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Successful Jan/san distributors are constantly searching for products that make their customers’ jobs easier, faster and allow them to be more efficient. Microfiber, whether woven into a wiper, wet mop or dusting cloth, not only delivers on all of those promises, but also much more. Microfiber has inherent advantages over other cloths, such as it absorbs seven times its weight in liquid, it can be used over and over (up to 600 washings in some cases) without degradation and can eliminate the need for cleaning chemicals.

Many cleaning professionals today use the import-only super cloths, but know little about how the product is made, and how to judge its quality. Although there is no official or standardized grading system for microfiber, industry experts grade microfiber cloths based on an array of criteria, such as its composition, number of splits and its weight. Understanding how microfiber is made and works is the first step to clearing up why not all microfiber is created equal.

MAKING SPLIT MICROFIBER

Microfiber is a continuous filament fiber, which is actually a combination of two fibers: polyester and polyamide (a nylon byproduct). The interlocking composition of the two fibers is what makes microfiber so unique and adept at attracting dirt. Polyester and polyamide are woven together to form a pie-shaped pattern, as seen in this 1,000 times magnified photo above.

A very specific manufacturing process gives microfiber its signature shape, as David Goldberg, vice president of operations of Leading Edge Products, explains. “The two fibers are squeezed together, then pushed out through a star-shaped nozzle,” he says. “The fibers are then treated mechanically and/or chemically with heat and pressure. This action causes the two substances to separate due to differences in surface tension.”
This structure creates the small sharp edges, gullies and grooves ideal for cleaning, for moisture capillary action and retention of particles.

“Those little hooks, or scoops, will scrape up the dirt and store them in tiny channels so you don’t have to use chemicals with microfiber,” Ira Sutton, president of Microfiber Solutions, says. “It removes 99.6 percent of bacteria all on its own. However, it does not kill the bacteria, but rather takes it from the surface and stores it in those channels. The bacteria are killed after laundering, and the pad can then be reused at that point.”

Since the introduction of microfiber in 1986, one common criterion microfiber was judged upon was the ratio of polyester to polyamide. However, more recently, experts have reconsidered whether this ratio makes much of an impact.