Now,
There Is An Answer :
Soil-Blocker™
Protector
As with
many things in our industry, there is a great deal of
misunderstanding about Fabric Protection. What It is. What It
Really Should Do. And, The Basic Differences In Products.
Throughout this discussion, I will be making numerous references to
the similarity between fabric protection, and the use of floor
finishes, or waxes as they are commonly called.
(A
brief side note: floor finish and fabric protector shares the
same chemistry when you are talking about Polymers. Polymers simply
are the links that make the protection bond together – AND – with
the surface being coated. 72 hour cure time for polymers – floor
finish or fabric protector.)
What
Is Fabric Protection?
Fabric
protection is the act of applying a product to any fabric to make it
resistant to many things, but mainly water, oil, and soil.
Individual fabric protectors may work in one, two, or all of these
areas. For instance, Silicone based protectors’ work extremely well
for water resistance, but poorly for oil or soil resistance.
That’s
why silicones are generally used for water repellency. They are
less expensive in price because they are not as complex in nature,
and do not offer the range of protection.
The
major complaint with Silicones is that they may cause “yellowing” of
the carpet over an extended time frame, and/or become sticky.
Coating or Penetrating?
Another
major difference in fabric protectors is whether in their
application they are coating the fiber, or penetrating into the
fiber and literally becoming a part of the fiber.
Rather
than get into a VERY technical mode, let’s simply say that the
“carrier” used to take the active ingredient to the fiber generally
makes the difference here.
Water-based protectors generally are coaters of the fabric.
Solvent-based protectors are generally penetrators of the fabric.
Percentage of Solids
The
carrying agent (water or solvent) also plays a part in how much
“solid” content the individual formula can carry. “Solids” are the
part left on the fabric to perform the protecting AFTER the carrying
agent has evaporated away.
Solvent-based carriers are almost always able to “carry” more solids
that water based carriers. And in so doing, are generally
considered to be a superior protector.
A
comparison to floor finish is appropriate at this point.
Most of
you who have used floor finishes know that the higher the “solids”
content (i.e. 24%) the fewer number of coats that you will have to
put on the floor tile to get the best protection. In many cases 2
coats of a “high solids” floor finish will accomplish the same as 3
costs of a “low solids” finish, even if they are the same product.
The
same holds true for fabric protectors. The higher the “solid”
content, the less product you have to put on a designated area.
This is extremely important in the case of water based products
where by having to apply an appropriate amount of protective
coverage, you may re-wet the carpet more so than when you cleaned it
in the first place.
So if
we can make a protector with a higher solids – that is still easily
applied – YOU will get more coverage with less total product as long
as the product maintains its concentration (i.e. is NOT diluted).
But,
you say, I can get 5 Gallons of protector out of 1 Gallon of
concentrate – and so I am not paying as much as for a ready-to-use (RTU)
formula.
Not
necessarily true…
Remember, in our discussion of solids, we said that you got better
coverage with high solids – AS LONG AS IT WASN’T DILUTED.
When
you dilute a concentrate, YOU CAN NO LONGER GET THE SAME COVERAGE
OUT OF A GALLON OF DILUTED PRODUCT!!!
What
I’m saying here is that a diluted product will not “lay down” as
much solids as a concentrate will – so you will have to actually use
MORE diluted product to correctly protect a given square foot area.
And that area is always less than you could cover with a higher
concentrated (more solids) product.
This
can be true, even with the exact same product. Gleam and Shine
floor finish comes in 3 solids concentrations of 16%, 20%, and 24%.
It takes 4 applications of 16% to coat a floor, 3 coats of 20%, or 2
coats of 24% to coat 1000 SF.
So,
your COST has to become the COST of the total coverage of ALL the
dilutions – the coverage of the dilutions being LESS than the
coverage ability of a concentrate – AND subject to the percentage of
solids.
We have
found a unique, new formula of fluorochemical fabric protection,
Soil-Blocker, which is a RTU high solids, and flows on easily
and freely.
Soil-Blocker
costs you only 1.3 cents per square foot applied – YET gives you the
protection equal to – or better than our competitors.
The
manufacturers of our fluorochemicals are NOT DuPont™ or 3M™, and for
that we are grateful.
Why?
About Fluorochemicals
Fluorochemical formulated protectors are easily the product of
choice for most carpet technicians. However, there is a great deal
of misinformation regarding fluorochemicals that I need to bring to
your attention. Not with the actual fluorochemicals themselves, but
the production of fluorochemicals.
For
some reason, there is a wrong belief that DuPont and 3M are the ONLY
companies who make fluorochemicals for fabric application.
I don’t
know where this has come from. It is totally and completely wrong!
The
actual facts are that fluorochemicals are manufactured by dozens of
different companies worldwide. One of the largest of these
companies is located in Great Britain.
And, to
further set the record straight, there is GOOD reason to believe
that even the “Big Guys” may not be producing and packaging their
own private labeled products.
The
company that we do business with is one of the leading producers of
new technology fluorochemical protection. The reason that they
occupy this position is because they are a small company – and they
have to do better than the “Big Guys” in order to sell their
products.
They
are one of the leading manufacturers of fluorochemical protection
for new carpet production, and we are extremely pleased that they
are doing business with us.
The
point that I am trying to make here is that to think that Teflon™
and Scotchguard™ are superior products because of who makes them –
is flawed thinking. The actual production of quality
fluorochemicals is done by many different companies – not just these
two alone.
Concentrates & Dilutions
While
we are on the path of misconceptions, there is another one, which
needs to be addressed. And that is: “a concentrate is a better and
less expensive product to use”.
First,
the better, or quality issue…
The
facts are that in its original state, the concentrated product is
fine. However, as you allow this concentrate to go into many
different hands – here is what happens:
