The Effect of Various Common Household Cleaners on Fabric Puncture Resistance
Student Picture

Researched by Zach F.
2004-05



PURPOSE


The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of various common household cleaners on fabric puncture resistance.

I became interested in this idea because I thought it would be fun to see what some household cleaners do to clothes.

The information gained from this experiment could help people be more careful when using household cleaners.



HYPOTHESIS


My first hypothesis was that both polyester and cotton treated with chlorine bleach would have less puncture resistance than untreated cotton and polyester.

My second hypothesis was that both polyester and cotton treated with ammonia would be weaker than untreated polyester and cotton.

My third hypothesis was that ammonia wouldn’t weaken the fabric as much as chlorine bleach.

I based my hypotheses on an article in The World Book Encyclopedia. It says,” chlorine bleaches are made for cleaning tough things such as driveways.”



EXPERIMENT DESIGN


• Fabrics used in test
• Cleaners (concentration and type used within each treatment group)
• Amount of cleaner added to the fabric
• Where the cleaner goes on the fabric
• Size of fabric pieces
• The scale to measure force
• The wood frame to hold cloth

The manipulated variable was the household cleaner applied to the cloth.

The responding variable was the force it took to puncture the fabric.

To measure the responding variable I used a bathroom scale to determine the force applied to the cloth, recording the force at the time the cloth was punctured.



MATERIALS
 
                  

QUANTITY

ITEM DESCRIPTION
1 scale
1 wood frame
1 sq. yard of cotton
1 sq. yard of polyester
6oz. bleach
1 
wood puncture rod
6oz ammonia
2 pairs of rubber gloves
1
lab goggles
1 paint mask
4
“C” clamps
1
lab coat
1 square yard of plywood
2 glass bowls
1      
glass measuring cup



PROCEDURES


1. Build a wood frame to hold fabric pieces for testing.
a. Cut two 12in. by 12in. squares from plywood.
b. Draw a 9in. by 9in. square centered 1.5 in. from each edge inside the plywood squares.
c. Drill a hole in each of the four corners of the inner squares.
d. Then cut out both inner squares.
e. Now use four clamps to hold the fabric pieces tightly sandwiched between the two halves of the wood frame.
2. Glue the two cut out 9 x 9 inner squares together in a sandwich.
3. Drill a 1 in. diameter circle in the center of the two glued together squares.
4. Then glue a 1 in. diameter rod about 5 in. tall into the drilled hole.
5. Next cut nine 12 in. by 12 in. squares out of cotton cloth and do the same thing with polyester cloth.
6. Now you have to soak the fabrics.
a. Place one piece of cotton in a glass dish.
b. Use the glass measuring cup to measure 180 ml of ammonia and poor it onto the cotton.
c. Let the cotton soak for 5 minutes
d. Pull the cloth sample out and sit on newspaper to dry
e. Repeat steps 6.a–d two more times with cotton and three times with polyester.
f. Then repeat steps 6.a–e with bleach instead of ammonia.
7. Place the puncture rod on the scale.
8. Once all fabric is dry place one piece of the non-soaked (control group) polyester in the wood frame and tighten the four clamps,
9. Using caution, apply increasing downward force to the fabric in the frame against the wood rod.
10. Carefully watch the scale readout.  When the rod pops through the fabric record the weight the scale shows.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 with the rest of the non-soaked polyester and cotton.
12. Repeat steps 8-11 but with the ammonia group. 
13. Repeat steps 8-11 but with the bleach group.



RESULTS


The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of various common household cleaners on fabric puncture resistance.

The results of the experiment were for the controlled group, polyester punctured at about 90.7 kg. and cotton punctured at about 31 kg. For the ammonia group, polyester punctured at about 90.7 kg. and cotton punctured at about 28.7 kg. For the bleach group, polyester punctured at about 81.6 kg. and cotton punctured at about 13.6 kg.



See the table and graph below.



CONCLUSION


My first hypothesis was that both polyester and cotton treated with chlorine bleach would have less puncture resistance than untreated cotton and polyester.

The results indicate that my first hypothesis should be accepted because both types of fabric were weaker when treated with bleach.

My second hypothesis was that both polyester and cotton treated with ammonia would be weaker than untreated polyester and cotton.

The results indicate that my second hypothesis should be rejected because ammonia didn’t affect polyester. It did weaken the cotton.

My third hypothesis was that ammonia wouldn’t affect the fabric as much as chlorine bleach.

The results indicate that my third hypothesis should be accepted because bleach affected both polyester and cotton and ammonia didn’t.

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if soaking the fabric longer in the cleaners would have affected the fabric more.

If I were to conduct this project again I would use an industrial tensile strength machine so my data would be more accurate. I would also use a weaker fabric than polyester, like silk. I would also add another household cleaner. I would also add another natural fabric like wool. I would especially do more trials.
 


Research Report

Introduction

Textiles (cloth) and household cleaners are widely used in everyday life. For example the clothes you have on are probably made from textiles, and the bleach you use to clean your clothes is a household cleaner. The soap you use to clean your hands and the towel you use to dry your hands are just two more examples of textiles and household cleaners.

Textiles

Textiles are woven fabrics. Textiles are made by twisting fibers into yarn and later they are knitted or woven into fabric. Fabrics have been made this way for thousands of years, except in the past people had to do all the twisting, weaving, and knitting by hand instead of machine. The machines today are so good we can make fabric in a few seconds, when it used to take a few weeks.Textile mills make nylon, cotton, wool, and other fabrics. They are normally made into ready to wear clothes. Most of the clothes have lots of color. Mills also make textiles for many other purposes like drapes, blankets, sheets, towels, basketball nets, boat sails, book bindings, conveyor belts, fire hoses, insulation material, mail bags, parachutes, ribbons, and umbrellas. Textile mills make about 25 billion square yards of fabric each year and about 70% of that is made into clothes. Automobile manufactures use textiles in and out of their cars. They use them for carpeting, upholstery, tires, and brake lining on cars. Hospitals also use textiles in adhesive tape, bandages, and surgical thread. Textiles are used in more ways than people think. 

Cotton

There are many uses for cotton. It is mostly used for making clothes, but you can use the oil from the seeds in cooking and the hull can be used as pig food. You can use the fiber in the seeds (linters) to help make padding, paper, explosives, and other things like carpet. To make the cotton fiber into cloth it has to be harvested, ginned (separating fibers then drying and cleaning them), and then they are sold to textile mills. The mills spin the cotton into yarn and then the yarn is made into cloth. Clothes made from cotton usually help keep moisture away from your body. In the winter cotton clothes keep you warm, and in the summer the cotton keeps you cool. Those are the reason people love cotton clothes. The two leading cotton makers in the world are China and the U.S. China makes about one-third of the world cotton and the U.S. makes about one-fifth of the world’s cotton.

Polyester

Polyester is in a group of polymers. It has an ester group in the main chain. The ester monomer looks like the diagram below with one carbon atom attached to two oxygen atoms.
Even though polyester exists in nature people normally refer to it as a synthetic group of plastics. The plastics include polycarbonate, and a lot of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET is an important thermoplastic polyester. Clothes made from polyester are usually strong and durable.

Household Cleansers

Household cleansers can help people a lot. There are many types of household cleanser such as bleaches, sprays, soaps, and much, much more. You can use household cleansers almost anywhere. For example you can use them to clean floors, windows, counters, carpets, and other places.Even though household cleaners are very helpful they can also be dangerous. Many cleaners can make you sick if consumed. Most cleaners have detergents and dyes which are what normally make you sick. Household cleaners can cause you to have an irritated stomach and bowels. It also can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea. Consuming cleaners is not extremely dangerous but don’t try it.

Bleach

There are many types of bleaches. There are bleaches that can clean clothes or driveways, and some are used in disinfectants. People normally use chemical bleaches. The two chemical bleaches people use the most are oxygen bleach and chlorine bleach. You can use chlorine bleach to take stains off of driveways and sidewalks. It will remove color from textiles, wood pulp, pottery, and other materials. Oxygen bleaches are milder than chlorine bleaches. They are used in hydrogen peroxide, to lighten hair, brighten colored fabrics, and other things chlorine bleach would normally harm. Other chemical bleaches that contain sulfur compounds are used to bleach wood, silk, and other fabrics.

Ammonia

Ammonia is usually a colorless gas that has a pungent smell. Its density is 0.589 times that of air, so it is lighter than air. But it does liquefy under pressure. Ammonia will boil at -33 C, and turn solid at -75 C. When it is a liquid, ammonia is non-toxic and can be mixed with water to dilute it. People in the past would use gas ammonia in fridges, but now days we don’t. Normally you don’t use straight ammonia. Most of the time ammonia is mixed with other cleaners. You don’t use ammonia just in your house, it is also in fertilizers, explosives and polymers.

Summary

Textiles and household cleaners have many uses. Household cleaners can heal cuts, clean clothes, and tons of other things around the house. Textiles have many uses. They are used for hundreds of things such as clothes, carpeting, and much more.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


“Ammonia.” Wikipedia. 2004. Google.

Beaulieu, Robert J. “Textiles.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999.

"Household Cleaners." October 15, 2004. http://wellness.uncdan’s.edu.

Needles, Howard L. “Bleach.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1995.

“Polyester.” Wikipedia. 2004. Google.

Smith, Wayne C. “Cotton.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for helping make my project possible:
• My mom for encouraging me, and my dad for helping me build the wood puncture rod and the wood frame.
• Mr. Newkirk for helping me with my report and for finding corrections I needed.
• Mrs. Helms for helping me with all sorts of things for my project.

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