Water sensivity of latex products

Manufacturer: We are using potassium soap (fatty acid based) in our latex. Owing to production constraint we cannot implement the leaching process during or after production although our finished latex products are to have good resistance to water absorption. Please advise how best we could improve the resistance to water absorption without leaching. We do not use coagulant for our process.

JohnWoon: I’m afraid I have no easy solution for you if you do not intend to do leaching. At best my advice could only help you to have a partial improvement.

Try the approach of what I call the “fugitive soap technique”. Select soaps/surfactants that would revert to the corresponding fatty acids on drying. These are the ammonium and amine soaps. I must stress that you use this remedial action only as an interim step to solve your problem in the short term. I strongly advise that you set a long term objective to introduce a leaching stage in your process.

Good luck!

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