Flooring materials, epoxy

Floors Commonly used floor finishes for biopharmaceutical clean rooms include sheet vinyl installed using heat-welded or chemically fused seams to provide a seamless surface. Troweled epoxy and epoxy paint (Figure 11) have also found wide use. Compatibility of the floor material with solvents, chemicals, and cleaning agents to be used in the room must be considered. A minimum 4-in. cove at the junction of floor and walls is recommended to facilitate cleaning. Some modular wall systems have a recess or offset that permits sheet vinyl to be installed in a manner that creates a seamless junction between floor and wall. When a stick-built approach is used, care should be taken to design cleanable intersections of walls and floors (Figure 12). 

Polymeric overlays are used on concrete pavements to protect them from dust, excessive wear, cracking, crazing, spalling and to provide an attractive appearance. These materials are applied on concrete pavements in the form of screeds, self-levelling material or floor coatings. Epoxies, polyurethanes and acrylics are commonly used, epoxies being the most commonly chosen. Table 1.4 gives the suitability of these materials for different environments. 

The range of flooring material increases in direct proportion to the number of new polymers daily added to the market. In addition to the common floor surfacing materials (e.g., ceramic tile, wood block, wood strip and board, marble, granolithic, terrazzo, linoleum, and cork tiles), new materials are used, such as PVC tiles, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, vinyl-asbestos tiles, PVC welded sheet, synthetic fiber-epoxy polymers, PP, and polyurethane. 

Resilient floor covering (nonrigid PVC)/floor compound material (epoxy resin) Nitrile mbber Spray... 

In one series of laboratory tests carried out to find the optimum wear resistance of heavy-duty epoxy resin flooring compositions, a number of different abrasion resistant materials were evaluated using BS 416, employing three different epoxy resin binders which themselves had significantly differing chemical compositions and mechanical properties. The results of this work, which was carried out under dry conditions, are given in Table 9.1. As can be seen from the table, the selection of the abrasion-resistant material and the resin matrix both influence the abrasion resistance of the system, although the abrasive material incorporated appears to play a more cmcial role. 

Thin coatings These pigmented materials, commonly known as floor paints, are often based on chlorinated rubber (see Section 12.3.2) or epoxy ester (see Section 12.3.1). They have limited life in heavy traffic but are easy to apply. 

Foam compositions, including a latex and a polynitrile oxide such as 2,4,6-triethylbenzene-l,3-dicarbonitrile oxide, or a latex and an epoxy silane, or a latex and a mixture of the two crosslinkers have been prepared (526). The compositions may also contain additional components, including fillers, surfactants, cell detackifiers, froth stabilizers, froth boosters, viscosity reducers, and compounds to improve resilience, and antioxidants. The compositions are particularly useful in the manufacture of flooring, wall covering, shoe lining and nonwoven materials. 

Construction materials must be nonabsorbent and easily cleaned or decontaminated. Seamless flooring avoids cracks from which spilled chemicals can contribute a significant pollution burden to the laboratory air. Epoxy paint should be used for interior walls. Dropped ceilings should be made of nonabsorbent material such as enameled metal. Hoods and sinks should be fabricated of stainless steel. Wood or other porous surfaces must be avoided. 

Epoxy resins find a large number of uses because of their remarkable chemical resistance and good adhesion. Epoxy resins are excellent structural adhesives. When properly cured, epoxy resins can yield very tough materials. They are used in industrial floorings, foams, potting materials for electrical insulations, etc. One of the principal constituents in many of the Fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) is an epoxy polymer. 

The MDB is a two-story, steel-framed building with thick, reinforced-concrete floors and most interior walls made of concrete and foam-core sandwich panels. Explosion containment rooms have 2-foot-thick reinforced concrete floors, walls, and ceilings. Because concrete is a porous material capable of absorbing agent, all concrete surfaces in the JACADS process areas were sealed with an epoxy coating. A total of 134,153 square feet of concrete will require decontamination (U.S. Army, 1999d). 

In addition to providing the properties of polyurethane chemistry, the authors reported that HNIPUs also exhibit the chemical resistance of epoxy binders. Potential uses of HNIPUs include commercial application in paints, varnishes, adhesives, caulking compounds, flooring/industrial coatings, foams, and composite materials. 

The chemical agents also dictate the requirement for the use of non-porous construction materials, together with epoxy coatings for the floor and walls of operational bays. 

The floor of the storage site should be made of sealed cement, glazed ceramic tile, no-wax sheet flooring, or another easily cleaned material. Carpeting, wood, soil, and other absorbent floors are difficnlt or impossible to decontaminate in case of a leak or spill. For ease of cleannp, shelving and pallets should be made of nonabsorbent materials snch as plastic or metal. If wood or fiberboard materials are nsed, they should be coated or covered with plastic or polyurethane or epoxy paint. 

In this book I have confined discussion to those polymeric materials which are cured by chemical reaction and which have found widespread application in the construction industry. As such, the book covers materials based on epoxies, polyurethanes, silicones, polysulphides, alkyds and polyesters. In addition, there is a chapter on hybrid polymer systems and one on acrylics. It is true that acrylic emulsions are not strictly thermosetting polymer systems, but their widespread use and importance made their exclusion difficult. These materials find use as coatings, sealants, adhesives, grouts, flooring compounds, repair compounds and waterproofing agents. 

The need for floor drains should be considered, as well as the ability to collect wastewater for treatment or incineration. If floor drains are installed, the floors should slope toward the drain from all directions. Drain cover materials should also be evaluated with regard to quality, ease of sanitation, and cleaning. Fig. 4 shows a multipurpose room with an easily cleaned floor, dry-wall fiberglass mat with epoxy-painted walls, floor drain, and utility panel. This room also has self-contained hot- and cold-water wash-down capability. 

Quarry Tile Tile is used in much of the food process and food preparation areas, also toilet and change areas. In general, it is installed without an asphaltic membrane but with a thin adhesive membrane usually an epoxy type. As noted above, the concrete substrate must be true to line without irregularities such as humps and bumps. All such flaws will telegraph through to the finished surface. Cleanliness is a major attribute of the quarry tile installation. For example, in a synthetic elastomer plant the raw latex when spilled stuck tightly to the concrete floors. Quarry tile was used with an epoxy bed and a furan joint (very narrow, Vie"). Due to the greater density of the quarry tile the unvulcanized material cleaned up easily. 

Because they are relatively expensive, epoxy polymers have not been used very widely as binders in PC products. Therefore, epoxy PC is used for special applications, in situations in which the higher cost can easily be justified, such as mortar for industrial flooring to provide physical and chemical resistance, skid-resistant overlays (filled with sand, emery, pumice, quartz) in highways, epoxy plaster for exterior walls (e.g., in exposed aggregate panels), and resurfacing material for deteriorated areas (e.g., in flooring). Epoxy PC reinforced with glass, carbon, or boron fibers is used in the fabrication of translucent panels, boat hulls, and automobile bodies [2,6],... 

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