The Covid-19 pandemic has moved hygiene to the top of everyone’s agenda, with many businesses turning their attention to understanding what else they can do to protect their employees and customers.
Of course, many industries have always needed to follow exacting standards to ensure the safety of their product and work environment. But the pandemic has seen rise to more appreciation of hygiene as it moves front of mind across all industries; no longer limited to those in food manufacture or healthcare for example.
Whilst personal hygiene and hand sanitisation has been at the fore, businesses are now looking at other considerations in the fight to minimise the spread of germs and virus’.
It’s eyes firmly downwards for the next area of focus, with the ability to clean floors effectively being an obvious next step to minimise transmission.
Many flooring types, including Ecotile PVC tiles, can be cleaned quickly and to a high standard, both manually or with a rotary scrubber dryer.
Indeed, many flooring manufacturers can make this claim, which sets a solid baseline for maintaining hygienic workplaces. However, interesting developments are afoot in the production of the raw material used in creating PVC floor tiles.
Supplier INEOS Compounds has developed a new PVC compound called hy-vin AM. Utilising proven silver ion technology, this compound defends against 99.9% of harmful bacteria growth including E-Coli, Pseudomonas Aeroginosa, Salmonella and Streptococci.
The technology behind hy-vin AM is integral to the compound and lasts the lifetime of the product it’s embedded into. So, when combined with the durability of Ecotile interlocking floor tiles, this will provide a powerful weapon to combat the threats to human health posed by bacteria, fungi, mildew and moulds.
Producing tiles using the new compound would ensure that the antimicrobial properties run throughout the tile’s whole depth. So any surface wear and tear over time won’t have a detrimental impact on its ability to offer active protection against harmful bacteria. In contrast to vinyl flooring, where a thinly applied surface layer of antibacterial properties would be lost as the surface is worn.
And importantly for the Ecotile business ethos, hy-vin AM exhibits the same recyclable qualities as their standard PVC compound, and requires no extra processing.
So whilst future focus would appear to be firmly set on hygiene across all touch points of our daily lives, it’s reassuring to see that the manufacturing industry, and the raw material suppliers at the core, are striving to produce relevant, useful developments to contribute to the cause.
Customers who will benefit from this new technology include;
- Covid-19 vaccination and testing centres
- Manufacturers of PPE
- Food industry
- GP Surgeries
- Communal areas in hospitals
- Schools
- Sports Centres
- Canteens
- Shops
Additional benefits provided by the Ecotile interlocking system;
- Quick and easy to install over the existing floor
- Very low maintenance – lift and replace a tile in minutes
- Easy to clean by hand mopping or machine
- In-floor signage to ensure social distancing and correct flow of traffic
- Withstands high levels of footfall
For more information about this exciting new product email [email protected]
