Wispy wiping wonders
02/01/2002
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Hello, my name is Mark, and I'm a wiperholic.
I've been a wiperholic now for a while, and I have a cache of wipers for pretty much any surface or circumstance.
It all started a few years ago with those multi-purpose baby wipes. You know the kind that promises that fresh feeling is just one sheet away?
Anyway, I had it all under control; secretly limiting myself to just those unscented ones. That was until I came to CleanRooms, when I started running with that contamination-control crowd, who just filled my layman's brain with tantalizing thoughts of woven vs. nonwoven; absorptive and adsorptive; sterile surfaces; and, of course, that nifty quilt-like pattern.
I didn't realize I had this obsessive-wiper-compulsive disorder until just a couple of days ago, while cleaning my place. Ask anyone of my coworkers: I am not a neatnik. In fact, I am teased regularly about what I like to call the "organized chaos" of my cubicle.
But it works for me, just like the wipers.
I have two kinds for the bathroom: One I can talk about, and one I can't. I also have a special tube for the kitchen, which comes in handy if I have an ingredient blowout while cooking.
I even have some for the car, which are saturated with "Armor All" that keep the interior of my VW sparkling like new. I have some for windows, too, and they do wonders for the chrome on my Harley.
But my most recent and prized purchase was a mop that, get this, can be outfitted with two, yes two, kinds of wipers: A wet one for deep cleaning and a statically-charged wiper that picks up dust and dirt.
Go ahead. Laugh. These things have changed my life forever, and I truly believe the wiper is one tool that cannot be underestimated.
Aside from improving household and personal care product lines on the consumer level, it continues to make manufacturing cleaner for the aerospace, automotive, biotechnology, food processing, medical device and semiconductor industries.
"Not surprisingly, the application of wiper technology in critical environments has paralleled developments in household and personal-care products," Ken O'Connor, a technical sales consultant for Protocol Inc. (Portland, OR) wrote in a January article for CleanRooms. "We have seen that the technology, though deceptively uncomplicated, can be effectively deployed in a broad spectrum of industrial processes."
And sometimes, cleaning my apartment is an industrial process. So, maybe my obsession with wipers is warranted.
Just the same, I recommend reading Ken's article, "The evolving cleanroom wiper," CleanRooms, January 2002, p. 24. Keep your eyes on Inventor's Corner, too, because we're always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in wiper technology.
Mark A. DeSorbo
Associate Editor