Rider scrubber
Clarke
The rider scrubber Focus with i Drive has an integrated steering control system. The joystick control system improves driver comfort, safety and a level of fun while operating the scrubber. Benefits include increased productivity and labor savings. A slight touch from the hand will power the scrubber. The responsiveness reduces driver fatigue. Drivers no longer reach for a steering wheel or contend with leg strain from multidimensional foot pedals.
Circle 250 for more information
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Floor maintenance
ProForce
ProForce High Gloss Floor Finish provides high-gloss protection with fewer coats and an extended, protective shine with low- or high-speed burnishing. This 22 percent solids finish is perfect for extended floor maintenance programs, and the durable, slip-resistant protection that it provides reduces maintenance costs while producing a deep, wet-look shine.
Circle 251 for more information
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Bird repellent
Bird-X Inc.
BirdShield is a food-grade, biodegradable bird repellent that reduces bird nesting and roosting on structures, roofs, and interior or exterior walls. It also can be sprayed directly on nests. When liquid BirdShield dries, it leaves a residue with a grape-like odor. This irritates birds' trigeminal system, similar to the human sense of smell, yet it is environmentally friendly and harmless. It is effective against sparrows, starlings, pigeons, barn swallows, gulls, water birds, woodpeckers, predators and more.
Circle 252 for more information
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Upright vacuum
Tornado Industries
The CV30 single-motor upright vacuum cleaner has a three-stage filtration system with an HEPA filter designed to contain fine particulates and dust, improve indoor air quality and remove potentially dangerous airborne contaminants. This reduces dusting cycles, which lowers labor costs. Because dust is the carrying agent for allergens and infection, fewer airborne particulates means the enclosed environment stays healthier.
Circle 253 for more information
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Dual-surface cleaner
U.S. Products
The King Cobra 1200 is a dual-surface cleaner for use on hard-surface floor cleaning at 1,200 psi or carpet extraction with instant 212-degree heat at 150 psi. With the built-in 25-foot hose reel to improve hose management, users have two machines in one.
Circle 254 for more information
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H2O2 cleaner
Cleaning Technologies Group
Lightning Blend #7 Hydrogen Peroxide Cleaner/Degreaser is formulated with natural citrus oils and powerful hydrogen peroxide. The oils penetrate deep into grease, oil and grime, allowing the hydrogen peroxide to oxidize soils and stains for cleaning that is environmentally safe, people-safe and color-safe. It can be used for carpet spotting and stain removal as well as carpet extraction cleaning, autoscrub and mop-on floor cleaning. It can be used in four different dilutions for facility cleaning.
Circle 255 for more information
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Speed stripper
National Chemical Laboratories
Lickety Split Rinse Free Speed Stripper is part of the Earth Sense Floor Care System. It is a highly effective, odorless stripper that immediately liquefies floor finish on most resilient surfaces. It is concentrated and does not contain caustics, butyl cellusolv, potentially environmentally harmful surfactants, or ammonia. The high-performance stripper is environmentally responsible.
Circle 256 for more information
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No-touch cleaning
Cleaning system removes deep-down dirt without scrubbing
Kaivac
Songhai Learning Institute is a 108-year-old elementary school on Chicago's South Side. The school has been in steady decline for decades, with student test scores following the downward trend.
To turn the school around, Linda Longhart recently was appointed principal. One of her foremost concerns was the school's restrooms. “I knew the first step in helping my kids get a good education was to make their school restrooms clean, healthy and safe,” says Longhart. The restroom floors and walls were covered with hundreds of porous tiles.
“After years of mopping the floors, the tiles were deep-down dirty,” she says. “Additionally, the restrooms had acute odors that permeated the entire building.”
Following the advice of the nonprofit Illinois Healthy Schools Campaign (an advocacy group that supports programs and policies for healthier learning environments) and cleaning consultants, the school's custodians used a Kaivac No-Touch Cleaning System to clean each restroom.
The machines use a chemical-injection system to apply cleaning chemicals over fixtures and surface areas. After an appropriate dwell time, the machine pressure washes the area using clean rinse water, blasting away soil and debris. A squeegee can be used to remove excess liquid, and a wet vacuum, built into the system, is available to facilitate drying.
As the floors were cleaned, students and teachers thought they had been painted. Langhart says that having cleaner restrooms has given students, faculty and staff members a greater sense of pride in the school.
Circle 260 for more information ▸ freeproductinfo.net/asu
Changing procedure
School district saves maintenance time with new restroom cleaning system
Unger Enterprises
For the 170-person custodial staff at Rockwood School District in southwest St. Louis County, Mo., daily restroom maintenance in the 3.5 million-square-foot school district was back-breaking and time-consuming. With manual cleaning techniques using traditional string mops, rags, sponges and spray bottles, the staff often spent a combined 70 hours each day cleaning the 1,200 restroom fixtures spread among 34 buildings.
The district's cleaning schedule includes daily all-surface cleaning and nightly deep-cleaning restroom service. Because of the large amounts of water that traditional cleaning tools require, restrooms often were out of service for up to 10 minutes after the custodian was finished.
The district recently selected a restroom cleaning system by Unger Enterprises for day-shift cleaning and for use in areas inaccessible to large cleaning machines. The restroom cleaning system divides chores into daily step-by-step cleaning tasks and project cleaning tasks, which are less frequent jobs performed on a routine basis. The system includes a variety of ergonomic, color-coded tools such as microfiber cloths, a microfiber flat mop with divided no-lift bucket, a belt-mounted sprayer, and other effective cleaning tools that increase user comfort, enhance safety and prevent cross-contamination. By using this system, the district expects to save 30 seconds of evening shift cleaning time per fixture. This amounts to almost 10 hours of cleaning time saved per school day.
“The microfiber antibacterial technology has been instrumental in improving our cleaning program's sanitation practices,” says Doug Coleman, the district's custodial coordinator. “It gets the job of cleaning and sanitation done with minimal equipment, fewer hazards, less water and chemicals, and reduces downtime for our restrooms. Before, our only alternative was to avoid daytime floor cleaning, but germs build too quickly for that.” The district plans to acquire 20 to 30 additional Unger systems so each building can house its own equipment.
“Even under strict budgets, the restroom cleaning system is an affordable enhancement to our program,” says Coleman.
Circle 261 for more information ▸ freeproductinfo.net/asu
Out of the zone
University transitions to team cleaning
ProTeam, Inc.
Texas Christian University (TCU), based in Fort Worth, has an enrollment of about 8,200 students and a campus consisting of 50 buildings. Shelton Riley, assistant director of facilities services, and 96 employees gradually are transitioning TCU from using zone cleaning to using a team-cleaning approach.
“Productivity has definitely increased, and that's freed up people to do things we hadn't been able to do in the past,” says Riley. Cleaning workers have more time to re-check entrance areas, restrooms and common areas to make certain those areas look their best all day long.
The savings with team cleaning have been significant. “Within the first year, we think we've saved about $250,000,” he says. The savings have come in several forms. Although the school bought new backpack vacuums from ProTeam, Inc., the backpacks actually were less expensive than the uprights they had been using. In addition, the backpacks have required only minimal repairs. They also enable cleaning workers to cover more ground.
Riley says the team approach means TCU cleaning staff doesn't require as much equipment. “Not every worker needs a maid cart, mop bucket or vacuum,” he says. They only require the equipment necessary for their specialty.
Labor costs also are contained with team cleaning. When Riley decided to begin the team-cleaning transition with two new buildings totaling more than 300,000 square feet of space, only two additional cleaning workers were hired. Reassigning the work to teams helped the school manage the extra work with only a minimal increase in staffing needs.
Circle 262 for more information ▸ freeproductinfo.net/asu