Plant Services - April 2008 - (Page 26)

WHAT WORKS Forging facility polishes floors Potholes handled with minimal environmental effect hen Charter Steel, producer of more than a million tons of steel products per year, needed to renovate the concrete floors in its forging facility, a primary objective was safety. But the Cuyahoga, Ohio, steel mill also wanted an environmentally friendly floor. Charter Steel adheres to the ISO 14001 standard, which requires it to take a hard look at environmental effects. “You’ve got regulatory requirements you have to do, and then there are things that you like to do,” says Matt Schroeder, senior environmental engineer. “When we look at environmental projects, we obviously need to make them work from a cost standpoint. But sometimes you can use environmental benefits to help justify the cost.” Facility Director Dave Light looked at various flooring products and chose DiamondQuest, a polished concrete flooring system from QuestMark Flooring (www.quest markflooring.com). The process transformed Charter Steel’s existing concrete floor into a new floor with an impressive sheen that prevents contaminants from penetrating the surface, and did it without any environmentally harmful chemicals. The DiamondQuest process is a multistep, progressive grinding system that uses specialized industrial diamond tooling and equipment that hones and flattens a concrete surface. A concrete floor can be restored to be not only functional, but beautiful, and without the headaches associated with coatings and topping failure. 26 W At Charter Steel, the concrete was prepared by grinding it with metalbonded diamond tooling to remove buildups of glue, adhesive, paint and coatings. This step included patching and joint filling. Following the removal step, additional finer grinding prepared the floor for polishing by flattening and honing the concrete’s surface. Before polishing began, an application of liquid chemical densifiers ensured the concrete floor was hardened, able to repel liquids and eliminate concrete dusting once the floor was complete. Finally, several finer resin-bonded diamond grinds produced the finished floor surface. “Unlike other industrial floors we’ve [re]surfaced, the steel mill posed unique challenges that we had to solve,” says John Kasik, national sales manager for QuestMark. Patching the occasional hole or rough area is a standard part of concrete polishing, but at Charter Steel, the damage was extensive. Red-hot steel drops to the floor, expanding moisture in the concrete and causing it to pop up and form potholes. The uneven floor is an obvious safety concern for tripping hazards. QuestMark repaired the damage by shotblasting the surface to clean the holes and rough areas. Then a clear polymer coating filled the holes and pitted areas. Because this was done in the early stages of polishing, residual material on the top of the floor was removed in the grinding process, leaving the holes and pitted areas filled. This environmentally friendly polished-concrete flooring system shines at inhibiting contaminants from penetrating the surface. www.PLANTSERVICES.com April 2008 http://www.questmarkflooring.com http://www.questmarkflooring.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

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Plant Services - April 2008 Contents From the Editor Letters The PS Files Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works Asset Manager Technology Toolbox Cover Story Compressors Motors Flooring Web Hunter In the Trenches Product Picks Classifieds Energy Expert

Plant Services - April 2008

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