Introduction

Glass cleaning agents/glass cleaners are specially developed for cleaning glass surfaces and smooth and washable surfaces in private households on which there is mainly light soiling. Outdoors, these are dust, soot and insect residues; indoors mostly grease or sebum, nicotine, dust and also insect residues (e.g. on windows, mirrors, glass doors). Glass cleaning agents /glass cleaners are detergents according to their product claim in conjunction with Article 2 of the Detergents Regulation (EC) No. 648/2004 and require labelling, inter alia, according to Annex VII of the Detergents Regulation. Furthermore, a list of ingredients must be made available on the internet.

Overall, they are not suitable for cleaning solvent-sensitive surfaces such as spectacle lenses, screens, TV sets or wooden surfaces.

They are usually used to clean hard surfaces with ready-to-use products as a spray application. Likewise, the ready-to-use solution can be prepared with a concentrate (solid or liquid) as instructed by the manufacturer.

Glass cleaning agents/glass cleaners generally consist of one or more surfactants, water-soluble solvents (e.g. ethanol, glycol ether) and complexing agents, as well as additives such as fragrances and colourants and, in some individual cases, preservatives. Most of these formulations are pH-neutral or alkaline. For the quality assessment of the products, it is desirable to have a test method that is as simple, reproducible and close to practice as possible, both for external comparative tests and for product development. This method should be based on consumer behaviour and the usual types of dirt.

For the development of such a method, a working group was set up inside the German Cosmetic, Toiletry, Perfumery and Detergent Association (IKW), consisting of experts from cleaning product manufacturers, raw material producers and test institutes.

Translation / Original: German