Injecting Prime Rez to rebond powdered steel topping to concrete
Contractor: T. Luckey Sons Inc., Harrison, OH
Client: INTEK/INKOTE, New Carlisle, IN (steel producer)
Scenario:
The INTEK/INKOTE steel production facility uses AGVs–or automated guided vehicles–that move massive coils of steel along a specific floor guide pattern. This repeated pattern caused excessive wear to the concrete floors, particularly in the areas where the AGVs turn. Once areas became worn, the risk of the coils becoming unsteady and falling off the AGVs became a real concern.
INTEK/INKOTE officials elected to have a 3/8” epoxy-based iron aggregate—essentially powdered steel—topping installed over the existing concrete floors to reduce the wear to a minimum. This type of topping system is considered one of the most expensive floor toppings available, often costing more than $20 to $35 per square foot.
Approximately three years after the epoxy and powdered steel topping was installed, several areas were de-bonding and failing. To remove and replace an area estimated at more than 10,000 square feet was highly invasive to the plant operations. The cost and time involved to remove the topping, repair the underlying floor, and re-install an epoxy and steel topping were not a feasible option for INTEK/INKOTE. T. Luckey Sons Inc. was asked to review the problems and recommend a solution. The request was to repair a 10,000+ s.f. area within an upcoming four-day plant outage.
Solution:
T.L.S. recommended injecting Prime Resins’ Prime Rez 1000 and 1200 via 3/8” holes drilled through the epoxy/powdered steel topping at low pressure. This allowed the resin to migrate slowly and fill in the small areas between the concrete slab and bottom of the topping.
Outcome:
The process succeeded at bonding the topping back to the underlying floor slab. The project was completed within the four-day plant outage and has remained bonded for more than three years (as of Feb. 2015). A second phase in another area of the facility was completed, and T.L.S. will be going back for phase three in early 2015.
“Injection was the perfect solution for this job,” says Luckey GM Randall Brooks. “To remove the topping, which is a very hard surface, and then replace it would add another $10 to $15 per square foot on top of the replacement cost. Couple that with the downtime and lost production that would require, and replacement simply wasn’t a viable option in this situation.”
