Does a reliable floor–drainage connection exist?
The short answer to this question is yes - a three year study and research program has been finalized to create a best practice guideline for processing facility operators to use when specifying safe, hygienically designed floor-drainage connections.Picture gallery
The fast-moving developments in resin flooring solutions and drainage systems are required to meet increasingly challenging environments present in today’s food and drink manufacturing industry. A failure of flooring or drainage systems will lead to downtime in the production process, resulting in increasing costs. Resin flooring and stainless steel drainage solutions which have been specially developed for the food and drink industry can safely withstand the various exposure scenarios, such as mechanical, chemical and thermal stresses if specified correctly but until now, no proper study or research has taken place to investigate the behaviour of common floor-drainage connections and to develop a precise design guideline.
As a result, Sika – a market-leading resin flooring company, and ACO - a leader in the development and manufacture of hygienic drainage systems, joined forces and adopted a professional and scientific approach to this issue. They commissioned a three year study and research program to provide a clear evidence-based guidance with regard to flooring-drainage connections for factory and processing facility operators.
Does a reliable floor–drainage connection exist?
The three main exposure scenarios which are most relevant for the floor-drainage connection were selected for further investigation:
- Mechanical exposure from heavy traffic areas used by fork-lifts and/or hand-held pallet trucks.
- Thermal exposure from either the production process (i.e. frying and freezing) or the subsequent cleaning regime (i.e. pressure washing using jets of hot water).
- Shrinkage of the cementitious substrate (i.e. in concrete, screeds and resin mortar).
The testing took place over 36 months and was set out to determine the best optimal floor-drainage connection for specific environments. We have tested various drainage edge types with various floor types, from which we could conclude the best possible combination of these two.
If you are interested to find out more about this research, please contact your local division of ACO.