On the surface of it — Coca Cola, Google and Harvard University wouldn't seem to have much in common. American success stories? Sure. Globally recognized brands? Absolutely. But one common thread you might not immediately think about — they all have to find ways to keep their buildings clean and free of built up high-level dust.

The presence of dust — circulating through buildings and settling on ledges, pipework, ducting and other areas presents unique issues to each of these businesses - for Harvard a dusty conference room might be a simple issue of aesthetics, but for Coca Cola — where contaminants getting into the food chain would be catastrophic — the stakes are much higher.

However high the stakes though, all of these companies CAN agree on one thing — that their SpaceVac high-level dusting system is the perfect way to help them cope with these kind of cleaning challenges.

A Better Way to Clean

Since its introduction to the marketplace a decade ago, SpaceVac has developed a range of 14 unique cleaning systems making the cleaning of high-level areas faster, safer and significantly more cost efficient for their clients.



Before the launch of the product, cleaning of high-level areas required the cleaner in question to access the areas at height. This was a dangerous and inefficient way to clean which not only presented a risk to the safety of cleaning staff but also often required the additional use of access equipment such as scaffolding or hydraulic platforms.

In addition to be a dangerous way of doing this work the method also had a number of other drawbacks:

  • The cost of hiring access equipment added significant costs to cleaning projects
  • Working with this kind of equipment often required a two man team as a minimum to ensure safe working and to assist in moving the equipment around the area being cleaned
  • All of this meant that cleaning work had a significant impact elsewhere on the business - often resulting in downtime and reduced productivity.

By addressing all of these issue in a single, floor operated cleaning system — SpaceVac offered cleaners and building service contractors something of a silver bullet — reducing costs and increasing productivity at a stroke.

SpaceVac

Reaching for the Stars

SpaceVac's simple to use cleaning solution is made up of a number of unique elements. The first is a set of lightweight carbon fibre cleaning poles that interlock to the desired cleaning height. The different products available within the range enable operators to reach anywhere from 10ft to 60ft from the safety of the ground floor. These durable, lightweight cleaning poles are held firmly in place with a unique safety locking mechanism that buttons the pole system together to ensure no elements can separate and fall from height during operation.

In addition the system comes with a full hose kit to connect to any existing industrial vacuum (including smaller backpack vacuums which make an ideal companion to the entry level Lite and Pioneer systems) and a unique set of cleaning head and attachments to provide a flexible range of options for operators using the system.

These interlocking cleaning heads offer a range of different angles and versatile range of different brushes and cleaning tools that can be used for the removal of dust from areas such as walls, ceilings, ducting, vents, pipework, machinery and more. Even better — all of the cleaning heads, tools and brushes are able to interconnect together to create custom shapes and configurations allowing for the easy cleaning of literally any area.

As if all of this wasn't enough; the company offer a range of supplementary products to work alongside SpaceVac as well including specialist accessories for cleaning tasks like water removal, the new Spacesuit support brace - an ergonomically designed support to make cleaning more comfortable to users, and a brand new Camera and Monitoring system (The Explorer) built on technology more recently used on the NASA funded Orbital Sciences space mission.

The companies versatile, innovation led approach to dust removal has seen the brands profile grow rapidly over recent years seeing demand for the products from a range of unique niches….

The Extended SpaceVac Range

As the popularity of these innovative dusting and gutter cleaning systems grew, the company has expanded its range to include a range of specialist systems including variations designed specifically in Food & Drink production, museums and even a trackside system capable of withstanding up to 50,000 volts.

SpaceVac

This specialist approach to a universal problem has given the company an unrivalled reputation or innovation throughout the cleaning industry.

The centrepiece of the SpaceVac line however is a range of five systems designed for use in specialist combustible areas — designated as Division.2. For the uninitiated — explosive atmospheres can be caused by the presence of flammable gases or vapours or combustible dust in an area. When mixed with the air, and contained inside an area, a single source of ignition such as a spark — can trigger an explosion; quickly spreading through the unburnt mixture elsewhere in the building and causing secondary explosions.

Over recent years there have been a number of these kind of incidents with devastating impacts on businesses and communities across America;

  • Imperial Sugar Refinery Explosions in Port Wentworth Georgia (14 Fatalities and 38 Injuries)
  • West Pharmaceutical Services Explosion in Kinston, North Carolina (Six fatalities and dozens of injuries)
  • Hoeganaes Corporation Flash-Fires in Gallatin, Tennessee (Five Fatalities and three injuries (three separate flash-fires)

In response to a spate of these kind of incidents, SpaceVac designed and launched a 100% carbon fully conductive version of their cleaning system to allow operators to easily remove combustible dusts from Zone 22 areas. The system was certified as safe for use in these areas having been tested and proven to provide a fully conductive cleaning system, guaranteed not to spark or create static electricity during operation.



Dr Chris Cloney from Dustex Research is one of the countries pre-eminent voices on combustible dust and recently noted on SpaceVac, "With their focus on building a certified, explosion safe, and lightweight system that can be rapidly deployed to clean combustible dust as it is generated, they are contributing to a safer workplace and reducing the number of combustible dust explosions and tragedies around the world"

This revelation in specialist cleaning allowed operators working in the Food & Drink, Manufacturing, Paper and Pharmaceutical industries to begin taking advantage of the many benefits that SpaceVac offered them — with the peace of mind of knowing they were working with the only system of its kind anywhere in the world certified as safe for use in these highly hazardous environments.

Since its launch to the marketplace, SpaceVac has received glowing reviews for its Division.2 cleaning systems — not least from the teams at Roskam Bakeries who began utilizing SpaceVac in early 2020. The tools have enabled the onsite cleaning teams in the production facility to complete their work in significantly faster time than prior to their purchase. Paul Marquard, Project Engineer at Roskam noted:

"Spacevac tools have been pivotal in helping our food production facility to clean more efficiently and effectively. We can now reach areas otherwise difficult to access using much lighter tools which allow ease of use with longer extensions. The result has been reduced man hours and a cleaner safer environment. Many areas which previously required a hydraulic lift to access can now easily be cleaned from the safety of the ground. I would highly recommend their products."

Keeping America Working Higher, Safer and Faster.

Since its launch to the American marketplace SpaceVac has quickly gained traction with some of the biggest companies in the country; from Google and Facebook who use the systems to remove dust from their data centres - to Disney and Caeser's Palace relying on our system to keep their onsite cleaning maintenance fast, safe and cost efficient.

The line is carried across all of the lower 48 states by a network of Manufacturers Reps and Distributors — including some of the largest chains in the country like Verativ and Home Depot Pro. The company offer free demonstrations to give prospective clients the opportunity to try the system out in their own premises — free demonstrations can be booked by visiting the website here.