When it comes to ceramic floor and wall tiles, ease of cleaning is the ease and efficiency of removing dirt, stains, dust and other materials that interact with the surface. Surface hygiene refers to the ease and efficiency of achieving maximum surface hygiene, resulting in a clean and healthy living environment. The main emphasis is on the words - simplicity, efficiency, lightness - that is, if the material is easy to clean and maintain in hygienic conditions, then, therefore, it is easy to remove stains, dirt, bacteria and microbes that form on the surface during use, without leaving at the same time visible traces, using fast-acting, automated cleaning systems if possible.
The requirements for cleanliness and hygiene are often greatly underestimated, not only in the context of the use of ceramic tiles in private premises, but also especially in public spaces such as offices, schools, assembly halls and sometimes in premises where hygiene is a fundamental requirement, such as hospitals, restaurants and cafes. The difficulties of cleaning such premises are associated not only with the lack of maintenance personnel or appropriate tools, but also with the choice of materials that are not suitable for covering the surface from a hygiene point of view.
Cleaning and maintaining a surface is easier when it is dense and smooth, that is, the surface is uniform, impermeable and chemical resistant. Surface density refers to the adhesive strength of a material and its mechanical resistance to the effects of intensive cleaning. It is very important that the tiles do not crumble or chip off due to cleaning, leaving behind particles of material, that is, dirt. An uneven surface causes a constant accumulation of dirt in places where it is difficult to remove. On woven, fibrous and chipped surfaces, dust and dirt accumulate in recesses, which can be removed, and not always completely, only with a special cleaning system. And finally, the chemically resistant surface does not interact with dirt or stain-forming substances and cleaning agents.
Obviously, glazed ceramic tiles and low porosity unglazed tiles, as floor and wall finishing materials, have the best performance in terms of cleaning and maintaining surface hygiene. Ceramic tiles not only have a smooth, dense, impenetrable, chemically resistant surface, although they differ in these parameters depending on the type of product, but they are also able to withstand heavy contamination and active cleaning of the surface. Ease of cleaning should not be considered as a property of individual tiles, but as a characteristic of the cladding system as a whole . Appropriate and correctly applied grout is a prerequisite for ease of cleaning and maintaining surface hygiene. Finally, it must be emphasized that, as with chemical resistance, tiles become more difficult to clean due to abrasion of the surface. Abrasion causes the top layer of the tile to be removed, which can open up micropores, allowing dirt to accumulate.
There are currently no established methods for testing tiles for these characteristics. However, based on ongoing research in this field, the Bologna Ceramics Center has been able to develop test procedures to evaluate these characteristics.