In this article, industry manufacturers answer common questions asked by in-house custodial managers.

Why are some floor pads different shapes than others?

Floor pads are cut to properly fit the size and type of floor cleaning equipment used. The most common shaped pad is round to fit the majority of all machines available. Over the past few years, though, a new generation of orbital or oscillating type machines has been introduced, which require rectangular shaped floor pads.

It is very important that no matter what shaped floor pad is used, it properly fits the machine. Oversized or undersized pads may negatively impact the overall performance of the machine operation and cleaning performance.

— John Miller, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Americo Manufacturing Co. Inc., Acworth, Ga.


Floor machines are manufactured in all different shapes — round, square, etc. Some pad holders have holes in them for dust collection purposes and other pad holders may have required a pad to be cut in the X shape. Most pads are still cut in the round shape.

— Randall Flowers, Vice President of Corporate Accounts, ETC of Henderson Inc., Henderson, N.C.


Up until recent years the floor pad market primarily consisted of round pads. Sure we had seen some X shaped and Flower shaped, but not in widespread use. In recent years however, two significant shapes have come into the market. The first being square or rectangle for all orbital machines and the second being octagon pads for higher efficiency applications. The square and rectangle pads require completely different equipment than traditional round pads. The high efficiency octagon pads utilize the same equipment as round pads.

— Rory Beaudette, Vice President of Sales, ACS Industries Inc., Lincoln, R.I.


What do the different pad colors signify?

Typically the darker the color the pad, the tougher the cleaning application it is used on.

Strip pads are black, dark brown, dark blue, emerald green, burgundy, for example, and are used periodically. Daily cleaning, scrubbing and buffing pads are in the red, blue and green colors and are referred to as regular use pads. The polishing, burnishing and other high-speed pads are lighter in color, including white, to minimize color bleed and maximize user recognition of pad performance.

— Rory Beaudette, Vice President of Sales, ACS Industries Inc., Lincoln, R.I.


Traditional floor pads were colored to indicate the job they were designed to do. As a manufacturer would add abrasives to a pad, they would dye the pad a certain industry standard color allowing the end user to know the job of the pad by the color — White for polishing, Red for cleaning or spray buffing, Blue or Green for deep scrub and re-coat, and Black for stripping. Generally, the darker the color, the higher the abrasiveness.

With the advent of Ultra High Speed Burnishers, the colors added to burnishing pads no longer followed an industry standard but were still used so manufacturers would be able to identify the individual pads for their intended purpose.

— Randall Flowers, Vice President of Corporate Accounts, ETC of Henderson Inc., Henderson, N.C.


In general, the different pad colors signify a different cleaning application. For example, darker colors like black, brown, maroon are the most aggressive pads and used in stripping. Colors like blue or green are less aggressive and common scrubbing pads. Light colors, such as white, pink, red, are used for polishing.

There are areas where the "color coding" of pad deviates from any standards. Ultra high-speed burnishing pads come in a very wide variety of colors, making it more difficult for a user to decide the right pad to use. In burnishing, choosing the right pad requires matching the pad to both the burnishing machine type (electric, battery or propane) along with the floor finish characteristics (soft, medium, hard, very hard). Floor pad users should consult their supplier for the recommended pad for their needs.

— John Miller, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Americo Manufacturing Co. Inc., Acworth, Ga.




POSTED ON: 6/29/2012