Flowcoat Chosen for Project at Iveco

Flowcrete South Africa supplied Iveco with a range of solutions as part of the company’s vast and complex flooring project at its new manufacturing facility in Pretoria.

The 55,000 square metre installation was the largest flooring project in South Africa at the time and required multiple specialist and bespoke systems to be applied throughout the large manufacturing complex.

The global leader of industrial vehicles carried out an extensive specification process to ensure that the finished surface within its new facility would be able to withstand the intensive activity that would be carried out on site. Out of the seven companies that put forward flooring samples during the specification process, Iveco recognised that Flowcrete’s systems would be the best fit for its latest development.

Flowcrete South Africa’s Managing Director Craig Blitenthall said: “When Iveco chose us they knew that they were choosing quality over costs, as there were cheaper alternatives available – however when it came down to which supplier was best placed to meet their demanding requirements it was Flowcrete that came out on top.

“Working on this development meant overcoming many interesting challenges, as not only was it the largest flooring project in the country at the time, but meeting Iveco’s specifications meant creating unique solutions and making full use of the flexibility of our systems.”

To meet Iveco’s high aesthetic requirements Flowcrete had to supply its solutions in the same colours as the client’s international standards. To do this the resin flooring specialist developed and produced floors in bespoke tones that matched Iveco’s corporate colours.

Before the floor finish could be applied the concrete substrate had to be assessed to find out what damage had been caused by a fire that had broken out during construction. To fix this floor layer the underlying concrete slabs were taken up and the area rescreeded. Support beams and sliding doors that had been fire damaged were removed and the floor cavities left behind were filled in with Conrep SF65. 

The epoxy resin floor coating Flowcoat SF41 was installed across the main production areas of the facility as well as on the walkways. The hard-wearing and chemically resistant nature of this solution makes it ideal for large-scale manufacturing plants, as it will maintain a seamless, impermeable and bright surface despite the inevitable heavy work load, oil and grease spillages, hot water washes and the physical impacts of heavy equipment.  

Flowcoat SF41 can optimise the working environment of industrial facilities in a number of ways. Its adjustable anti-slip profile means that the use of graded aggregates can be tailored to reduce the risk of slips and trips depending on the location.

This system was also used for the demarcation lines, creating bright and clear yellow signage to aid navigation around the busy, multi-complex site. Flowcoat SF41 was utilised for this as Iveco wanted a solution that was thicker and more durable than the standard demarcation line product.

Several areas of the facility required the floor to have specific properties. The laboratory and paint mixing rooms had the polyurethane resin system Flowfresh HF ESD installed across the floors and Flowfresh WR ESD was applied as coving around the drains. These systems not only create a seamless and easy-to-clean floor, but they also have electrostatic dissipative properties to avoid static charge build up. This was important within the laboratory as static charges in the floor can damage sensitive electrical equipment and within a paint room it can be a dangerous ignition source.

This combination of solutions meant that Iveco could rest assured that its new facility would maintain an unblemished surface that wouldn’t deteriorate when faced with the inevitable demands of manufacturing 20 tonne trucks.