Permaban’s AlphaJoint system used at a GROB site in Mindelheim, Germany

Permaban have been at the forefront of floor design, installation, product manufacture, floor repair, maintenance and aftercare for 25 years.  Since being founded in 1983, Permaban have become a leading supplier in the UK, Europe and Middle East along with new presence in Asia.  The product range offers quality solutions for ‘leave-in-place' formwork, dry-shake floor toppings, concrete curing and sealing products.

Permaban's Engineering & Commercial Manager for Permaban Europe, Uwe Mueller, explains the installation process of Permaban's AlphaJoint system at a site in Mindelheim, Germany.

The site is a GROB pressing fabrication warehouse located in Germany. GROB Facilities are part of a globally operating company with the parent company being located in Midelheim, Germany. They have a variety of production sites located in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Ohio, USA and specialise in production systems to universal machining centres.

In September 2008, Permaban were commissioned to supply their formwork products for a 490mm and a 590mm deep floor.  The AlphaJoint system was specified and specially designed for the customer. The aim of the project was to supply the Flooring Contractor with a super flat floor slab, with a joint armouring system suitable for impact of heavy machinery. However, the floor affected by the traffic from the heavy machinery was specified to be separate from the main floor so there were no dowels to be used between the two floors.

 "Joints in industrial floors subject to heavy traffic require special attention and detail to avoid spalling of joint edges.  It was of an importance to Permaban to supply the Flooring Contractor with a product that would stand up against heavy machinery and to consider the effect this would have on the concrete floor due to the vibrations and weight impact of the machines" explains Mueller.

On arrival on- site, Mueller came across a number of problems.  He explained to the Flooring Contractor that they must separate the floor slabs between the general trafficked area and the large machine bases and fork lifts, if the slabs are not separated, the fork lifts will not drive smoothly over the concrete slabs and vibration would be transferred from the machine bases to the main floor.

Permaban supported the Flooring Contractor with technical advice; this resulted in the AlphaJoint System being used with small modifications.  Permaban supplied a special kind of pin fixing and joint system,  by developing a special joint system which created an overall super flat floor suitable for heavy vibrating machines.