sodium metasilicate

chirobob

New Member
Dave Olsen:

Hi Dave, youv'e mentioned this chem a couple of times in the threads any I'm sorry for not replying sooner to your valuable information.

I've always been exposed to NaOH, but never sodium metasilicate I didn't think we could get it over here easily(my usual chem suppliers don't stock it) so I haven't spent alot of time looking for it. I picked up a leading oil and grease remover today produced locally and to my surprise it was there as the main ingredient along with an organic solvent (I've just last week managed to source this to trial it for tyre mark removal ).

How does it differ to NaOH in it's action or is it better suited for some applications than NaOH?

Look for ward to your input,
Regards
Jason
 

Dave Olson

New Member
Hello Jason,

We never have purchased raw materials and made our own cleaning products.

Sodium Metasilicate is the base of two of the products that we always have in inventory. They have a Ph of about 12.5. They are not harmful to the skin other than drying (removes oils). We use these products for fleets, industrial machinery, concrete, etc. Does an excellent job of removing petroleum based soils and bugs on trucks. We can use it straight (with agitation) and remove painted on truck signs without removing the base (factory) paint.

We have a Potassium Hydroxide based material that we use to remove animal fats and vegetable oils. Product has a Ph of 12 and is Very corrosive to the skin (don't want to breath the vapors)! All good degreasers will attack soft metals like aluminum. This product can really mess up filters from a kitchen exhaust system if left on too long! Mostly we use this product in commercial kitchens but some of our food manufacturing plants also has oils where this product is needed rather than the safer Sodium Metasilicate based material. We also sometimes use this product for paint (graffiti) removal.

The other product that we always have on hand is a 24% Hydrofluoric Acid based material. Aluminum brightening and stain removal is what we use it for (very sparingly)!

We have only two vendors for these products. We buy all of them in 55-gallon drums. I think we end up with better products and more consistent results rather than trying to make it up ourselves. Our cost for chemicals has been 4.5% of revenue over the past 8 years.

We do not high or low side or 2 step. We apply these products using diaphragm pumps, pump-up sprayers, and or hose end sprayers. We do brush all of our vehicle fleets.

Dave Olson
 

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