Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Clothes are instead … See more

The ancient Greeks and Romans had some waterless methods to clean textiles, involving the use of powdered chemicals and absorbent clay (fuller's earth). By the 1700s, the French were using turpentine-based solv… See more

In terms of mechanism, dry cleaning selectively solubilizes stains on the article. The solvents are non-polar and tend to selectively extract many compounds that cause stains. These stains would otherwise only dissolv… See more

A dry cleaning machine is similar to a combination of a domestic washing machine and clothes dryer. Garments are placed in the washing or extraction chamber (referred to as the "basket" or "drum"), wh… See more

Working solvent from the washing chamber passes through several filtration steps before it is returned to the washing chamber. The first step is a button trap, which prevents small objects such as lint, fasteners, buttons, an… See more

Garments should be carefully checked for foreign objects before being placed in the machine. Items such as plastic pens may dissolve in the solvent bath, damaging the entire batch of textiles. Certain textile dyes are "loose" … See more