Beyond Green: A toolbox for uncompromised industrial flooring

rchitects, specifiers and end-users today can select from a broad range of technologies and finishes to cover and protect the concrete substrate. Ceramic tiles, cementitious-based finishes, polymer technology or even polished concrete are only a few of the possibilities used in the industry. Each technology or finish brings specific ben efits and introduces trade-offs in other areas. Polymer tech nology is an accumulation of different thermoset chemistry technologies, including amine-cured epoxy, urethane, methacrylate and acrylic. The preferred choice depends on the type of application and the required end-performance properties. High performance industrial flooring installation using polymer technology requires two, preferably three, stages, as shown in figure 1 . The concrete primer is the starting point and serves to penetrate and seal the concrete pores. It establishes good adhesion and bonding between the concrete substrate and polymer overlayment and reduces the adsorption of overlay ment liquids into the concrete. Though concrete, as a con struction material, is considered inert during most of its serv ice life, as a substrate it is never static. The behaviour of the concrete is characterised by many factors. See for example the datasheet ‘Moisture in concrete’ 1 and references there in. Moisture in cured concrete substrates is typically low (ca 2-5%), however, the corresponding relative humidity inside concrete is high. It typically ranges from 75-95%. In addition, applicators have to consider the dew point to avoid moisture condensations during or shortly after the applica tion of the floor. Amine-cured epoxy primers have proven to tolerate the challenges introduced by concrete as a sub strate. When properly mixed and applied, they provide good