Good day Nairalanders, I have created this thread out of the desire to fill a need. The tutorials on this thread will provide you with the essential skills in household and industrial chemical products production.

What I shall do differently is to provide us with standard formulations, explanation of each ingredient and its function(s), correct measurement strategies, production procedure and packaging etc.

I do not lay claim to all the knowledge in this area so it's going to be a participatory "class" so to speak. We shall touch on household and industrial products like soaps, detergents, body creams, body jelly, hair food, shampoos, disinfectants, degreasers, insecticides, paints, balms, hydrogen peroxide, car wash, tile cleaners etc. And any other product you may suggest which I have knowledge of.

We shall start with the issue of measurement which I believe is a headache for many.

So let's see how many are interested so that we can start immediately.

Measurement

Measurement is a very important aspect of production. The ability to measure correctly is a prerequisite to quality products. Wrong measurement may lead to errors in production which may result to waste of time and materials.
To measure correctly, we make use of units. A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity. We shall mostly be making use of two units of measurement which are Kilogram and litres, which are used to measure mass and volume eg 1kg, 2kg, 0.5kg and 1litre, 2litres, 4litres etc. where possible we shall make use of smaller amounts of these units eg 1g, 2g, 5g etc.

Other forms of measurements such as cups, tablespoon, teaspoon etc will also be used for easier understanding.

Nice OP.... Following

freeze22:
Nice OP.... Following

you are welcome.

MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
For the measurement of mass we use the weighing scale while for volume measurement, we use standard litre bottles or graduated buckets.

As shown below, the White container at the back is a standard 2litre plastic Jerry can, the one in front is a one litre container while the green instrument is a weighing scale. The scale can measure 5kg maximum and 25g minimum.

Other sundry measures will be discussed in the course of this tutorial.

FORMULATIONS

For any chemical product, there may be so many formulas available. Take for example body cream, there are thousands of formulations available which give different products. Some of these formulations are simple, some are complex.
For any formulation you decide to use, the following criteria must be considered

1. Availability of ingredients listed in the formula.
2.Affordability of the ingredients.
3.How easy is it to produce with the formulation.
4. Whether any of the ingredients is banned by regulatory agencies.
5. Whether the product of the formulation will be accepted by the target market. etc.

Good morning Nairalanders, we shall take one product later today and use it to explain all the grammar listed above. Which product do you suggest we use?

jospepper:
Good morning Nairalanders, we shall take one product later today and use it to explain all the grammar listed above. Which product do you suggest we use?

liquid soap

jospepper:
Good morning Nairalanders, we shall take one product later today and use it to explain all the grammar listed above. Which product do you suggest we use?

or tile cleaners

Analee:
liquid soap

You are welcome. We shall treat liquid detergent comprehensively today and you will see the difference.

Analee:
liquid soap

Seconded

Sorry to keep you guys waiting, its because I ve been busy in a project, but we must start with liquid soap today by Gods grace. I shall drop something by 8pm today. Thanks for your patience.

LIQUID DETERGENT

Liquid detergent is produced essentially by a mixture of surface active agents. The result is a solution that has cleaning power(detergency) when diluted in water. Hand wash liquid, dish wash liquid eg Morning Fresh etc are examples of liquid detergents.

AREAS OF USE

-Laundries
-Industries eg Textile companies, Food industry etc.
-Hotels
-Hospitals etc.

RAW MATERIALS
-SURFACE ACTIVE AGENTS(foaming agents) This is one of the most important raw material, without it, it may not be possible to produce liquid detergent. Examples include Linear AlkylBenzene Sulphonate(LAS) aka Sulphonic acid and Sodium Laureth Sulphate(SLS).

Builders- eg Sodium Tripolyphosphate (STPP). Builders act as water softeners and sometimes as Antiredeposition agents to keep dirt particles in suspension. There are different types.

Solvents- This is usually water. It is the medium in which all the ingredients are mixed.

Alkalis -eg Soda ash and Caustic Soda. They serve as buffers, neutralizers and boosters.

Preservatives eg methyl paraben, propyl paraben etc.

So many other ingredients are available but for want of time, we shall treat such under formulation.

Following

I was banned by anti spam bot last week. Let's see how tomorrow will be.