Monthly Highlights

Combination Spotters

About a year ago Adco/laidlaw started online webinars for their distributors. The Weinberg staff has participated in about five so far and each session is an opportunity to learn something new. The webinar last week was about combination spotters. The assumption was that they were going to go through using spotters such as two-in-one or semi wet. As with each seminar we learned a few new things and got a refresher on others.

Common combinations stains are those made of more than one component, such as protein and tannin (coffee with cream), road salt (water and oil) and condiments, (tannin and oil). These stains require more than one spotter to remove the combination.

Four main chemicals can remove nearly all combination stains. These are tannin (in two strengths), protein (in two strengths), neutral synthetic detergent (NSD) and a wet side oily type paint remover (OTPR).

The first step is to try to determine the stain. Once that is done, you begin working on each part of the stain. Working on a stain such as mustard, use a NDS in combination with a tannin spotter. The NSD will break up the stain and start to move it out before using a harsher chemical such as a tannin remover. Then you can move to an OTPR to remove the oil.

NDS is a wonderful spotter that is neutral and safe on nearly any fabric or color. It is often an overlooked chemical that can do so much and is as safe as you can get. Every spotting board should have a neutral synthetic detergent.

Call your Weinberg supply rep for samples, pricing and additional details on combinations spotters.