Industrial Floors 1991, International Colloquium Jan 15-17, 1991

3. The problem of standards and guidelines

Another reason for attending this colloquium may be the problem of standards and guidelines which I have already mentioned. The differing technical level and approach to guidelines in different countries, and even in different local government areas within one and the same country, also presents great difficulties for the building industry. The question arises as to whether artificial new obstacles to trade between countries are not being set up in this way?

Technical progress (but also the interests of powerful market players) makes a revision of standards necessary from time to time. The period of time between one revision and the next is constantly shrinking. Furthermore, increased internationalization (e.g. within the EU) makes harmonization of standards a necessity. Only in this way barriers to trade can be avoided. For building firms, planners and surveyors this leads to increasing uncertainty and frequently the question is asked: "Have we even got enough time to understand the standards we have?"

In France, for example, no cement standard was used up to 1919. The standard which appeared in 1919 was valid for 14 years and the second revision was valid for 13 years. But in the subsequent 25 years there were no less than 7 revisions:

Such confusing circumstances do not yet exist with regard to industrial floors. Up to now it has only been possible, in most cases, to proceed analogously to existing standards. Standards for industrial floors do not exist as such. If surveyors are now calling for standardization, thought must be given to the consequences mentioned above. The efforts being made in other countries must be carefully observed.

In particular it is important to gain control over the ever increasing bureaucracy which has become an undesirable habit in Germany as well as in other countries. This point cannot be emphasized strongly enough: the fact is that "slipshod building work" is mostly attributable not to the lack of guidelines or standards but to inadequate training and responsibility of those involved in construction work.

A further cause of damage is inadequate care and/or incorrect use of industrial floors.

At this point I would also like to warn against the tendency to make teaching increasingly theoretical. On the building site we need practical skills and they can only be acquired by constant practice. However, that is not the subject of this colloquium and must therefore only be mentioned in passing.

I assume that many instances of structural damage result from a lack of information. In recent years there has been a considerable improvement in the international exchange of information. This is due not least to the training courses on "Industrial Floors" which have been conducted since 25 years at Esslingen Technical Academy (TAE) with great success. More than 1,000 participants have attended these courses and more than 3,000 copies of the handbook based on the courses have been sold over the last 20 years.

The considerable interest from abroad for the 4th International Colloquium "Industrial Floors'99" which will be held at the TAE from January 12th to 14th, 1999 shows that this subject is of interest not only in Germany but that urgent problems exist worldwide, for which first solutions or better solutions than in the past must be found.