Poly-Skrub

  

 Poly-Skrub an IGSA Product Line

The very first of this product line, and the first IGSA product, is a dry plastic powder.  It was developed exclusively for hard metallic coatings such as TiO2, frictive glass surfaces, and defective glass surfaces.  The idea behind its creation was to locate a plastic particle that was small enough, had the correct shape, and was softer than glass and low e, and antireflective coatings.  The purpose is to be able to remove paint and other debris from such problematic surfaces without leaving scratches.  So it is NOT intended to use on every window.  In order to increase the effectiveness of these products I am currently tesing Poly-Skrub with different solvents.  Some of these solvents are on the market.  The idea here again is to not scratch glass.  When you join the best of both worlds (solvents and soft but course abrasives) you end up with custom products that are much more effective at removing paint, wood stain, etc., without creating scratches on frictive, defective, or coated glass.  I have demonstrated here in this video how effective Poly-Skrub 1 is at removing paint using only soapy water.  By using a soft cotton cloth only, soapy water does not even budge the paint.  You can see here how it doesn't even come off the glass just a little.  Which would show up as a very slight red color.  But using the same effort, the same time, the same cloth, the same soapy water, but a buff of PS it is quite possible to scrub off the paint.  Can you imagine how much easier it would be if you were to add the correct solvent?  That is the direction that I am going with this.  My future videos featuring the Poly-Skrub Product Line will demonstrate the effectiveness of adding specific organic acids and organic solvents.  Also I will be looking at different ways of building compounds based on these abrasive powders, and affixing them to scrubbing pads that can be attached to our poles for high windows.  This will dramatically reduce the amount of powder needed for the job.  Which will also allow us to use much higher "tech grades" of plastics.  These Glass Smart Products will NOT be sold in high volume amounts by IGSA.  Simply because they are specialty products.

I have written many posts on the science of particles.  But have focused mostly on cerium oxide, aluminumoxide, silican carbide, silicas, and others.  Not plastic particles.  But the truth is that plastic particles will likely prove to be a large part of the answer we are looking for when working on "Scratch Sensitive" window surfaces.  When searching for a specific plastic particle/powder I am looking at hardness (glass and low e surfaces are rated 7 Mohs), particle size, particle size distribution (PSD) curve, chemistry (for solvency resistance), and morphology (is the particle round, oblong, cubic, or amorphous?).  All of these properties will affect the overall performance of the product.  Lets take size as an example.  Very small particles will not chew through paint very well at all.  But they are very effective at eating up almost invisible thin residues of cured silicone caulk or concrete sealant.  Very large particles are rather effective at removing globs of silicone caulk and even shot gun fungi.  The only real way to know what works best on what is to do the test.

Particle science will always play a very large part of the Glass Smart Products that IGSA brings to market.  What is also going to be very exciting about these products is that the affiliate members of IGSA will be able to assist in developing these products as IGSA beta testers.  If you would like to purchase any of these products and get your name and email on the IGSA mailing list just send it to glasssmart@protonmail.com  IGSA (The International Glass Smart Association) has been initiated for the purpose of developing and selling specialty products for non-routine window cleaning.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.