INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

Traffic, pavement and floor marking

Nowadays, safety traffic marking is integral to both public and industrial buildings, such as shopping centres, etc. Theoretically, receiving a final building approval would be impossible without appropriate marking to indicate parking spaces, emergency escape routes, fire escapes, handicapped parking spaces, prescribed direction of driving, etc.

There are many technological solutions for traffic and safety marking, such as various tapes or acrylate, epoxy, and MMA paints, but the intended use is the decisive factor.

• Acrylate paints – this type of traffic marking is used mainly in underground parking in shopping centres, hotels, parking buildings, etc. The advantage is relatively low price and a short hardening time of approx. 60 minutes. It can be applied onto machine polished concrete, or asphalt. Highly contaminated surfaces (oil, acid, etc.) do not, however, allow use of this type of paints.
• Epoxy paints – single or two component epoxy which can be dyed according to the customer specifications. The timeframe is longer due to necessary technological intervals (from 7 to 48 hours depending on climate conditions. The paint can not be applied by spraying, but has to be painted by hand into a taped stencil. Prior to epoxy paint application, the existing marking is removed, the surface is cleaned (ground and vacuumed) and subsequently primed (the primer can contain quartz sand aggregates of various grit size according to final line grip specifications). Finally the paint coat in required colour is applied. The technology provides minor levelling to the surface. This type of marking is used mainly in industrial buildings (production, storage, etc.)
• MMA paints – this technology uses methyl methacrylate resins and can be applied in cases where speed (traffic cannot be obstructed for longer periods) or surface contamination (lubricants, crude oil, etc.) is an issue. Even surfaces heavily contaminated by lubricants do not present a problem. The hardening time is about 60 minutes and full load is possible after approx. 3 hours depending on climate conditions. Therefore, these types of traffic marking are suitable for so called dirty environments (manufacturing industry, continuous operation plants, etc.), where the surface tends to be highly contaminated and the marking is required (corridor lanes, storage spaces for particular products, etc.)