ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

The Travelator Cleaner from Baudoin Wash-Systems was declared the best innovation for the professional cleaning industry at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN exhibition in Amsterdam. It was chosen to be awarded the overall prize from the three category winners – the other two being Kärcher and Alpheios International.

The results were announced at a gala ceremony on the first day of the show, hosted by Dutch television celebrity Pernille La Lau. Before the winners were revealed famous trend watcher Adjiedj Bakas treated the audience to an entertaining and thought-provoking gaze into the future. A cheque for €12,000 was also presented to the African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF) Flying Doctors’ sanitation project – all registration fees received from exhibitors for the show were donated to the charity. It was then up to the chairman of the jury Michelle Marshall, editor of European Cleaning Journal, to reveal the winners.

Designed to bring mechanisation to a traditionally manual and labour-intensive task, the Travelator Cleaner is a machine that cleans large areas of travelator glass in airports and shopping centres. It adjusts automatically to different travelator heights and cleans using six round microfibre pads. It won the category ‘Equipment/tools for cleaning, care and safety’.

Michelle Marshall explained why Baudoin was declared the winner. “The sheer originality of this product was what impressed the judging panel most,” she explained. “The Travelator Cleaner brings mechanised cleaning to a new sector of the industry – large expanses of glass which are hard-to-reach and difficult to tackle for cleaning staff. This new machine makes this task infinitely more ergonomic and it makes more sense in terms of productivity and cost-efficiency.”

Sales manager for Baudoin Bart de Bonth was thrilled to win the award. “Winning the Innovation Award was a fabulous token of appreciation. The accompanying publicity attracted a lot of additional visitors to our stand and winning definitely generated extra leads.”

Winner in the category ‘Machines, accessories and components’ category was Kärcher for its stand-on scrubber dryer BD 50/40 RS. In the category ‘Cleaning management and training solutions’ Alpheios International won with its Vive Sustainability Scan.

• Read more detailed news on the winners.