The application fields of cleaning agents include light industry, household, kitchen and catering, laundry, industry, transportation and other industries. The basic chemicals used cover 15 categories such as surfactants, bactericides, thickeners, fillers, dyes, enzymes, solvents, corrosion inhibitors, chelating agents, fragrances, fluorescent whitening agents, stabilizers, acids, alkalis and abrasives.
Classification and Applications
Household cleaning refers to the cleaning and maintenance of buildings or industrial equipment, including the cleaning of floors, walls, furniture, carpets, doors, windows and sanitary ware, as well as surface cleaning of stone, wood panels, metals and glass. Such cleaners are generally intended for hard surface cleaning.
Common household cleaners include deodorants, air fresheners, floor waxes, glass cleaners, hand soaps and cleaning soaps. Disinfectants and bactericides formulated with o-phenylphenol, o-phenyl-p-chlorophenol or p-tert-amylphenol have limited application scope and are mainly used in hospitals and guest rooms, capable of effectively killing tubercle bacilli, staphylococci and salmonella.
Food Service Cleaners
Food service cleaning covers the cleaning of glassware, dinner plates, tableware, cookware, grills and ovens in restaurants. It is generally carried out by machine washing, and manual cleaning is also adopted. Among food service cleaners, the highest consumption belongs to detergents for automatic washing machines, together with supporting rinse aids, bactericides and drying aids.
Cleaners for the Transportation Industry
In the transportation industry, cleaners are mainly used for interior and exterior cleaning of transport vehicles such as passenger cars, trucks, buses, trains, aircraft and ships, as well as the cleaning of vehicle components including brake systems, engines and turbines. The cleaning of exterior surfaces is similar to metal cleaning in the industrial sector.
Cleaners for the transportation industry include waxes, exterior vehicle cleaners and windshield cleaners. Exterior cleaners for trucks and public vehicles can be alkaline or acidic, while only alkaline products are applicable to aluminum alloy surfaces. Train exterior cleaners generally contain organic acids, inorganic acids and surfactants. Aircraft cleaners represent another important consumption segment. Cleaning aircraft surfaces can improve both aviation safety and economic efficiency. Aircraft cleaners usually follow dedicated standards, are required to remove heavy soils, and are mostly independently developed by the aviation industry.
Industrial cleaning is required for metal surfaces, plastic surfaces, tanks, filters, oilfield equipment, grease layers, dust, paint stripping, wax removal and other scenarios. Metal surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned prior to painting and coating to achieve optimal adhesion. Metal cleaning often involves removing surface greases and cutting fluids, so solvent-based cleaners are widely used. Metal cleaning tasks fall into two main categories: rust removal and degreasing. Rust removal is mostly conducted under acidic conditions, which can eliminate oxide layers formed on metals such as steel, as well as insoluble metal precipitates and other corrosion deposits on boiler walls and steam pipes. Degreasing is performed under alkaline conditions to primarily remove oily contaminants.
Others
Cleaners are also used in other fields such as washing, including textile cleaning, cleaning for flat-panel displays and photovoltaic cells, as well as cleaning of swimming pools, clean rooms, workshops and storage rooms.
Post time: Jul-28-2026