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

6. Humanization of work and environmental protection

In future it will be particularly important to further improve working conditions (humanization). It will no longer be possible to acquire qualified staff who are willing to lay 5 sq.m of overlay per hour with hard manual work in a "kneeling" position. Self-spreading mortars which can be placed with a layer thickness of 3 mm from a "standing" position are already a step in the right direction. So why not stop at 3 mm or else include an extra work process if a greater layer thickness is necessary for technical reasons?

It should also be possible to develop a laying machine for overlays similar to road laying machines or to further develop the "roller" technology used in conventional concrete construction work. The latter method in particular would produce high compaction and therefore high strength.

For surface preparation shot blasting has become the standard because this method allows genuine "new" surfaces to be created in the aggregate particles. Such machines are integrated with a vacuum unit. The appropriate vehicle with pulley block or lifting platform also belongs in the manufacturer's range of supply. Also conceivable are infra-red range sensors which would permit the machines to function automatically without a human operator on large areas. If it is already been said that a robot for the home would now cost "only" $ 40,000, then it should be possible to design a similar machine for industrial use within the next few years.

As regards the monomers used, effective removal of solvents must become standard for reasons of work safety (maximum allowable concentrations and bottom explosion limit). Warning devices should be required by regulation when using products which produce a risk of explosion. Better still would be very low-viscosity, solvent-free impregnations. However, the market does not always accept the higher price.

Aqueous systems will not gain acceptance as an impregnation for industrial floors subject to severe service conditions, because they are inferior to non-aqueous systems for very basic reasons (water always tends to fill the capillaries).

The regulations for humanizing working conditions will lead to "qualified" floor layers. They will also give rise to standardization of floor diagnosis, something which I call for because quality assurance can only be implemented across the board by means of such regulations. A standard for floor diagnosis also obliges the ordinary floor-laying worker to adopt a systematic method of working. We all know how effective it was to prescribe moisture measurement or measurement of the pull-off strength in some cases.

Test areas are the best way of avoiding misunderstanding between building owner and contractor. Here technical guidelines should be drawn up for industrial floors in the same way as for corrosion protection.

The floor is normally not a place for storing food and, in any event, it is walked on with outdoor shoes. To this extent there is no sense applying the regulations for food containers to hardened reaction polymers. Of course, if food does not simply come into contact with the floor incidentally but is actually stored on the floor (as in a container), then perfectly hygienic conditions must be created. These exist, for example, in clean rooms, i.e. such a floor must not be walked on with outdoor shoes. Furthermore, the regulations must not vary from country to country, since that would lead to considerable legal uncertainties.

Another important subject is fire safety. The use of mastic asphalt (with the combustible binder bitumen) in the construction of multistory carparks, for example, was put in question. Now it has again been approved for this purpose by the authorities. A building component requires a supply of oxygen in order to burn and supplying oxygen to a floor is difficult. Thus a wood floor is classified as a low-flammability building material according to DIN 51 960. I know of several cases in which polyurethane-based reaction polymers survived serious fires virtually undamaged.

A dilemma exists between skid resistance and hygiene. The more hygienic a floor is, the more dangerous it is, especially when wet. However, an adequate compromise can be found.