Vol. 3 Nr. 3 - 12/02 

Dear valued customers! The time has come once again - a year is coming to an end. It is time to reflect and ask the question: Have all goals for this year been achieved? For CEBE Reinigungschemie GmbH the year 2002 was a difficult one. We have experienced the difficult economical situation around the world with you. For Europe the Euro was not supposed to be coupled with price increases - we did not use it for hidden price increases - but unfortunately there were more than a few exceptions. The result for the service company, especially when the clientele is the end user: money has become tight, carpet and upholstery cleaning has been postponed, sometimes indefinitely. The consequence for the service company: less turnover, which results in higher relative costs, which may result in the dismissal of personnel and the reduction of chemical orders in order to put the costs back into proportion. This results in a direct effect for us, the supplier. This cycle is very difficult to stop and turn around, especially once it has achieved momentum. For us this reduction in turnover per customer has resulted in even greater efforts to gain new customers and to try and help you, our existing customers, to find new fields of business in order to regain at least some of the turnover that has literally broken away.

We were able to meet these goals, if not always successfully and to the extent hoped for. What are we to expect for the coming year? This is a question which is difficult to answer. One thing is for certain: the end user will keep holding on to his/her money tightly. Prices will not fall and some things will most likely become more expensive. The insecurity that is visible in all markets will remain, making it difficult to convince customers to invest into the future. If one only takes this into consideration, the prognosis is bleak indeed. We, however, would like to approach the coming year with optimism, and will try to pursue the goals from this year even more emphatically in the coming year. We hope that you, too, dear customers, will approach the coming year with optimism! Until then we wish you a very happy holiday season and a good transition into a healthy and successful 2003!

New Price List On 1 January 2003 our new price list will take effect. What does this mean for you, dear customer? It means that the prices which we converted 1:1 from DEM to Euro will be rounded up or down to make them easier to work with and remember. On the other hand it has unfortunately been necessary to adjust prices upwards on some products. The reasons for these price increases are twofold. On the one hand our suppliers have raised prices, especially before the Euro became our official currency. These increases were sometimes up to 15%. Even worse: prices were increased twice or even three times in the course of one year!

On the other hand the German government has decided to levy a toll on the use of highways in Germany for trucks. This law will take effect in August of the coming year. In addition to this burden for trucking companies comes the increase of the ecological tax on fossil fuels by 3 cents per litre as of January 1, 2003! This has made it necessary for the trucking companies to pass the cost increase of the highway toll to their customers. We have taken a look at the staggered fee system that will take effect and calculated the additional costs that we will incur over the course of one year - it amounts to an increase of 3.45%. Our last price increase lies two years in the past. Like you, we are interested in constant prices for an extended period of time as this makes it easier to plan budgets etc. For this reason we try to increase our prices only when absolutely necessary. You will see for yourself in our new price list. Dr. Jan M. Reimers, Managing Director

Ozone - Basics Do you also know that feeling, that deep breath that your lungs take in when you go outdoors after a thunderstorm? That fresh, sweet, clean, smell of air is the result when nature uses ozone as a cleaner and purifier. The electrical discharge that takes place during lightning transforms the oxygen contained in air to ozone. The ozone proceeds to destroy odour causing substances in the air, the rain washes and rinses the remaining particles away and we can, at least for a brief moment in time, enjoy this fresh scent of a clean atmosphere that is caused by trace amounts of residual ozone. Why does this fresh smell disappear so quickly after the thunderstorm is over? There are several reasons for this, including the ever-present emissions of new pollutants from an endless and very diverse number of sources that are present in an industrial environment. But also because ozone is a highly reactive and unstable substance. If nothing is present with which the ozone can react and destroy, it begins to degrade back to normal atmospheric oxygen, that is, back to what it was originally. This is one of the big advantages when using ozone as a cleaner: it accomplishes its task without leaving behind toxic or unwanted byproducts. Ozone is a form of oxygen (chemical formula O). Oxygen is present in our atmosphere in the form of a diatom, giving it the chemical formula O2. An ozone molcule consists of three oxygen atoms and therefore has the chemical formula O3. The conversion of oxygen in our atmosphere to ozone can therefore be represented in the following manner: 3 O2 --> 2 O3 In comparison to the bonds in the diatom (O2) the bonds in ozone are weak. This leads to the fact that ozone is inherently unstable. Nature will always attempt to go from an unstable state to one that is more stable. For this reason ozone reacts immediately with any molecules that it comes in contact with. What happens when ozone reacts is made clear using the following example: C6H6 + 11 O3 --> 6 CO2 + 3 H2O + 11 O2 In words: A benzene molecule reacts with 11 ozone molecules and forms 6 carbon dioxide molecules, 3 water molecules and 11 oxygen molecules. The odour causing substance, in this case benzene, is broken down completely - into three substances that are essential for our environment and life. Since ozone is unstable by nature, it reacts quickly with substances that are present and that it comes in contact with. However, if no substances remain with which the ozone can react, it begins to decompose to atmospheric oxygen. This can be represented in the following manner: 2 O3 --> 3 O2 This decomposition process proceeds at a rate in which the amount of ozone present initially is reduced by one half within a period of about six minutes. This means that within a time frame of 90 minutes with an initial concentration of 1000 ppm less than 0.1 ppm are left! Condition for this is that no further ozone is being generated. The fact that ozone decomposes by itself makes its application easy and safe. Easy because there are no residues left to remove. Safe because one can apply ozone at a high level and safely enter the area that was treated not even 2 hours after treatment has been stopped. Now that you have received a little background information about ozone you may ask yourself: what can ozone be used for? Ozone is a very strong oxidation agent. This is illustrated by the fact that it is 1.5 times stronger than chlorine, an oxidation agent all of you are familiar with. It is exactly this property, coupled with the characteristics discussed above, that make ozone such a valuable tool in commercial applications. Ozone generators that are designed for commercial use, specifically odour neutralization, have been on the market for over 40 years. Some examples for the areas where ozone may be used: fire damage, water damage, automobiles, hotels, sanitary installations, garbage storage, in-plant rug cleaning and many more. For commercial use the ozone generators are electrically powered. Under high voltage electricity an artificial lightning is produced in a glass tube. The air that passes through the glass tube is partially converted to ozone.

We have been distributing Sonozaire ozone generators which are suited for the applications just mentioned for the past 15 years. When deciding which size ozone generator is best suited it is important to consider which type of odours are to be neutralized and how large the rooms are where these odours are to be neutralized.

The table above summarizes the most important data for the three ozone generators that we offer. A look at the table and one notices the difference in room size a certain model can handle when comparing normal odour neutralization to fire and smoke odour neutralization. This difference is up to one order of magnitude. It is therefore important to consider what type of odour neutralization will be the main focus and the typical room sizes one might encounter before deciding on which model to buy. Based on our experience one can say that for normal odour problems (excluding fire damage) a typical treatment time of 8 hours is sufficient. If the odour problem persists after this treatment a second treatment may be necessary. For the odour neutralization of smaller objects like rugs, upholstery and clothing, for example, the construction of a ozone chamber is a practical solution. An example of what an ozone chamber may look like is shown below.

It is important to remember that the generator size corresponds to the volume of the ozone chamber, that additional air circulation is present, and that the ozone generator can be controlled from outside the chamber. Should this short introduction has aroused your interest call us - we will be glad to assist you in finding out whether or not ozone is a business opportunity for you.

Cleaning Silk Rugs Cleaning silk rugs in in-plant fashion is usually connected to a lot of problems/risks. On the one hand silk rugs are extremely sensitive regarding their pile. This sensitivity is mainly regarding the optical effect a silk rug has. In pristine condition a silk rug has an enormously high gloss when it is looked at in the direction the pile is lying. Considering the large amount of colours a silk rug typically has, this effect is usually overwhelming. However, as soon as some of the silk fibres start changing their direction even slightly, for example due to traffic on the rug, this effect is reduced, often dramatically. The silk rug therefore already begins to lose its appeal. Since the silk fibres are very fine this effect is unfortunately achieved in little or no time. For this reason the owner is forced to either brush the rug in pile direction regularly or put it down in an area where there is no traffic, as a showpiece so to speak.

On the other hand a silk rug is very difficult to wash in an in-plant fashion. This is often due to the lack of stability the colours have in a silk rug. Since these rugs have many different colours, as mentioned above, the probability of an unstable colour being present is high. The consequence of this characteristic is, that cleaning in an in-plant fashion is often not done, as the service company that is to perform the job is not willing to take the risk. In order to be able to give you the opportunity to offer a solution, we developed our product Textile Dry. Textile Dry is applied just like our other powder dry cleaning products Carpet Dry or Tapi Dry. It has a smiliar basis of ingredients as Carpet Dry but has additional, highly absorbant minerals, that remove moisture out of the rug as quickly as possible. With Textile Dry you can clean light to moderately soiled silk rugs. Request our Product Data Sheet!

Cleaning Berber Rugs The share of berber rugs has increased over the last few years and has therefore become a substantial part of the rug that one gets to clean as an in-plant rug cleaner. Berber rugs typically consist of dense, high wool fibres in their pile. These give the berber rug a high degree of comfort which is the main reason for its share having grown in the past. For the in-plant cleaner berber rugs are often difficult to clean because the dense, high wool has an enormous potential for storing soil. Just washing the rug thoroughly is often not enough, if one wants to achieve a good result. The key to success is the dry removal of loose dirt - the more dirt can be removed with this method, the less has to be removed when the rug is washed. This loose removal of soil can be achieved in different ways. One way is to use a powerful brush vacuum, like our CEBE Pilelifter. An even better method would be to run the rug through a dust removal machine. We have a machine like this in our programme as well. Of course the purchase of such a machine is dependent on the volume of rugs washed on a regular basis. After the removal of loose dirt the actual wet cleaning is the next step in order to remove any remaining dirt and staining substances. For this purpose we have our product Berber Wash Shampoo.This product has been adjusted to the characteristics of the wool in berber rugs. A removal of the natural fat contained in wool only takes place in a limited fashion. An ingredient that has regreasing properties alleviates the degreasing effect and restores the wools fat balance. The problem of yellowing, which may occur occasionally after drying berber rugs, is counteracted with our product Rx for Browning. This special oxygen bleach with an activator bleaches these yellowings away during the washing and drying process. A 10 litre solution of Berber Wash Shampoo is prepared and one measuring cup each of the two components contained in Rx for Browning is added. The berber rug is shampood with this solution using a single or three brush rotary machine. After shampooing the shampoo is removed with an extraction machine followed by rinsing and extraction with water or it is rinsed directly with water followed by spin draining in a special spin drainer. We have a solution for both procedures. Should a fabric softening effect be desired after washing our product Tapi Soft can be applied on the berber rug after rinsing using a watering can. After application and a short working time the rug is extracted or spin drained. After drying the berber rug should be brushed up properly using the Combi-Carpet Broom.

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