Indoor Floor Heel Mark Removal Using Spark Discharges and Pressurized Airflow

Heel marks (HMs), which are the black stains made by shoe soles on indoor floors, can be difficult to remove. However, this study shows how spark discharges combined with pressurized airflow in 60 s discharge treatments can remove such HMs. We further show that maximizing the HM removal rates depended on the electrode gap distance because of changes in the spark discharge parameters. In our experiments, the electrical voltage waveforms are shown with voltage spikes, called spark discharges, and the spike numbers were counted in 0.6-ms time units. It was found that the number of spark discharges increases when the electrode gap distance was widened from 5 mm to 10 mm and the pressurized airflow was added, and the HM removal rates increased 11.5%, the HM removal rates could be maximized. Taken together, the results show that spark discharges combined with pressurized air can remove HMs from indoor floors without no visual damage. This paper is a preliminary report showing that HMs can be removed by plasma.