[mkproddev]

Yes we’re testing in house, de-aerating a sample and conditioning it to 20C for testing can take up to 20 mins, so adjusting, remixing and re-testing a couple of times is wasting valuable production time. 

We’ve found that there are other ingredients such as betaine with varying NaCl levels (up to 5%) so this will also have an affect.  Might have to determine NaCl content on raw materials in future and adjust formulations accordingly so they pass first time. Thanks for your help.

[mkproddev]

Hi Bill,

they’re just basic hand wash formulations.  We use about 6.5% Active SLES and about 3.5% Salt to thicken.

Hi David,

Interesting that you adjust from batch to batch. Might be something we need to adopt in future, it’s just a pain adjusting, re-sampling, re-testing etc.  Our spec is 4000cp +/- 500cp.

[mkproddev]

Hi Bill,

they’re just basic hand wash formulations.  We use about 6.5% Active SLES and about 3.5% Salt to thicken.

Hi David,

Interesting that you adjust from batch to batch. Might be something we need to adopt in future, it’s just a pain adjusting, re-sampling, re-testing etc.  Our spec is 4000cp +/- 500cp.

[mkproddev]

Thanks for your reply milliachemist.

If we reduce the salt in all our formulations it will reduce the viscosity as expected.  The problem is, if our next delivery of SLES has low Sodium Sulphate content (0.1% rather than 0.5%) then the viscosity of the hand washes would decrease anyway because there are less electrolytes.  So I would have to increase the salt in the formulations again. That is my thinking anyway.  I will get some Sodium Sulphate and add it to one of our formulations on a lab scale to see if the viscosity increases.

I was just wondering if anybody had any experience or knowledge of Sodium Sulphate increasing viscosities in anionic systems.  Thanks.