Design of Industrial Flooring
Selection and Design of the Industrial Flooring
What causes the deterioration must be taken into account:
- Mechanical: Abrasion/ Erosion/ Impact/ Vibration
- Physical: Temperature/Humidity/ Water/Frost
- Chemical and Biological: Acids/ Oil/ Grease/ Gas/ Micro-organisms
and its intended used:
- Design: Assessment/ Standards/ Calculation/ Measurement/ Details
- Materials: Composition/ Properties/ Quality/ Durability/ Maintenance
- Labour: Experience/ Care/ Quality Control/ Concern
Factors to take into account for the design and construction of industrial flooring
- Ground conditions: strength, water table, type of soil, sub grade
- Type of slab: ground supported or pile supported or suspended slab
- Traffic and other loading requirements: frequency, duty and free or define traffic
- Method of construction: in stages/bays, in strips or in large pour
- Concrete mix design (especially critical w/c ratio):
- The concrete deliveries must be of consistent quality. Otherwise negative impact on wetting/dry-shake workability/final finish performance (abrasion) and appearance.
- A concrete slump in the range 75 to 110mm will normally give best results. This will depend on the placing method (manual/mechanical)
- Do not use concrete where cement has partly been replaced with fly ash. This makes the mix is too sticky for proper dry-shake placing and workability, and will cause blisters during power-floating. Blisters are also caused by too early floatng or with inadequate tools (steel instead of wood or magnesium)
- Slab thickness and reinforcement requirements: steel fibers or re-bars, other fiber types and combination
- Jointless slabs or join spacing and positioning: Pinwheel contraction joint to separate columns. Design of joints according to traffic requirements. Less joints mean less cost (need for slab connectors) and less chance of damage and wear.
- Surface smoothness and flatness: TR34, ACI 117, DIN 15185, ASTM E 1155
- Durability and special operational conditions
- Lighting: Use of lighter colour dryshakes helps reduce cost.
Conclusion:
Again, never blame the product first. Failure can be due to the product, but are minimal and are mostly detected at QC:
- Malfunctions in equipment: Adding too much or too little particular raw material
- Human error
A proper design ensure the success of industrial flooring. Keep reading the instruction on cleaning of Industrial floor.
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