Pittsburgh—Throwing its hat into the stain resistant ring, Bayer Chemicals Corp. has developed BayProtect SSB, a patent-pending product specifically formulated for commercial and residential carpets and rugs. BayProtect SSB is the newest member of Bayer Chemicals’ BayProtect family of protective textile finishes. Its stain blocking chemistry resists stains caused by liquid spills such as coffee, tea, berry juice and wine, as well as the damaging effects of dry soil, noted Dean Bender, director of marketing for Bayer Chemicals’ Textile Processing Chemicals business unit. “Customers today want floor coverings that are beautiful to look at and easy to maintain. With our new BayProtect SSB protective finish, spills are not able to penetrate the fibers, and thus, do not leave stains. This minimizes soiling, so carpets and rugs show less wear and need cleaning less often. “In addition to its stain resistant characteristics and dry soil resistance,” he added, “BayProtect SSB offers outstanding light fastness properties and can be applied with superior results at ultra-low, add-on levels.”

Indicative of its performance, Solutia’s laboratory tested carpets treated with Bayer Chemicals’ new BayProtect and concluded that it meets certification criteria for carpets bearing the Wear-Dated fiber brand name. “Solutia tested the validity of our numbers and found it to be pretty much the best they’ve ever seen for a stain blocker,” said Brad Potter, Bayer’s marketing manager for home textiles. “What we’re promoting with BayProtect SSB is, it offers great stain blocking benefits with the additional benefit of ‘dry floor’ release for heavy traffic areas. “Typically,” he explained, “most mills have to do two passes with two different types of applications to get both benefits into their carpets. With this product, most of the time we’re able to do that with just the one product. With BayProtect SSB, the mills can, in some instances, eliminate an entire processing step.” “In terms of where it is in the marketplace in regards to the consumer,” he added “BayProtect SSB has extremely good durability and its stain blocking benefits are great. In terms of how much better than the competition it is, I would say you can achieve the same protection with anybody else’s product if you add more of it. So, for the mill and for the consumer, there is a cost benefit because it is what we consider concentrated and requires very little add on compared to other treatments typically used in the industry.”

It is that cost benefit, noted Potter, that has so many mills excited about BayProtect SSB. “The reason why the mills are really interested is, we can typically reduce by 25% to 40% their stain block application cost so, potentially, it’s a big cost benefit for them.” While no mill is currently using BayProtect SSB, Potter noted, every major mill has taken a look at it and are in the middle of evaluating the product in either full production or in the lab. Potter sees Bayer Chemicals and its BayProtect product—which is used on nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 fiber—becoming a major player in the future. “Right now, we are still in the infancy of branding the product and making it competitive for the retail market versus Scotchgard and Stainmaster. But, long term, we see a Bayer product in the marketplace, whether it’s a under the BayProtect name or otherwise. One of our goals in the next six months to two years is to utilize the Bayer company name and the Bayer logo, which already have consumer recognition from aspirin and other consumable products. We think we can have some piggybacking there and use the knowledge that the consumer already has of Bayer. “Right now,” he concluded, “we’re working with the mills on many of their own programs, as well as with the people at CCA Global Partners and Carpet One. That’s the next step for us, to become one of the major brands in the consumer market.” For more information on Bayer Chemicals and BayProtect SSB, call 800/662-2927.