North West Rubber SportFloor® Shown To Eliminate Microbial Contamination

Rated as “Acceptable for an Operating Room Area” in independent, third-party testing

North West Rubber (NWR) recently released the results of third-party testing verifying the effectiveness of its SportFloor® Stamina line of recycled rubber performance flooring in helping protect sports complex athletes, visitors, and staff from the risks of microbial contamination.

North West Rubber commissioned Westech Systems FM Inc. to conduct and report in a third-party independent cleaning audit with the goal of assessing how easy it was to clean and disinfect NWR SportFloor® recycled rubber flooring.

As part of the testing protocol, microbial contamination levels were measured through ATP (adenosine triphosphate) audits before cleaning and after cleaning. The study concluded that cleaning and disinfecting of the SportFloor® recycled flooring resulted in nearly a 100 percent elimination of the microbial contamination (99.5 percent).

“It is well understood that in commercial facilities, bacteria left on surfaces can become a point of cross contamination between athletes and staff on site which can lead to sickness and infections if not thoroughly cleaned. The exceptional cleaning efficacy of our SportFloor® Stamina product is rooted in NWR’s vulcanization technology,” Paul Flinton, NWR VP Marketing said.

Vulcanization involves the molding of rubber crumb under high heat and pressure to form strong cross-links that create a resilient and non-porous antibacterial rubber surface. NWR has been practicing and perfecting vulcanization technology for over 50 years since the company’s founding in 1968,” Flinton said.

According to the third-party independent cleaning study “NWR’s Stamina rubber flooring is vulcanized, resulting in a smooth and non-porous surface finish that repels moisture and thereby restricts microbial growth.”

NWR routinely conducts laboratory testing of moisture absorption for current and new products as a proxy for microbial contamination. Adding data from this new third-party independent cleaning study reinforces the company’s own existing data sets around the efficacy of SportFloor® Stamina in preventing and eliminating microbial contamination, Flinton said.

“We expect the trend towards specifying low maintenance sports flooring with compelling hygienic benefits such as those offered by NWR’s SportFloor® to be ongoing,” he said.

The SportFloor® brand, a premium rubber flooring for professional and recreational athletic facilities, is manufactured from recycled and virgin rubber and specifically designed to withstand the most demanding surface needs.

North West Rubber Ltd. manufactures and distributes LEED-certified specialty rubber flooring products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers around the world for a variety of applications, including recreational, playground, agricultural, traffic safety, trailers, and truck bed mats. The company is headquartered in Abbotsford, British Columbia and has manufacturing locations in Abbotsford, British Columbia; Brantford, Ontario; Houston, Texas; and Beijing China.

© Scrap Tire News, June 2021