What Are Common Auto Detailing Chemicals?
Sea-Land Chemical Company |
Keeping cars clean in the United States takes more than just washing the car alone. Automotive detailing products are manufactured to keep a vehicle clean, protected, and looking and feeling new. They are often used in addition to regular car washing services, both tunnel and laser washes. These products are purchased by the consumer, the car wash, and the auto detailing facilities that use them. Understanding the specialty auto detailing chemicals in these finished products is essential to developing the right product for your customer.
Auto detailing products are formulated for a specific purpose or use and depend on the type of soil trying to be removed. These products include polishes, tire shines, glass cleaners, interior protectants, and odor absorbers. They are designed to do one job well, and chemists work to make them easy to use and effective. The most essential element in formulating these products is selecting the right specialty auto detailing chemicals to meet the needs of each.
Types of Auto Detailing Chemicals
Four primary types of specialty auto detailing chemicals are evaluated and added to these formulations: odor control/neutralizers, rheology modifiers, surface modifiers, and surfactants.
Odor Control
Auto detailing products intended to improve the smell of vehicles come in a wide range of names: odor neutralizers, odor eliminators, car fresheners, and air fresheners. What they all have in common is they are formulated as a spray to control and improve the lingering smells in a vehicle. Factors to consider when selecting an odor control specialty chemical are:
- Compatible pH levels
- Malordors a product is efficient at removing
- Intended applications
- Eco-Friendly profile
Tego Sorb® Conc. 50 is a leading eco-friendly additive that permanently eliminates malodor molecules, including aldehyde, sulfur-based, and amine-based malodors. It is also compatible with your choice of fragrances. Tego Sorb Conc. 50 is suitable for use at a pH of 3 – 8 and is water-dispersible and free of water.
Rheology Modifier
Rheology modifiers are utilized by chemists in applications like tire shine and polishes. They aid in making the end product thicker. For tire shine applications, they provide added cling to prevent centrifugal fling off and provide a longer-lasting shine. For polishes, they thicken the polish to allow for an easier application by the user. Two rheology modifiers a chemist can evaluate are SOLAGUM™ SH 210 and SOLAGUM™ USPI.
SOLAGUMTM SH 210 is a polymer-based rheology modifier ready to use in fluid form, has wide pH compatibility, does not require a heating or maturing phase, and emulsifies well, even with tricky fluids like silicone oil. These product features make SOLAGUM™ SH 210 ideal for polish formulation.
SOLAGUM™ USPI is another polymer-based rheology modifier that is ideal for formulating tire shines. It is compatible with non-ionic, anionic, and amphoteric surfactants. It is an excellent emulsifier, even with silicone oil, a key ingredient in many tire shines, and is the ideal rheology modifier for manufacturing sprayable gels.
Surface Modifier
Surface modifiers are used in auto detailing applications that look to add a streak-free finish, an important feature for glass cleaners. Specialty glass cleaners for vehicles have more considerations than those used in at-home settings. Vehicles are exposed to heavy dirt and greases while also having tints and other after-market coatings that need to be cared for so they are not damaged or discolored by the cleaning agents.
REWOCARE® 755 is a specialty polymer for hydrophilic surface modification. This multifunctional surface modifier will help your glass cleaner stand out by aiding in easier next-time cleaning, anti-dust properties, and a quicker drying effect. It works in alkaline and acidic cleaners with a pH range of 3-10 and can work with anionic, non-ionic, cationic, and amphoteric surfactants, making it a flexible additive for your formulations.
Surfactants
Surfactants are the backbone of any cleaning formulation. These chemicals lift dirt, oil, and grease from soiled material and allow it to be washed away. Specialty surfactants allow superior auto detailing products to meet the needs of the market, including the increasing demand for labeling specifications, including the EPA’s SaferChoice Label.
TOMAKLEEN® X-50 is a SaferChoice-approved surfactant for direct-release auto detailing formulations. It is optimized for polymerized soil removal and foam stabilization in a wide range of auto detailing products, including waterless car wash sprays, spot cleaners, quick detailing, and all-purpose automotive cleaners.
Significance to Chemical Engineers
Choosing the correct chemistry is essential for creating performance-focused and stable formulations under varying conditions. These formulations need to be stable regardless of weather, water quality, ease of handling, and regional regulatory requirements. Chemical Engineers play a pivotal role in this process as they are responsible for developing formulations that meet current market trends and the consumer’s regulatory needs. Their expertise ensures that the final product maintains its quality and performance across different environments and regulations. The careful selection of car detailing chemistries helps chemical engineers create these reliable products.
Importance for Car Wash Owners
As a professional car wash facility, investing in car detailing chemicals can help increase the value of the wash you provide to your customers. A customer coming in with a dirty car wants to accomplish two main goals: clean their car and protect it from the environmental soil. These environmental soils include salt, dirt, tar, oils, and bird droppings. Not only is keeping the vehicle clean a priority, but making it look brand new will help provide your customers with a premium car wash experience they will return for. As a car wash owner, providing your customers with a quality wash and premium experience is important.
Some detailing chemicals can be added to give the best car wash to the consumer. For example, adding a rinse aid to your car wash formula will help the water run off and leave the vehicle streak and spot-free.
Considerations for Car Wash Owners
Auto detailing chemicals are formulated for one job. When selecting the best car detailing chemical for your application, it is important to think of the goal you want to achieve. For example, a tire shine would not help clean the floor mats inside the car. An important consideration when choosing detailing chemicals is where they are applied. Make sure the correct chemical is used in the right area. Fabric interior requires different chemicals from leather to be clean and maintained. The last thing to remember when choosing a car detailing chemical is to consider the other products used and the order in which they are applied to the vehicle. It would not make sense to polish the car and then wash it.
Talk to a Sea-Land representative to learn more about how you can optimize your auto detailing formulations.
Trends and Innovations
Car detailing materials have seen a lot of innovation throughout the last few years, specifically with the take-off of ceramic coatings and graphene, waterless, and environmental consumer concerns. Ceramic coatings and graphene have been added to detailing products to protect the surface and make it smooth. The consumer is concerned for the environment, leading to the trend of waterless and biodegradable car wash formulas. New product developments with biodegradable chemicals have been made without sacrificing the wash’s quality. Unlike a traditional car wash, a rinseless or spray & wipe wash provides a quick way to clean your car without consuming much water. All of these trends and innovations provide the car wash owner with multiple options to upgrade their car wash formulations and provide quality service to their customers that will have them coming back time and time again for a car wash.
Conclusion
Overall, auto detailing chemicals are a vast category but do not need to be as overwhelming as it may seem. There are many categories of chemicals, and they all have varying applications, but they all help create a quality product when used in the correct formulations. Just remember to think about the end goal or application when choosing the chemical in for your formula. For example, it is important to think of the end goal of the car wash so that you can choose the right auto detailing chemical to add to the formula. Chemists work hard to make car detailing items easy to use, up to regulatory standards, and stable in all environments so you can help meet the consumer’s changing demands with a quality product and service.
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