Soap-Making Manual Part 7

Hot water 200 "

Filler 625 "

It would be a simple matter to write numerous additional formulae, but the above are typical. The manufacturer must judge for himself just what filling material to use. The filler indicated in the above formulae is therefore left open. A few formulae for more expensive powders than those given recently appeared among others in the "Seifensieder Zeitung"[9]:

I

Powdered soap 90 lbs.

Sodium perborate 10 "

The perborate should be added when the powder is perfectly dry or it loses its bleaching properties.

II

Soap powder, 20 per cent. fat.

Cocoanut oil fatty acids 25 lbs.

Olein 25 "

Bone fat 70 "

Soda lye, 30 degs. B. 90 "

Water 150 "

Ammonium carbonate 125 "

III

Soap powder, 10 per cent. fat.

Cocoanut oil fatty acids 20 lbs.

Olein 10 "

Bone fat 20 "

Soda lye, 30 degs. B. 30 "

Water 175 "

Ammonium carbonate 175 "

LIGHT OR FLUFFY POWDERS.

Light or fluffy powders containing 35-45% moisture can be made in two ways. The first method requiring a minimum equipment is to mix the powder and sal soda in a mixer, allow it to stand in frames for a week to crystallize or spread it on the floor for a few hours to dry and then grinding it.

The continuous method finishes the powder in a few minutes and with a minimum amount of labor. By this process the various ingredients, soap, soda ash solution, etc., are measured, run by gravity into the mixer, mixed and the molten ma.s.s run over the crystallizer or chilling rolls thru which either cold water or brine is pumped. From the roll the powder is sc.r.a.ped off clean by a knife, pa.s.ses to a screen which sends the tailings to a grinder, falls into a storage bin from whence it is weighed and packed by an automatic weighing machine into cartons made up in most cases by another machine. Due to the large percentage of moisture contained in these soap powders the carton is generally wrapped in wax paper to aid in the prevention of the escape of moisture.

SCOURING POWDERS.

Scouring powders are very similar to soap powders and differ only in the filler used. We have already considered these fillers under scouring soap, from which they do not differ materially. They are usually insoluble in water to aid in scouring. The mixer used for substances of this kind in incorporating the soap and alkali must be of strong construction.

SCOURING SOAP.

Scouring soaps resemble soap powders very closely in their composition, in that they are a combination of soap and filling material. Since more lather is required from a scouring soap than in soap powders, a cocoanut oil soap is generally used. The usual filling material used is silex.

The greatest difficulty in the manufacture of scouring soap is the cracking of the finished cake. This is usually due to the incorporation of too great an amount of filler, or too high a percentage of moisture.

In manufacturing these soaps the cocoanut oil is saponified in the crutcher with 38 degs. B. lye, or previously saponified as a run soap, as already described under "Marine Soaps." To twenty-five parts of soap are added a percentage of 38 degs. B. sal soda or soda ash solution, together with a small quant.i.ty of salt brine. To this mixture in the crutcher seventy-five parts of silex are then added, and a sufficient amount of hot water to make the ma.s.s flow readily. Care must be exercised to not add too great a quant.i.ty of water or the ma.s.s will crack when it cools. The ma.s.s is then framed and cut before it sets, or poured into molds and allowed to set. While silex is the most extensively used filler for scouring soaps, it is feasible to incorporate other substances of like character, although it is to be remembered that the consumer is accustomed to a white cake, such as silex produces. Any other material used to replace silex should also be as fine as this product.

FLOATING SOAP.

Floating soap occupies a position midway between laundry and toilet soap. Since it is not highly perfumed and a large piece of soap may be purchased for small cost, as is the case with laundry soap, it is readily adaptable to general household use. Floating soap differs from ordinary soap in having air crutched into it which causes the soap to float in water. This is often advantageous, especially as a bath soap, and undoubtedly the largest selling brand of soap on the American market today is a floating soap.

In the manufacture of floating soap a high proportion of cocoanut oil is necessary. A most suitable composition is one part cocoanut oil to one part of tallow. This is an expensive stock for the highest grade of soap and is usually cheapened by the use of cottonseed or various other liquid oils. Thus it is possible to obtain a floating soap from a kettle stocked with 30 per cent. cocoanut oil, 15 per cent. cottonseed oil and 55 per cent. tallow. With this quality of soap, however, there is a possibility of sweating and rancidity, and of the soap being too soft and being poor in color.

The process of manufacture is to boil the soap in an ordinary soap kettle, after which air is worked into the hot soap by a specially constructed crutcher, after which the soap is framed, slabbed, cut into cakes and pressed.

Concerning the boiling of the soap, the saponification must be carefully carried out, as the high proportion of cocoanut oil may cause a violent reaction in the kettle causing it to boil over.

The method of procedure is the same as for a settled soap up to the finishing. When the ma.s.s is finally settled after the finish, the soap should be more on the "open" side, and the object should be to get as long a piece of goods as possible.

Due to its high melting point, a much harder crust forms on the surface of a floating soap and in a greater proportion than on a settled soap during the settling. In a large kettle, in fact, it has been found impossible to break through this crust by the ordinary procedure to admit the skimmer pipe. Much of the success of the subsequent operations depends upon the completeness of the settling, and in order to overcome the difficulties occasioned by the formation of the crust everything possible should be done in the way of covering the kettle completely to enable this period of settling to continue as long as possible.

When the soap is finished it is run into a specially constructed U-shape crutcher, a Strunz crutcher is best adapted to this purpose, although a rapidly revolving upright screw crutcher has been found to give satisfaction upon a smaller scale, and a sufficient quant.i.ty of air beaten into the soap to make it light enough to float. Care must be taken not to run the crutcher too rapidly or the soap will be entirely too fobby. During this operation the ma.s.s of soap increases in bulk, and after it has been established how much air must be put into the soap to satisfy the requirements, this increase in bulk is a criterion to estimate when this process is completed.

It is of course understood that the longer the crutching continues the greater quant.i.ty of air is incorporated and the increase of volume must be established for a particular composition by sampling, cooling the sample rapidly and seeing if it floats in water. If the beating is continued too long an interval of time, the finished soap is too spongy and useless.

The temperature of the ma.s.s during crutching is most important. This must never exceed 158 degrees F. At 159 degrees F. the operation is not very successful, yet the thermometer may indicate 140 degrees F. without interfering with this operation. If, however, the temperature drops too low, trouble is liable to be met with, by the soap solidifying too quickly in the frames.

When the crutching is completed, the soap is allowed to drop into frames through the valve at the bottom of the crutcher and rapidly crutched by the hand in the frames to prevent large air s.p.a.ces and then allowed to cool. It is an improvement to jolt the frames as they are drawn away as this tends to make the larger air bubbles float to the surface and thus reduce the quant.i.ty of waste. When the soap has cooled, the frame is stripped and the soap slabbed as usual. At this point a layer of considerable depth of spongy soap will be found to have formed. This of course must be cut away and returned to the kettle. The last few slabs are also often rejected, inasmuch as the weight of the soap above them has forced out so much of the air that the soap no longer floats. As a fair average it may be estimated that not more than 50 to 60 per cent.

of the soap in the kettle will come out as finished cakes. the remaining 40 to 50 per cent. being const.i.tuted by the heavy crust in the kettle, the spongy tops, the bottom slabs and sc.r.a.pings. This soap is of course reboiled and consequently not lost, but the actual cakes obtained are produced at a cost of practically double labor.

It is advisable to add a small quant.i.ty of soap blue color to the ma.s.s while crutching to neutralize the yellowish tint a floating soap is liable to have.

Some manufacturers add a percentage of carbonate of soda, about 3 per cent., to prevent the soap from shrinking. Floating soap may also be loaded with sodium silicate to the extent of about 5 per cent.

TOILET SOAP.

It is not a simple matter to differentiate between toilet soaps and various other soaps, because numerous soaps are adaptable to toilet purposes. While some soaps of this variety are manufactured by the cold made or semi-boiled process, and not milled, the consumer has become accustomed to a milled soap for general toilet use.

The toilet base most extensively employed is a tallow and cocoanut base made as a full boiled settled soap. The manufacture of this base has already been outlined and really needs no further comment except that it is to be remembered that a suitable toilet soap should contain no great excess of free alkali which is injurious to the skin. Cochin cocoanut oil is preferable to the Ceylon cocoanut oil or palm kernel oil, to use in conjunction with the tallow, which should be a good grade and color if a white piece of goods is desired. The percentage of cocoanut oil may be anywhere from 10 to 25 per cent., depending upon the kind of lather required, it being remembered that cocoanut oil increases the lathering power of the soap.

In addition to a tallow base, numerous other oils are used in the manufacture of toilet soaps, especially palm oil, palm kernel oil, olive oil and olive oil foots, and to a much less extent arachis or peanut oil, sesame oil and poppy seed oil, oils of the cla.s.s of cottonseed, corn and soya bean oils are not adapted to manufacturing a milled soap, as they form yellow spots in a finished cake of soap which has been kept a short time.

Palm oil, especially the Lagos oil, is much used in making a palm base.

As has already been stated, the oil is bleached before saponification. A palm base has a yellowish color, a sweetish odor, and a small quant.i.ty added to a tallow base naturally aids the perfume. It is especially good for a violet soap. The peculiarity of a palm oil base is that this oil makes a short soap. By the addition of some tallow or twenty to twenty-five per cent. of cocoanut oil, or both, this objection is overcome. It is a good plan in using a straight palm base to add a proportion of yellow color to hold the yellowish tint of this soap, as a soap made from this oil continues bleaching upon exposure to air and light.

Olive oil and olive oil foots are used most extensively in the manufacture of castile soaps. The peculiarity of an olive oil soap is that it makes a very slimy lather, and like palm oil gives the soap a characteristic odor. An olive oil soap is usually considered to be a very neutral soap and may readily be superfatted. Much olive oil soap is used in bars or slabs as an unmilled soap and it is often made by the cold process. Peanut oil or sesame and poppy seed oil often replaces olive oil, as they form a similar soap to olive oil.

In the manufacture of a toilet soap it is hardly practical to lay down a definite plan for the various bases to be made. From the combination of tallow, palm oil, cocoanut oil, palm kernel oil, olive oil and olive oil foots, a great many bases of different proportions might be given. The simplest method is to make a tallow base, a palm base and an olive oil base. Then from these it is an easy matter to weigh out any proportion of these soap bases and obtain the proper mixture in the mill. If, however, as is often the case, a large quant.i.ty of soap base of certain proportions of these, four or even more of these fats and oils is required, it is not only more economical to stock the kettle with the correct proportion of these oils, but a more thorough mixture is thus obtained by saponifying these in the kettle. In view of the fact that it is really a question for the manufacturer to decide for himself what combination of oils he desires for a particular soap we will simply outline a few typical toilet soap bases in their simplest combination.

It is understood that these soaps are suitable for milled soaps and are to be made as fully boiled settled soaps. Palm kernel oil may be subst.i.tuted for cocoanut oil in all cases.

TALLOW BASE.