Something which we have been asked to do on a more frequent basis is reduce the risk in formulations to the user.
A very common hazard that health and safety managers are worried about is the presence of Butyl Glycol in formulations.
Butyl Glycol is a very good solvent. It has loads of uses particularly in our sectors of printing and degreasing/cleaning. It is good at breaking down residues and at stain removal, and it is very commonly used in printing ink cleaners because of its affinity to a wide variety of inks.
However, amongst the usual risk factors for a low VOC solvent it has one which quite a few of the others don’t – it is harmful if inhaled.
Now, this isn’t a problem for your average household cleaner, exposure levels are low, and you aren’t using these cleaners for every second of the day. But in an industrial setting where there is a lot of cleaning taking place – think of cleaning after a print run for example – and having Butyl Glycol in a formulation becomes more problematic.
So, at NDS we don’t use it. It is that simple. We’ve found a range of other components that allow us to blend cleaning formulations for all sorts of applications which are not harmful when inhaled. And our market leading microemulsion technology also means that the performance of our formulations well above our rival manufacturers.
We’ve recently formulated a Plate Cleaner for printers which is free from Butyl Glycol, a water-based spray gun cleaner without it and a parts washing solution all at the request of our customers who wanted to improve their health and safety whilst maintaining excellent cleaning results.
If you have a similar problem get in touch and we’ll formulate your problem away.