In this article I will give you a background on Clorinazation, what chlorine does to latex and latex Garments and how to chlorinate your latex Garments and clothing.
Chlorinating latex is actually quiet a simple process if you are standing in a factory with equipment and respirators but a little crazy to do at home. Nothing wrong with a little craziness now and then so I will teach you how to light your foot on fire!
Latex has a basic, what one might call surface tension that gives it the quality of liking to stick to itself. Most latex products like condoms and latex gloves are packed with a thin layer of corn or potatoes starch dusted on them. This acts as a parting agent keeping the latex from sticking to itself. We actually pack our masks with silicone oil sprayed on as a parting agent and we dust our mask bags with cornstarch to give an added parting agent for even better protection. The smoother the surface of the latex whether it is a mask or a latex mini skirt will create much more of this surface tension and so will tend to be very sticky with itself. Another common method used to keep latex from being sticky is Chlorinazation.
Chlorinating latex is simply adding a Chorine atom to the surface of the latex. This Chlorine atom is squeezed in between the latex atoms. Chlorine at room temperature is a gas so to achieve this you are placing a cloud of chlorine gas on the latex until it has time stick into the surface. Yes Chorine gas is that terribly toxic and corrosive material you hear about when a chlorine plant blows up and they have to evacuate a city as the cloud descends. In a factory this is usually done in sealed stainless steel vassals to keep and control the gas and protected the works. To produce chlorine you add Chlorine to distilled water or at least pretty clean or filtered water then add Hydrochloric Acid, HCL. The HCL releases the Chorine Gas. You can then either inject the chlorine gas into a sealed vessel or dipped the latex item into your activated chlorine solution to complete the chlorinazation process.
Pros and Cons of Cholriniation. Chlorine gas is caustic, volatile and corroding it will have a tendency to eat anything in it path including your lungs and your skin. If you try this process you really need to keep your wits about you and take precautionary steps including none latex very long gloves, PVC or the like and protective wear for your eyes and a respirator that will remove chlorine. I have read on the internet people suggesting to do this process outdoors with a fan blowing on your. This is not so polite to the neighbors and you still need to think about your eyes, skin and lungs. The other important point about chlorinating latex is it will discolor your item. It does make say a black latex mini skirt softer but it will tend to turn the black towards the grey. If there is any cloth on your garment it will bleach it and eat the cloth.
So after reading all this if you are still stupid enough to want to try to chlorinate a latex garment then here is how to do it; Using extremely good ventilation and eye, hand protection and a respirator rated for Chorine take a plastic pail and enough water so you can fully immerse your item . You will need to measure this water and it can be just tap water . You will need to have a second pale of equal size to rinse and neutralize your latex item after chlorination so a total of two plastic pales . To each liter of water add 15mls of chlorine . For chlorine use the unperformed one for washing clothing from the store . The percent of concentration of chlorine in most chlorine you buy for clothing is about 15% which is what we are after . Some countries have concentrations down around 7% it will say on the label if that is the case add double the amount . The next step is to add the HCL which is also called Muric acid . The solution will not activate till you add the acid so do not do this step till you are completely prepared . Once you add the acid stir the solution for a couple of seconds and you will start to detect a strong odor of Chlorine at that time completely immerse your latex item and keep it moving in the solution from 5 to 15 minutes . You will have to keep agitating it to make sure you get even coverage on your surface as it can cause streaking . When your item is finished in the chlorine bath pull it out and immerse it in your rinsing pale which should have about five grams of baking soda or about two teaspoon per liter . The rinsing bath will neutralize the chlorine residual and once neutralized wash your garment completely and hope for the best . When you are finished pour your neutralizing pale into your chlorinating pale to neutralize your solution then you can dump it and pat yourself on the back for doing your part for the world's pollution .
This last part I wanted to suggest perhaps you might want to think about buying a pre chlorinated product from a reputable manufacture. Many manufacture use a similar process to what I just described which of course is not very control and is polluting. MakupArtist of course does not use this process but instead has a completely unique process for chlorinating our Garments and Latex Wet Suits.
As always MakupArtist sets about standards for technology then try to find unique was to produce this standard . In the first place we did not wish to produce latex clothing but instead wanted to utilize our foam latex to produce a unique foam latex sheet product . Sorry to say I can not tell you exactly how we do it but I can give you a fairly good idea . The most important fact about our foam latex sheeting material is we chlorinate the sheets while they are being made . By doing this it eliminated the discoloring of the of the surface . You will also find our foam latex sheets to be shiner because the surface has been chlorinated from the back side which is the reason surface is not discolored . You will find our sheets still to be slightly tacky because of the high level of gloss which creates the surface tension . So how do you chlorinate a sheet of foam latex two meters wide and five meters long? Very simple with a very large high pressure stainless steel vessel . We also capture all the chlorine gas and recycle it .
So there you have Chorine in a nut shell. Chlorine is not for the faint at heart. Please make your chlorinated latex purchases responsibly as this is a volatile polluting gas and if you are foolish enough to chlorinate something yourself please take all the precautions you can to protect both you, your neighbors and the environment. Happy Chlorinating!
