Saturday 24 September 2011

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.