Wet wipe

A wet wipe, also known as a wet towel, or a moist towelette, is a small moistened piece of paper or cloth that often comes folded and individually wrapped for convenience. Wet wipes are used for cleaning purposes, like personal hygiene or household cleaning. Because of their failure to break down when flushed, they have been implicated by water companies as contributory to sewer blockages known as fatbergs.

American Arthur Julius is seen as the inventor of the wet wipes. Julius worked in the cosmetics industry and adjusted 1957 a soap portionor machine, putting it in a loft in Manhattan. Julius trademarked the name Wet-Nap in 1958, a name for the product that is still being used. After fine tuning his newfangled hand-cleaning aid together with a mechanic, he unveiled his invention at the 1960 National Restaurant Show in Chicago and started selling in 1963 Wet-Nap products to Colonel Sanders for use in his KFC restaurant.

Wet wipes are produced as air-laid paper where the fibres are carried and formed to the structure of paper by air or with nonwoven spun-lace fabric where fibers are intermingled with hydro entanglement through very high pressure of water . They are moistened with water or other liquids like isopropyl alcohol depending on the applications. The paper might be treated with softeners, lotions or added perfume to adjust the properties or "feeling". Preservatives such as methylisothiazolinone are used to prevent bacterial or fungal growth in the package. The finished wet wipes are folded and put in pocket size package or a box dispenser.

Wet wipes can serve a number of personal and household purposes. Although marketed primarily for wiping infants' bottoms in diaper changing, it is not uncommon for consumers to also use the product to clean floors, toilet seats, and other surfaces around the home. Parents also use wet wipes, or as they are called for baby care, baby wipes, for wiping up baby vomit and to clean babies' hands and faces.

Baby wipes are wet wipes used to cleanse the sensitive skin of infants. These are saturated with solutions anywhere from gentle cleansing ingredients to alcohol based 'cleaners'. Baby wipes are typically different pack counts (ranging up to 80 or more sheets per pack), and come with dispensing mechanisms. The origin of baby wipes most likely came in the mid-1950s as more people were travelling and needed a way to clean up on the go. One of the first companies to produce these was a company called Nice-Pak. They made napkin sized paper cloth saturated with a scented skin cleanser. Rockline Industries of Sheboygan, Wisconsin (which has a large part of the private label wipe market in several segments) went on to be the first to innovate the first baby wipe refill pack and pop-up packs which have become common in the marketplace.

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