Tack cloth is a specialized type of wiping cloth that is treated with a 'tacky' material. It is designed to remove loose particles of dust, dirt and lint that would contaminate a surface that is to be painted, coated, laminated, photo-etched, or otherwise finished.

Introduction

Tack cloth is intended to pick-up and hold contaminating particulates without leaving any trace residue from the tack treatment, or lint/fiber from the cloth substrate. For example, tack cloths are most typically used to remove sanding dust from car bodies or wood furniture before these are painted or varnished. Tack cloths have been a common item in painting preparation for more than 100 years, and "tack-off" wiping is still considered essential to many "Class A" finishing processes.

How they're made

Tack Cloths can vary greatly in their design and quality, and therefore, in their cost and performance.




The "tack" component is typically a kind of resinous material, often a petroleum derivative. The resin system may be solvent-based, water-based, or (more commonly in North America) a hot-melt. Different tack treatment materials, formulations and systems present different advantages or disadvantages. Concerns with different tack treatments may be seen in the tendencies of some to dry-out or to leave residues from free oils or evaporating solvents, or with liabilities due to content of hazardous air pollutants (HAP's), or in health risk from volatile organic components (VOC's), and in materials that can chemically interfere with paints, etc. Common misnomers for tack treatments are "varnish", "lacquer", "beeswax" or other references that do not describe the actual materials in modern commercial tack cloths. Adjuncts may be incorporated into the tack treatments, such as antistatic additives, fire retardants, dyes or other performance enhancing materials.


Overall "tack" performance is actually a combination of independent qualities such as "adhesion", "cohesion", "wet tack" ("quick-stick") and other well-defined adhesive related properties. Each of these can be manipulated to optimize performance in different types of applications and conditions.



The "cloth" component is most commonly a cotton gauze textile (a.k.a cheesecloth), but the grade and quality can vary greatly. Typical gauze specifications are in weaves of between 29 (commodity) to 44 or more (commercial/professional) yarns per square inch, with the cloth weights, wiping properties and overall cost varying accordingly. Gauze may be bleached and scoured (like medical quality) or unbleached quality that contains more contaminants. A standard size of the cotton gauze varieties is 18x36 inches in North America (other standards are found in other countries, such as 50x80 cms). Other textiles used in tack cloths are made from continuous filament (non-fibrous) synthetic yarns to eliminate linting or from various non-woven fabrics that can reduce cost. It is important to consider that the textile type, style, grade, quality and size are the greatest factors in tack cloth cost, and that these variables can differ greatly among tack cloth brands and product designs.

Innovations

Perhaps the most influential innovation in recent decades has been the development of "lint free" tack cloths made from continuous filament (non-fibrous) synthetic yarns and finished edges (similar to electronics cleanroom wipers, this design is commonly required for paint process in automotive assembly plants). Another important innovation has been modification of common tack cloths that are normally electrically resistive to perform at "antistatic" levels defined by independent standards organizations (like ASTM, IEEE, MIL-SPEC, etc.). More recent developments have been in tack treatments that are water-dissolvable, and therefore may be washed from hands, tools or surface to reduce the incidence of tack transfer from accumulated resins or to wash the tack from the cloths and recycle those as utility wipes. Water-dissolvable tack also improves antistatic performance, and offers potential for improved compatibility with water-based paints.



A new type of tack cloth has been developed at the Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 National Security Complex

The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory...

, a nuclear weapons plant. Its purpose was to clean up microscopic beryllium

Beryllium

Beryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl and chrysoberyl...

particles that posed a health hazard. The inventor, Ron Simandl, also found he could dry-buff the alloy wheels on his car. "The stubborn brake and road dirt came right off and left the wheels bright and showroom-shiny."http://www.physorg.com/news92074135.html