Help, why is dishwasing liquid not stable, the physical appearence become Gel

[ddtharyadi]

Hello all

I,m newbie here, and i want to discuss and asking some topic about dishwashing liquid.
I work in detergent and dishwashing manufacturer with many variant product such as powder detergent, cream detergent, and household (dishwashing liquid).

Nowadays, i have problem with my product, dishwashing liquid. The product cant stable when we keep about 1-3 month after process production.
Spesification of dishwashing liquid that we produced is:
1. Active Matter: 16-17 % [Surfactant: LABSA 8% (purity 96%) , SLES 12% (purity 70%), and CAPB 1 %( purity 30%)]
2. Viscosity: 1800-2000 cps (T=28-29 oC)
3. pH: 6.5-7.5
4. Appearance: Liquid

and Below is Formulation and sequence manufacturing process (old formulation):

No. Raw Material pH after Mixing
1 WATER 7,98 2 EDTA 9,9 3 TURPINAL (HEDP) 3,11 4 NaOH 48% 12,68 5 LABSA 12,02 6 SLES 12,08 7 Cocoamidopropyl Betain (CAPB) 11,95 8 Nipacide 11,98 9 NaCL 11,84 10 Perfume 11,76 11 Colorant 7,02

Problem appear when we change sequence manufacturing above. The new sequnce is

No. Raw Material pH after mixing
1 WATER 6,94 2 EDTA 10,81 3 TURPINAL 2,74 4 SLES 6,64 5 NaOH 48% 12,15 6 LABS 12,20 7 Cocoamidopropyl Betain (CAPB) 12,12 8 Nipacide 12,13 9 Garam 12,13 10 Perfume lime zest 645 7,46 11 Colorant 7,46
When we formula and sequnce above, product become unstable, apperaence product change from liquit to gel about 1-2 month after process production.
I think the problem causes by sequence change, because there is different pH condition when SLES mix to reactor. In old formulation pH in the reactor when sles mix is >7, but when we use new formulation pH is <7 (acid),

Lookng this condition and when we have complaint about our product become gel we use back the old formulation> But unfortunatelly, the problem really not solved, we still finding dishwashing liquid product that become gel. and i'm really confuse about it

The question is
1. Why it's can be happen (product unstable)
2. is it sequence change causes this problem?
3. Why after we use back old formulation, the problem still happen, is it because raw material or contamination gel dishwash that left in pipe line reactor (when we use back old formulation we not cleaning again reactor and the pipe line).

Please help me all

Thanks

 

[Susie]

This is a soap making forum for mostly home based soap makers. Not a detergent making forum for manufacturers.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

As Susie suggests, this is off topic here and people probably don't have the expertise to help you. For what it may be worth, maybe the problem is just dilution. SLES abruptly forms a gel at a certain concentration in water. If you are near that point, maybe what happens in 1 to 3 months is simply evaporation.