Tell us about your production challenge

Star-shaped, lavender-scented, yellow, green, in a dispenser, today’s hand soap comes in a variety of shapes, fragrances, and colors. But whatever type of soap you choose for your good hand-washing habits, the basis of all soap making is mixing animal fats or vegetable oils with an alkali - in this case, a strong base - in a kettle to produce a chemical reaction called saponification.

Select your hand soap process

Tell us about your production challenge

When selecting production equipment for a production plant, it is important to talk to someone with experience in your field. Our industry experts have experience with various industrial applications. We’d love to help you!
Contact us

The chemistry behind soap making

Soap is a salt of fatty acids. Okay, but what does that really mean? To give these words meaning, we have to bring up some chemistry. Soap is the result of a chemical reaction called saponification. It happens when animal fats or vegetable oils are mixed with a strong base (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide). The type of alkali determines the consistency of the products – sodium soaps are solid and potassium soaps are liquid or soft. When our strong base reacts with the triglycerides (the fats), it breaks the bonds in the triglycerides between the fatty acids and the glycerin. The fatty acids acquire sodium, becoming salt. So, from this chemical reaction, you get glycerin, which must be removed, and soap (salt of the fatty acid).

Small scale or large scale producers – Which process to choose?

There are two main methods for soap making: the kettle process and the continuous process. The kettle process is on a batch basis and it is very time-consuming. It takes from 4 to 11 days to complete the entire process. Due to time constraints, it is usually used by small to medium-sized manufacturers. If you are part of large manufacturers, the continuous process suits you best. In this case, the entire process takes a few hours instead of few days. But why there is this big time difference?

Soap making – The kettle process

To get saponification in the kettle process, you have to place animal fats or vegetable oils in a kettle and add gradually the alkali metal. From a perforated coil, steam jets are used to heat the mixture and encourage the chemical reaction to produce soap and glycerin. Treating the soap with hot brine (very salty water) causes an upper layer to form with soap curd and a bottom layer where glycerin settles. Glycerin is then pumped out of the kettle and treated for other uses. To remove impurities, you have to wash the soap left in the kettle and then boil it with water (pitching step). This creates again two layers: a top layer called net soap (70% soap and 30% water), and a bottom layer called “nigre” which are impurities.

Soap making – The continuous process

The continuous process is quicker because manufacturers use fatty acids in saponification instead of natural fats and oil. Fatty acids do not have impurities and produce water instead of glycerin. The process starts splitting the fats into crude fatty acids and glycerin, using high-pressure steam. The splitting takes place in a stainless steel column called hydrolizer. Then fatty acids are distilled under vacuum. Only now you can use your alkali solution for saponification reaction to neutralize the fatty acids and produce soap and water. In this way, you can achieve complete neutralization without using excess alkali or brine to recover glycerin.

Finishing process for soap bars – What industrial soap making equipment do you need?

Regardless of which method you choose to follow, turning your soap into the shape you prefer requires finishing operations. After boiling, you need to cool your soap and let it solidify. Once solidified, soap is cut into ribbons that are in turn mixed and compressed by big rollers called mills. A blade scrapes the soap of the rollers and cuts it into denser ribbons that are sent to a hopper. Here an auger turns and pushes the soap in an extruder that shapes the soap in soap noodles. To create the different colors and fragrances, steel blades in a mixer mix the soap with color. Then, your colorful soap travels to a forming plate creating a long bar that will be cut into pieces called slugs. In the end, a dye press will shapes your hand soaps, creating these multi-colored and scented soap bars.

And what about liquid hand soap?

The difference between a soap bar and liquid hand soap lies in the alkali. To make the soap softer, you must use potassium hydroxide. However, to reach the liquid state you have to add water, which dilutes the concentration. Mind that water increases the chances of germs and bacteria growth, so disinfecting compounds and fungicidal solutions are added to your soap.

Filling and capping liquid hand soap

When your liquid soap is ready, you need to bottle it. Remember that after the process, your hand liquid soap is hot, so cool it before filling the bottle. You don’t want to melt your plastic bottle, do you? After cooling, your soap travels to storage tanks to await bottling. Meanwhile, through an infeed screw, bottles reach the filling station where several nozzles fill them simultaneously. The nozzles fill the bottles first slowly with a small layer of product and then with a second stage that fills them up much faster – this happens to avoid splashing and wasting of product. After filling, bottles reach the capping station, where first the dispenser pump is inserted in the bottles and then the chuck tightens and secures the cap through a fast rotation.

Which hand soap technology do you need?

Allx
All
Blending
Bottling
Capping
Cartoning
Cleaning
Disinfection
Dispersion
Filling
Folding
Handling
Labeling
Mixing
Packaging
Packing
Sorting
Thermoforming
Wrapping
Allx
All
Batch
Continuous
Entry level
Industrial
Allx
All
liquid
solid

Hydroalcoholic gel mixing system

Manufacturing hydroalcoholic gels, which contain a significant amount of alcohol, requires ...

Rotary filler capper for personal care products

In the personal care industry, ensuring consistent filling and capping of ...

Soap bar fold wrapping solution

In the soap manufacturing industry, consistent and efficient packaging is essential to maint...

Tamper evident banding system

To ensure product authenticity and consumer safety tamper-evident packaging can be necessary.

Dual head labeler for top and bottom label applications

For products requiring labels on both the top and bottom, its imp...

Retorquer for tamper-evident bottle caps

In the production lines for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and hair products, ensurin...

Tabletop ultrasonic washer for surgical instruments

In medical settings like hospitals and clinics, maintaining high sani...

Semi-automatic filler

When you are a small or a medium-sized manufacturer the manual filling processes might often lead to in...

Up to four head automatic filling machine

When your consumer demand is increasing you will need new and more effective pac...

Hot air tunnel for shrink sleeve labels

Sleeves are very popular in food, beverage, Chemical and pharmaceutical industry be...

Self-adhesive linear labeling machine for bottles

It is vital to have precise and long-lasting labels on bottles to avoid...

In-line monoblock linear filler & capper

In many food, chemicals and cosmetic industry processes it is vital to have a...

Flowmeter filler

For larger production runs of food, non-food and cosmetics industries, where accuracy and volume of filling i...

Compact monoblock filler

Filling and capping bottles and pots for food, chemical and cosmetics industries using separate mach...

Single head capper

For the stand-alone capping of bottles of up to 30 litre capacity for smaller-scale production you need a ...

High-capacity horizontal cartoner for pharma and cosmetics appliances

Cartoners take carton blanks which are formed and...

Automatic cartoner for applications in pharma and cosmetics

For high capacity production of cosmetics and pharmaceutical...

Horizontal cartoner for pharma and cosmetics

Most pharmaceutical and cosmetics products are packed in cardboard cartons fo...

High capacity cartoner for pharmaceutical applications

Many pharmaceutical products are packed in protective and decorati...

Vertical cartoner for pharmaceutical applications

Many pharmaceutical and cosmetic products are sold in protective and de...

Servo controlled filler

For food and non-food liquid products that are high foam or have a high viscosity a specialist fillin...

All your data is kept confidential

Tell us about your production challenge

We will connect you to our growing network of 20.000+ technical & application specialists working for more than 500 world-leading machine & equipment manufacturers.

All your data is kept confidential
Select a processx
Select a process
Biotech
Blistering
Calcining
Capsuling
Cartoning
Cleaning
Coating
Compaction
Conching
Containment
Conveying
Cooking
Cooling
Cutting
Declumping
Decorating
Dedusting
Dosing
Drying
Enrobing
Extraction
Extrusion
Filling
Filtration
Forming
Formulation
Frying
Granulation
Heating
Homogenization
Inspection
Labelling
Loading
Measurement & Control
Milling
Mixing
Moulding
Packing
Palletizing
Pelletizing
Pressing
Roasting
Separation Solid-Liquid
Separation Solids
Serialization
Sterilizing
Tempering
Wrapping
Other
Choose your countryx
Choose your country
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Curaçao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Côte d'Ivoire
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini (Swaziland)
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard and McDonald Islands
Holy See
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
North Korea
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine, State of
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Réunion
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Georgia
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
US Minor Outlying Islands
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands, British
Virgin Islands, U.S.
Wallis and Futuna
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Åland Islands