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.

Window Cleaner Saves Client From Thieves

Window cleaner chases off armed smash-and-grab raiders in Bushey Heath, Watford, UK: A 63-year-old window cleaner is being hailed a “hero” after he chased off armed raiders carrying out a smash-and-grab at a Bushey jeweller's on Monday. Men brandishing sledgehammers smashed the front window of The Jewellery Workshop, in High Road, at about 10.45am in front of dozens of witnesses. Pictured Above: David Guest with shop manager Stacey Simmonds who described him as a "hero."

David Guest was cleaning the windows at the Hob Salon, next door, when he heard “a loud bang” before going out to confront three young men attempting the raid. Mr Guest “shouted at them” and “squared up” to the culprits, who twice threatened him with their hammers. He said: “At first I thought it was someone beating up the jeweller and he is a friend of mine. I was just so angry that they had the cheek and the nerve to think they could get away with it. “One of them came at me with the sledgehammer but when I didn't move he started to panic. I stepped forward to grab him and he lost his bottle.”

The burglars ran off empty-handed as Mr Guest, a window cleaner in Bushey Heath for 40 years, tried to cut off their escape down a nearby alley, forcing them to jump the fence. “I am not the sort of person to stand there and watch and I didn't think, I just charged in there. I would have done anything to stop them but on reflection it was quite stupid.” Mr Guest, who is divorced, described the offenders as Asian men in their late teens or early 20s, one of whom was about six feet tall and another about five and a half feet tall.

Shop manager Stacey Simmonds described Mr Guest as a “hero” for intervening and said she and the other member of staff were “terrified”. The 27-year-old said: “We were really shaken up by it - afterwards, my colleague was crying. There's not a lot you can do, it's just fortunate no one was hurt.”

It is the third time the shop has been targeted in recent years and staff say police were at the scene within about five minutes. Sales assistant Danielle Greenberg, 34, added: “I just saw my life go before my eyes - neither of us could sleep last night.” Hob Salon assistant manager Adam Cole pulled an elderly customer back into the shop as she tried to leave and saw Mr Guest run out to tackle the thieves. He said: “He was a real hero. It all happened so quickly and it was so surreal that they were there in broad daylight. A couple of the older customers were pretty shaken by the whole thing.”

Police say investigations are ongoing, though no arrests have been made. The smashed glass was repaired on Tuesday morning and Mr Guest added: “The annoying thing was that I'd washed that window just seconds before and I turn around and someone's trying to put a hammer through it.”