Diamonds Enhancing Image Of Window Cleaning

A jewellers diamond - Diamonds can dramatically enhance the image of a Window Cleaning Company.

The Vision Glass Detailer (Written by Henry Grover Jr.): Diamonds can dramatically enhance the image of a Window Cleaning Company. They can also enhance our service and increase our annual profits. By making it possible to clean glass more effectively in less time. Restoring glass by removing scratches, abrasions, hard water spots, and acid damage. Further;...glass can now be coated and thus protected with thin films of diamond.

The picture above is a jewelers diamond. The one below is a false color micrograph of polycrystalline diamond particles used as superabrasives. The last picture is a micrograph of a weathered window glass surface. We have no use for jewelers diamonds. Yet polycrystalline diamond particles or super abrasives are quite useful. Since they can be used to effectively clean and restore glass surfaces. The picture to the far right shows quite vividly how porous ordinary glass surfaces can become over time. Oily fingerprints, pizza grease, or just dust will fill these holes, valleys, and tunnels. Making it impossible to effectively clean the glass using typical cleaners. But when we add a microcrystalline super abrasive to our cleaning solution we get much better results. Those ball like polycrystalline diamond particles with hundreds of sharp edges each, will reach down into the surface and dig out all acidic contaminants.

A false color micrograph of polycrystalline diamond particles used as superabrasives.

Polycrystalline diamond particles are also quite effective at lapping flat glass with the right tools. Creating what are called precision surfaces. Such particles are very effective owing to their size, shape, purity, and hardness. Some are even friable. Which means they actually break up into smaller particles when used. These smaller particles give the surface a smoother feel and appearance. So diamond can be used to restore window glass.

Ways have been found to ‘functionalize’ certain diamond particles with specifically reactive chemical species. These custom made particles will then bond to themselves and the chemistry of precision glass surfaces. Forming protective thin films. I put it this way because I personally do not believe the manufacturers of this technology adequately emphasize the need to properly clean glass on a microscopic level. Simply because engineering precision glass surfaces requires more expertise which limits the size of their market. Even the professional market just wants a ‘wipe on wipe off’ product. In reality this is not practically possible.

A micrograph of a weathered window glass surface.

I am just beginning to bring the technology of super abrasive engineering of precision glass surfaces to the window cleaning industry. This is a field that has existed for a long time in the optics industry. It is highly scientific. If it were not we wouldn’t be able to look out into the unbelievable depths of space at the stars, galaxies, and quasars. Or down to the farthest reaches of the microcosm where living cells thrive, divide, and work together to create our bodies. Quality glass surfaces are critical to the proper functioning of lenses and mirrors. They are also to our work. My hope is that many will follow me.

Henry Grover Jr is currently involved in R&D writing. He writes a column for the Window Cleaning Business Owner magazine called SURFACES, and manages a sub-forum for the Window Cleaning Resource with the same title SURFACES. He is also working in developing what he calls custom products for both the Window Cleaning Industry and others involved in the maintenance, restoration, and preservation of window glass. He has given seminars in the past on glass stain removal/identification techniques, wrote tech articles for the American Window Cleaner Magazine, traveled for consulting work on several famous buildings, and worked in the capacity of a consultant for many window cleaning companies in different parts of the US. 

Go to www.glass-smart.blogspot.com to read more.