One area that facility managers are always looking at to reduce costs and in­crease productivity is hard floor care. A labor-intense task, hard floor care also offers an opportunity to reduce the en­vironmental impact of building services.

Floor finish strippers are one of the more dangerous compounds that clean­ing workers must handle, and anything that reduces the amount of exposure to such product is appealing to facility managers. One technology that can help reduce such exposures is microfiber mops, which can significantly reduce the time and energy spent on caring for hard floors.

In order to get a clean and shiny floor, you often do not need to use chemicals or, a vacuum cleaner. It may be enough to dust mop the floor regu­larly with a dry microfiber mop, espe­cially during the summer season. You will save both time and electricity.

Microfiber has two polymers. It consists of very fine threads of polyester and polyamide (nylon) that combine to form a single thread. Polyester is lyophilic, or has an affinity to oil, so that oil and grease adhere directly to the fibers. Polyamide is hydrophilic, which means it has an affinity to water. As a result, any type of dirt is very quickly and completely removed with microfiber, leaving a sparkling clean, streak-free surface.

The term “microfiber” is based on the size of a fiber measuring below 1.0 denier (the diameter or fineness of a continuous or filament fiber—the lower the number, the finer the fiber, which in turn is more effective for cleaning surfaces).

Microfibers are so thin (100 times thinner than a single strand of human hair) that when they are woven together they create a surface area 40 times more than that of a regular fiber – creating an expanded surface area with dramatically enhanced absorbing power due to the capillary action of the fine threads.

 Microfiber cleans without streaking, smearing, scratching or leaving lint. Mi­crofiber is safe to use on all delicate sur­faces. It will clean without scratching or harming the surface in any way. Cleaning microfibers are engineered in such a way as to make them very sensi­tive to the capillary effect. The action of splitting microfibers is a clincher as it  releases the polyamide star shaped core of the fiber, which is rather hydrophilic, while multiplying the number of strands available on a same volume. It thus pro­portionally increases the total added sur­face of all the fibers available and hence enhances the absorption properties of the microfiber fabric.

“Microfiber is more sustainable,” said Dan Blom, president of AquaStar, Inc., manufacturer of Starfiber microfiber cleaning cloths, mops and floor pads. “It helps control pollutants and allows end users to use less product. Cleaning can be both simple, environmentally friendly and finished fast. We sometimes unfor­tunately use cleaning chemicals the wrong way or even unnecessarily.”

He says that his commercial dust pads are electro-static and will pick up dust-bunnies and micro-particles from any hard floor surface. The high quality commercial mop pads are excellent for cleaning and polishing any surface. “Chemical cleaners are not needed or can be dramatically reduced when cleaning with microfiber, which will help protect our environment.”

When dusting and sweeping, Blom advises end users to glide the mop over surface to pick up dust and dirt and other contaminants. “When the mi­crofiber pad becomes filled with dust and particles, just peel the pad from the base, and then shake the pad out to re­move loose dirt and particles. Re-attach the pad and continue dusting. The mi­crofiber dust pad does not need to be washed after every use – just wash the pad when it becomes very dirty.”

If you need to deep clean, damp the microfiber mop pad in warm water and squeeze out the water before you start moping the floor. The mop can be used on all floor surfaces since it leaves a minimum amount of water on the floor. Remember to even mop doorsteps and borders.

Each strand of microfiber is comprised of two components—wedge-shaped polyester fila­ments and a core of nylon. Made of both oil-attracting and water-attracting poly­mers, these strands are woven into masses of tiny “hooks & loops.” The sharp edges of millions of these fibers cut through dried-in stains, attracting and absorbing dirt and micro-particles, eliminating the need for additional chemical cleansers. The microfiber does not need to be treated with any chemi­cals. The capillary effect between the filaments and nylon core creates a high absorbency, which in turn, enables the fiber to clean and polish at the same time. Therefore, only water is needed as a detergent to clean any type of surface.

Microfiber picks up and traps dust, dirt, grease, and particles inside the “star-shaped” grooves of the fiber. Blom says each Starfiber microfiber cloth and microfiber mop pad is made up of over 2 million yards of microfiber, for 30 times the cleaning power of an ordinary cleaning cloth or pad.

As each microfiber strand may be smaller than the bacteria it is attracting, it is able to penetrate microscopic parti­cles of dirt and grease on a surface. Split microfiber possesses numerous wedges instead of the rounded surfaces on ordi­nary cloth, sweeping underneath the particles and trapping them inside. In addition, the rounded fibers on most cloths only push the dirt around, whereas the wedge-shaped microfibers grab the particles of dirt and pull the dirt into its dense internal structure. Fur­thermore, chemicals only become nec­essary as a disinfectant, as the bonding agent is no longer necessary to keep the dirt on the fiber.

The capillary action is also mechanically increased by the scrubbing move­ments during cleaning. On average, a microfiber mop can retain up to 8 times its weight in water. Once inside the mi­crofibers, water will be distributed quite fairly between fibers since polyester, which generally constitutes most of the fibers, is rather hydrophobic and won’t accumulate much water molecules on its surface.

This property prevents the fabric from soaking (unless completely submerged) and makes it is easier to dry since water on the fibers’ surface evaporates more quickly. Doing so, it also prevents the growth of bacteria inside the fabric.

When sweeping a wet surface, mi­crofibers will absorb most of the liquid, but it will also spread some along the sur­face in a very thin layer, which, in case of water, evaporates almost immediately.

The regular bi-component pie wedge cleaning microfibers, with their specific structures and properties, are precision tools and as such a lot of care has to be taken during their manufacture. As stated before microfibers offer a vast array of uses and can adapt to many specific needs. ❑