The Secrets of Developing the Absolute Best Pads for Polishing Glass

Everyone is so focused on compounds, slurrys, and commercial polishes that most have disregarded pad tech.  This is a big mistake.  Because the type of pad is critical to the desired result depending on what type of surface we are working on and the identity of the problem.  Every job is totally different from the one before.

There are felt pads, synthetic felt, urethane foam, and many other materials that have been used.  The reason for the different pads is the difference in their properties.  For example felt pads are made from condensed natural hair fibers of different sizes, thicknesses, and densities.  Such fibers have the tendency to grab onto and hold the polishing particles such as cerium, silicon carbide, or silica.  Synthetic felt is similar in that the fibers are made from polymers.  They are not natural hairs taken from animals.  But the properties can also be different.  Now different polymer foams like urethane also differ in density.  Which is not density of the fibers but rather density of the polymeric foam matrix.  The difference in density here will change how quickly the pad generates heat depending on how fast it is spinning, or the rpms.  It will also determine how much heat it can withstand and still maintain its shape or flatness.  Why is this important to the polishing process?  Simply because heat and friction are critical to the overall performance of the polishing compound/slurry.  Attaining the correct numbers without changing the flatness or density of the pad over time is very important to clearing the glass in the least amount of time.  All of this must be taken into consideration when designing pads to be used with cerium oxide, silicon carbide, microcrystalline silica, aluminum oxide, and even diamond.  It is also necessary to take this information into consideration when designing pads for different surfaces.  Of course there is a large difference between glass and acrylic or polycarbonate.  But there is also a great difference between clear glass, dark glass, and the tin oxide surface of low e hard coats.

Currently Marc Tanner and myself have begun working with Dave Keller who has retired from a long carrier with Universal Photonics.  He has many years of experience traveling all over the world working very close with the optics and electronics industry.  Now he has formed his own company specializing in developing and selling polishing pads for various industries including the same.  Marc Tanner is in my opinion and the opinion of many others in the glass restoration world the absolute best at what he does.  His experience is nonpareil.  It is with great excitement that I am now telling everyone that I am expecting some great products from our research.  They will be sold through Kellerco which is Daves' new company.  I will keep you all updated through the Glass Smart Media.  That being this blog, the Glass Smart FB Group, and the Glass Smart YouTube Channel.  So stay tuned.

Written by Henry Grover Jr
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

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Protection Products

There are many different types of glazing surfaces out there.  There is glass, low e metallic coatings, mylar/polyester, plexi/acrylic, and lexan/polycarbonate.  All of these can be destroyed by concrete, stucco, mineral deposits, silicone caulk, silane sealant runoff, paint, wood stain, and much more.  Once these get on the window it becomes very difficult to remove them without scratching or doing other harm to the surface.  Therefore the best way to handle this problem is to protect the surface in my opinion before the windows are even put in storage.  Which is done sometimes months before they are installed in the building.  Damage can be done to the windows even at the factory where they are manufactured.  So it is good to have them properly inspected when they arre at the construction site and then protected with a protection product before they are placed in storage.

There are two basic protection products.  Permanent and temporary.  Permanent products are usually wipe on sealants such as Nanovations NG 1010.  Those which are temporary are strippable brush or spray on coatings that are easy to peal off at the time of cleaning.  Other temporary products are films that are self clinging and are applied as sheets.  At the time of cleaning such films are pulled off.  Sometimes you might get a static shock when doing this.

Since there are so many different surfaces, with different contaminants, and different protection products;...this is truly a technology.  It requires much testing in the lab.  But also in the field.  So I always recommend field testing at least a patch of one window and trying out some concrete or paint to see if it is going to work.  Glazing surface protection before, during, and after construction should always be practiced.  This is a technology that every window cleaner that does post construction work should learn.  But it is not window cleaning.  Just like restoration work is not.  

Here is a short video of one protection product which is a brush on strippable coating.  I will be preforming many other tests on this product and putting them on the Glass Smart YouTube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

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Written by Henry Grover Jr
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

Protecting Pilkingtons Energy Advantage Hard Coat

Energy Advantage is a tin oxide low e hardcoat which on occasion is used as a first surface weather side product.  Whether it is the weather side of an insulating glass unit, or a monolythic plate, it is exposed to contact.  This means that any type of construction debris can get on it.  The problem then becomes one of safely removing the debris.  Since we cannot use razor blades or in my opinion not even steel or brass wool, there is a serious problem of exactly what to use to clear/clean such a low e surface.  So I am currently developing products which can be safely used.  But another solution is to use some type of strippable safety film that can be applied when the window is clean.  Then stripped off afterward once the window collects paint, stain, silicone caulk;...or whatever.  I have discovered a product called Windocoat which works very good on glass.  But did not know whether it would also easily strip off a Pilkington Low e tin oxide hard coat.  Of course there is only one way to know.  That is to do the test.  So I did.  Here is the video I did of the test which I just published a couple days ago on the Glass Smart YouTube Product Development Channel.  Let me first say however that I always suggest doing a "patch test" with this product on any surface before painting an entire building with it.  Never leave it in doubt.  General Chem the sales company, have told me that they didn't know if it would stick to a low e surface or not.  Well check out the video and tell me what you think.  There will be many more short videos to follow.  So please go to this YouTube Channel and subscribe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNHbWaP101c

Written by Henry Grover Jr
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

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Kellerco;... Your Company for Polishing Pads

Kellerco was started about a couple years ago by Dave Keller who is now retired from Universal Photonics.   UP specializes in the sale of all kinds of high tech polishing powders and polishing tools.  Dave worked as the technical sales rep for UP from NH.  He serviced many companies here in New England but also traveled the world.  In so doing he met many different companies that worked with many different surfaces.  Most of which were very high tech including silicon wafer manufacturers used in electronics and optics.  He had the opportunity to learn a great deal about business and the science of surface polishing.  For the past five or six years I have had the luxury of meeting with him once in awhile at a local McDonalds, and over a coffee and an apple pie we have talked about all of this and especially the science of particle physics, advanced surface engineering, and world travel.

If you cannot see this video from your phone you might have to go directly to the YouTube site.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

Neither one of us really ever had a plan.  But finally just the other day one came together.  After briefly explaining the science and business of glass restoration one more time, I invited Dave to work with us to locate the very best pads for glass restoration.  Especially a one step pad for removing hard water deposits from window glass.  The pad really does make the difference in how efficient the polishing process is.  Using the right pad will reduce the amount of time it takes to clear the glass and it will improve the quality of the finished product.  When you are attempting to engineer the best glass surface you do want to use the very best products.  That includes ALL of the tools.  The best polishing/grinding motors, the best polishing/grinding papers/compounds/slurries, and the best polishing pads.  When we do discover that pad it will be made known to you through the Glass Smart social media.  Then you will be able to order it directly from Kellerco.

All of my webinars will continue to come to you by means of the new Glass Smart Product Development YouTube Channel.  They will be very short between two to ten minutes.  This new Channel will also include interviews with many people in product development including chemists and material scientists.  I will also be interviewing specialists in our industry.  Along with some very interesting new products.  Some of which are already out there on the market.  These you will be able to order direct from the companies selling them.  Other products which I will be developing will be made known through the channel and there will be a means made available for you to acquire samples of these to try them out.

I am hoping that you find the new Glass Smart YouTube Channel very interesting, entertaining, and especially informative.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

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The Business of Product Development

There are so many people who believe that owning a product is like possessing a pot of gold.  Which couldn't be the farthest thing from the truth.  It is like saying all you have to do is buy a couple hundred bux in window cleaning equipment and you instantly have a thriving business.  There is just as much effort, possibly even more in generating a product development and sales business.

Subscribe to the Glass Smart Product Development Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

Over the years I have been in association with some people that have done very well with product development and sales.  And have learned a great deal.  The first thing of course is creating a product.  You should never build a product first and then look for a market.  Rather look at your market and ask what does it want;...badly.  Than develop that product.  It will have to be competitive with other products that are similar.  Or it will have to be in its own category to catch a higher price.  You will want to develop chemical products so they will last at least six months on the shelf.  Chemical products are difficult too because of the expense of the ingredients.  Almost always you will have to buy at the very least 55 gallon drums of your liquids and an entire pallet of boxes of dry ingredients.  If there are ingredients that only make up 2 percent and you have to buy at least one drum you will have to sit on it for a long time.  This is part of the structure already established in the chemical industry.  And they will not budge.  They just don't care. Because it is all about profits.  These companys are required to buy entire truckloads of 55 gallon drums at a time.  So they don't want to drain single drums into five gallon or one gallon containers.  Further it you do find a way to buy a fifty pound box of powder or a five gallon pail of a liquid ingredient, you could easily end up paying five times the price per pound or per ounce.  Which would dramatically disrupt your pricing structure if you were attempting to compete with a similar existing product.  This is even true when building tools such as water fed poles or squeegees.  If you are outsourcing the manufacturing process you will need to seriously consider that expense.  Which is the reason why people move to China.  It isn't even a question.  It is necessary to be competitive. The materials are less expensive and so is the labor.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

You must consider what the sum of all your expenses are to build your product.  Whether it is a new type of squeegee or a new window cleaning soap.  Everything must be figured in.  Even the label that goes on the bottles.  Or the cardboard that holds the squeegee.  Then you will need to multiply that cost by 4.5 to 6 to get the end retail price.  If you intend to sell enough, and not have to deal with sending them out yourself, you will need a distribution network.  At least one good distributor.  Lets say you have a product that will retail for a dollar.  You will then have to sell it to the distributor for fifty cents.  So if it cost you twenty cents to produce you will be making about 30 cents per unit.  Less what it cost to ship to your distributor of course.  Which is the reason why manufacturers like five hundred dollar orders.  It minimizes the cost of shipping per unit item and increases the profit margin.

There are many expenses which you would not think of at first.  Including business insurance.  It is called product liability.  And is based on how much product is sold during the year.  When you are first starting out you must guess how much this will be.  You will not want to pay too much so will have to get insurance for as little as possible.  The best way to get the best deal is shop around.  Or ask someone you know that is in a similar business.

Following this model is not a bad idea.  In fact it is a very smart thing to do.  Learning from other peoples mistakes.  Take for example the work that distributors do.  You might think all they do is buy a product then turn around and sell it for twice the price.  What do they actually do?  Well one time I tried to sell products direct to the end consumer.  You would not believe the problems you will have with USPS, UPS, Fed X, and every one else.  Packages show up ripped into, empty, or not at all.  The expense of shipping especially internationally can be totally prohibitive!  The cost is so great that no one would pay it.  Distributors have to deal with all of this every day.  It becomes a business of solving shipping problems.  Along with many other problems that you just cannot imagine.  Believe me distributors earn their money.  I would NOT want their job.  So the model says use distributors.  They are your best friends.  

I am looking to do things different.  Although I am not looking to develop products in the conventional way.  I am rather looking for products or ingredients that have already been developed.  Then develop different tests to locate the most effective for specific problems.  This technology and these tests I am going to show on my YouTube Channel.  Then if someone would like to try out any of these products or ingredients themselves I will supply them at a small fee.  All of my seminars/webinars/interviews will be posted on the Glass Smart YouTube Channel.  Here I can post very short one to five minute videos.  These will be much easier to produce instead of webinars that would be around 45 minutes.  Seminars too would require a lot of travel and would be very limiting.  But the YouTube Videos will go around the planet.  There will be no limit to what I can accomplish with the computer.  Also I can locate special ingredients and powders that can be purchased in much smaller quantities at prices equal to or less than commercial products.  There are literally well over a hundred different products right now that I would like to bring out.  But if I had to do it the conventional way it would take forever.  This will be like a virtual flood.  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

Think of this for just a moment.  Why do you get excited over a new product?  Simply because you are looking for it to help you to do the job in less time or at a lower cost.  It might even make it possible for you to offer a service that someone else cannot.  Because they just don't have the tools.  Either way the end result will be greater profits.  This is what I am proposing to do here.  Are you interested in following me down?  If so then subscribe to this blog, and subscribe to the new YouTube Channel.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA

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Pilkingtons Hard and Soft Coats, Part One

The Soft Coats are becoming harder these days.  But they are still not hard enough for manufacturers to expose them to the atmosphere.  Either inside or outside of a building.  So you will only find them on the second or third surface of an insulating glass unit.  Unless someone makes a very big mistake!  If they do you will notice after only three months the surface turning a different color and getting rather spotty.  At the very most they only have a storage life of three months.  Sales people warn the IG unit manufacturers to seal them up as quickly as possible.  What I am saying here is you should never have to deal with soft coats;...ever.

Hard Low E Coats are quite another matter.  The Soft Coats have a great number of different metal alloys layered to form the coating.  Hard Coats also have a number of different layers too.  The formula of which can also change every few years so don't think this makes SO much of a difference.  The outermost layer of Pilkingtons Energy Advantage for example is tin oxide.  So whatever chemicals react with tin oxide will degrade the surface of Energy Advantage.  That is if you happen to be in direct contact with it.  Because hard coats such as Energy Advantage can be applied to a surface in between the two plates of an IG unit.  It doesn't have to be like a soft coat.  But it certainly can be.  It can also be applied to the outside where you would come into contact with it.  So that would be number one or number four.  In fact in order to attain the greatest "energy advantage" in cold weather climates this hard coat can be applied to the number 2 and number 4 surfaces at the same time.

There are many other coatings out there which I will be looking at over time.  But right here and now we are going to look at Pilkingtons Energy Advantage.  I just picked up a couple of one by one foot squares of glass with this hard coat.  My question is if you are working on a building that you discover has silicone caulk, concrete, paint, stucco, or something else on the Energy Advantage Hard Coat, exactly what can be used to remove it safely?  This is non-routine window cleaning.  Further we are not working on glass but rather a tin oxide surface.  Which is VERY clear so it is very difficult to see.  There are electronic tools that will tell you in a moment if a window has any low e coatings and what surface they are on.  But just by using your senses you will notice right away that an Energy Advantage surface is quite rough to the dry touch.  When you move your dry thumb across it you will hear a sound.  Glass however will not make any sound.  This "roughness" is the reason why you should NEVER use a razor blade.  Not even if you have what you think is adequate lubrication.  In this video from the Glass Smart Product Development YouTube Channel I will show you exactly what I mean by "sound".  Pilkingtons Energy Advantage Low E Hard Coat is NOT of course the only Hard Coat that has this roughness about it.  But this is a sure way to determine that you are most likely in contact with a metal coating, not glass.  There is an electronic device you can purchase that will tell you instantly if the window has a low e coating and exactly which side it is on.  But here is the video.  Please go to this YouTube Channel and subscribe.  There will be many more short videos to follow.  Also if you are on your phone you might have to go directly to the Glass Smart YouTube Channel to see this video.  That address is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFfWdGaefeg

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

To receive these posts directly in your inbox when they are written just type your address in the box at the top right, "Follow by Email".  If you are reading this from a phone you will need to go to the Glass Smart Blog and convert to the web version.

Exposing the Evil Genius of Glass Smart

Now I certainly do not claim to be a genius and am definitely not evil.  But I have been following a different path.  One that has led me to many very interesting discoveries that hopefully will promote some very positive changes in the window cleaning world.  I have been working on "alternate technologies" since 1980.  But only recently have I become very involved in writing for the WCR Forum, writing my own blog, with the help of Jeff Brimble and Kevin Cogan started the Glass Smart FB Group, written several articles for the AWC, and now very recently I have created the Glass Smart Product Development YouTube Channel.  This latest development will accomplish many things that were not possible with only the printed word.  So let me first introduce myself;....

This video will show if you go to the Glass Smart Blog

Everyone else has been talking out of their cars so I decided to do the same.  However.  That is only the beginning.  I promise you.  I will also be doing some things for you that you will find very interesting.  I will be demonstrating some brand new products that are not being sold by any manufacturer/distributor in our industry.  An example is the J Seal product.  It will be discussed further in my Webinars.  This is one product I discovered when looking at the chemistry of hydrophobic sealants.  

This video will show if you go to the Glass Smart Blog

I will also be developing videos that you will be able to show to prospective customers which will help to secure that contract.  Also I will be doing video interviews with some very interesting people in our industry.  Some of whom have been very much involved in the business of product development.  What they have to say will be very enlightening to many.  We also have people in our community who are what I call window cleaning savants.  These people make up my personal mastermind.  Most if not all are on the Glass Smart FB Group.  I want to video interview all of these.  So get ready for some very engaging interviews.  

If you have anything that you would like to contribute please just send me a quick email.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

To receive these posts directly into your inbox as they are written please just type your address in the box at the top right, "Follow by Email".