, liquid carbon dioxide, trichloro trifluoroethane, trichloroethane, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, trichloroethylene, and perchloroethylene. The most widely used commercial dry cleaning solvent is the perchloroethylene which is also known as perc.
The dry cleaning process, however, is not entirely a dry process because most commercial laundry services still use other detergents and chemicals to remove stains. These are special types of detergents that perform the following functions: carry the moisture to remove water-soluble dirt, suspend the dirt removed from the clothes, and to act as spotting agent to allow the water and solvent to remove the stains.
You should also ask the laundry services if they use the following chemicals: brighteners, fabric conditioner, bactericide, anti-static, and anti-lint products. The dry cleaning machine will look similar to a regular washing machine and will also use mechanical friction or tumbling, but the chemicals are less harsh on delicate fabrics.
