Glass is naturally hydrophobic. It loves water. In fact it must be heated to 700 degrees to eliminate all molecular water from the surface. The reason why areas of even a single window will bead water (hydrophobic) and some areas sheet water (hydrophylic) is that the surface of glass on a microscopic level is not of the same exact "smoothness". Some areas due to whatever, are much more rough, and hence have more surface area exposed to hold onto water. Other areas are more smooth and will bead water. I can make glass more hydrophylic or hydrophobic just by superpolishing with different sized superabrasive powders. But this is time consuming. The easiest way to do it is to chemically react a water based silane with a specific functional group to the glass. The functional group being hydrophobic or hydrophylic depending on what you want. Unfortunately in order to accomplish this we usually have to dip into the halogen reserve. That means using fluorinated and chlorinated hydrocarbon functional groups. I have found one that works very well in water and leaves a hydrophobic surface. But WFP guys want their water to sheet not bead. This chemistry is much more difficult to locate. But how many more toxic chems do you want to dump into the Earth for cleanup later? The best alternative would be to functionalize the entire outside plate of glass using green superabrasives before the window is put in the building. In other words setting up the surface of the window for whatever cleaning procedure will be used after the building contract has been signed off.
Superabrasives that are based on particles in excess of five stand a chance of scratching. But anything under this is typically safe. At least for products like cerium oxide. When using even a three micron polycrystalline diamond particle one must be cautious about the method of application. The reason being that diamond can create an abrasion haze rather easily. Nonetheless the different sized particles will create different types of smoothness. Everyone has their own opinion of what is best for them. Just look at how many people out there prefer Dawn over products like GG3 and GG4. So you will need to try different compounds on different windows to compare with your WFP. I suggest trying a nano compound of 1/10 of a micron, a one micron, and a 3 to 5 micron particle. You can try cerium at first, then compare to other compounds.
I suggest using my invention the Gyro Wheel. It will make your work much easier. I am looking into ways to get this technology to you. The gyro wheel can be used with a six inch disk or rings. My preference is for the hard felt repositional rings. The compounds are colored and come in syringes.
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Written by Henry Grover Jr.
For product sales henrygroverjr@gmail.com
3 comments:
We use ecover dawn glass gleem 4
www.alexanderswindowcleaning.com
We use ecver/dawn/glass gleem4
www.alexanderswindowcleaning.com
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