In 2012 Permaban launched its Signature armoured joint for warehouse floors, distinctively shaped to prevent MHE wheels from impacting the joint and causing damage. Since then the joint has been installed in hundreds of new warehouse and distribution centre floors around the world.
Three years on, Permaban’s technical sales team made return visits to numerous Signature installations to monitor the longevity and performance of the joint – with impressive findings.
Steel wheels and dock levellers at Milton Keynes
In the spring of 2013 Permaban Signature was installed at the Milton Keynes warehouse of a leading drinks manufacturer. It was placed around the dock levellers, where the area would be in constant use by pallet trucks with steel wheels.
Despite this unforgiving application, Permaban’s return visit showed that the joint had suffered no damage, aside from a little abrasion to the thin top edge of the joint which has no effect on performance. The joint had opened by 7mm, and importantly the concrete around and behind the joint was intact, with no cracking.
Maintaining a 24/7 operation in Sheffield
In Sheffield one of Europe’s most elite printing facilities produces 2.5 million catalogues, magazines, brochures and supplements every 24 hours. This £100m investment became operational in the summer of 2014. With the site running 24/7, any floor joint failure would seriously hinder operations – and hence Permaban Signature was installed exclusively, to ensure there would be no joint impact damage from the hard rubber-wheeled forklift trucks.
The return visit eight months later showed that the joint had opened well as the floor cured, and was performing excellently for the happy client.
Taking Signature to the next level
The concept of wave-form joints is now becoming more widely accepted in the market – and Signature, as one of the most well-established, can boast an impressive pedigree of worldwide installations for blue-chip brands.
Yet the product is continuing to evolve. Permaban is preparing to commercially launch a second-generation version of Signature, created using an advanced composite instead of steel, which makes the product lighter and easier to handle on site.
The new Signature will include all the distinctive features of the current joint, including the unique full-depth corrugation which ensures stability from the surface to the base of the slab.
The new manufacturing process will mean that the product can be made to even tighter tolerances, leading to faster and more accurate installation.
Its deep pitch will also remain, giving strong and consistent load transfer between slabs, even with the widest joint gaps found in ‘jointless’ floors and in cold-stores and freezer stores. A new fixing mechanism for its integral dowel bars will ensure greater rigidity and accuracy.
What’s more, the new Signature will be entirely rust-proof, giving a better appearance in the floor, and making it suitable for use internally and externally.
Not just for new warehouse floors
For all those existing warehouse floors suffering from damaged straight joints, there’s a Signature solution too – Permaban Signature AR, a joint arris repair system launched in 2015 to replace and ‘upgrade’ damaged straight floor joints.
It’s not difficult for any company to talk about successful new product installations. A greater challenge is whether the product will withstand the rigours of a hard-working warehouse and still perform, months and years later. That’s a challenge Permaban Signature passes with ease.
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