MAY 12

Don’t do windows? Now there’s an eco-friendly way to not clean as often. A Denmark company has a new cleaning product called ShineOn that keeps windows free from dirt and grime for up to two years.

{digg}http://digg.com/environment/Your_Windows_Could_Soon_Clean_Themselves{/digg}ShineOn is a thin coating developed using nanotechnology by SCF Technologies. The coating chemically bonds with glass to create a layer that uses the sun’s energy to “burn” loose dirt that gathers on the glass and loosen it from the surface. The dirt is then washed away from the window by rain.

The coating, which contains titanium dioxide, is applied in two stages with windows prepared with a special fluid to remove all possible contaminants. ShineOn is then polished onto the window with a cloth. Though other dirt-burning coatings have been developed in the past, this is the first that can be applied to existing windows, making retrofit possible without replacing and landfilling millions of panes of glass.

The product makes sense now for commercial use even though the initial application is expensive. The eventual savings are tremendous when you consider how much money is regularly spent on cleaning towers that are surfaced almost entirely in glass. Environmental benefits will come from using less traditional detergents. In a typical modern office building, windows are cleaned up to 100 times over two years.

Now if only someone will discover an energy-free way to fold laundry.

Full Press Release from SCF Technologies

Image via Swisscan on Flickr

Comments (6)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Nano-tech eco-friendly?
written by Bob, May 12, 2008

Are we really ready to call nanotechnology environmentally friendly? Sure, it's going to save regular detergent, but is it also going to get into the ground water and clog fish gills or something along those lines? I'm all for the high-tech stuff (otherwise I wouldn't be a regular reader), but what I've heard about nano-tech and the already recognized effects on the environment, I wouldn't get to excited about spraying this stuff outdoors.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by Fabian Fjalling, May 12, 2008

Has there been any tests on how this spray affects organisms. I wonder for instance what happens to the balance of signal substances in the brain if there would be unusually high levels of titanium oxides.... or if the reproduction capacity of bats would be affected by nano titanium oxide... or if the dna of worms could be altered when experiencing high levels of titanium oxide.. etc. etc.
I would believe it is very close to impossible to predict how a new substance will affect nature, so there need to be significant advantages if I would be happy to release it into the environment. Not having to clean the windows does not seem to be an advantage significant enough to me.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Rain
written by Dustin, May 12, 2008

And then when the rain hits the windows it washes the chemicals down into the land.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

.....and I believe in UFO's
written by obewandakobe, May 13, 2008

Sorry, I doubt this very seriously. What about all those windows on the shade side of the building? This coating supposedly reacts with sunshine. Also, fake fingernails are painted with something that also reacts with ultraviolet rays and they sure don't last two years!

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Nano what?
written by Cooper, May 14, 2008

This is Enviro-Crime, pure and simple. Nanons will be emitted from the windows and they will eventually collect in the lowest point - usually a drain or waterway. From there the nanons will be admitted into our food supply by piggy backing on insects, protozoans, crustaceans and more.

Stop this terrible technology before it gets a hold.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by J. K. Hanford, May 25, 2008

Basically humans are enabling themselves to destroy the world at Giga-level by coming up with nano-weapons.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment