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Everyone
will be familiar with
washing (in water) but less
familiar with what happens
at the drycleaners.
Drycleaning is the use of
organic solvents to remove
soil and stains from fabric.
It is called drycleaning
because the process contains
little or no water. When
washed in water, natural
fibres such as wool and silk
can shrink, distort and even
lose colour. Because the
drycleaning process does not
swell the fibres, these
problems are unlikely to
occur.
Drycleaning solvents
actually dissolve and remove
grease and oil stains. Water
by itself cannot do this.
Other stains require
specialized treatment, known
as spotting to remove them.
Whilst many can be removed
quickly with steam, others
require a high level of
professional skill and
expertise from the cleaner.
Drycleaning does not cause
creasing or distortion,
neither does it remove
unwanted creases or restore
the loss of shape caused by
wear. The skilled
drycleaner, by steam
pressing, will be able to
re-shape the garment,
replace the required creases
and eliminate unwanted
wrinkles.
The term ‘drycleaning’ is
generally understood to
cover the whole process of
cleaning in solvent,
spotting and pressing,
carried out in sequence. |
