CLC/TC 59X/WG 01-08 - Rinsing performance

This document provides a method for the evaluation of the rinsing effectiveness of household clothes washing machines, washer dryers and commercial washing machines. The amount of residual linear alkylbenzene sulfonate surfactant (LAS) extracted from the unstained test swatches of the strips used in the washing performance test is determined. This is accomplished by measuring the ultraviolet (UV) light absorbance at the wavelength particular to LAS, a key ingredient of the detergent. Assuming a fixed linear relationship between LAS amount and quantity of detergent mixture and using a concentration versus absorbance curve developed as part of this procedure, the absorbance values are then converted into detergent concentrations, which together with the test solution mass data, yields detergent quantities. This assumption is done, because in the frame of this test it is not possible to determine the exact amount of LAS involved, even in the concentration curves, but only the amount of detergent used. On the textiles, this linear relationship is not given, but it is nevertheless used to express the amount of LAS as determined by UV light absorbance measurements in terms of a detergent amount.