TUF-STRAND Fibres for Industrial Floors

Flowcrete India is able to supply the industrial sector with the advanced macro-synthetic fibre solution TUF-STRAND SF, which reinforces and enhances concrete without having to use heavy, costly and rust prone steel rebar.

The patented polypropylene/polyethylene synthetic macro-fibre TUF-STRAND SF marks a significant step change in the construction world, as it provides unparalleled improvements for any ground, precast concrete, composite steel decks or shotcrete applications in large-scale building projects.

Already a popular choice in the US, now the construction chemicals expert Flowcrete India has brought this same solution to the Indian market, enabling the creation of stronger structures that are more suited to the demands of today’s challenging construction sector.

TUF-STRAND SF is particularly beneficial within industrial environments, where the floor needs to be strong enough to handle a variety of challenges, including static and dynamic loads, impacts, deflections and fatigue. Concrete surfaces that aren’t robust enough will quickly fail when subjected to industrial activity, leading to a long list of production, safety and hygiene issues.

Alongside having to withstand the daily operating conditions, bare concrete surfaces are prone to plastic shrinkage as well as settlement cracks and typically have less resistance to abrasions and impacts.

For all of these reasons the concrete needs to be properly reinforced, however conventional reinforcing techniques such as steel rebar, welded wire mesh and steel fibres all present similar problems, including being very heavy and prone to corrosion.

TUF-STRAND SF provides equivalent strengths to rebar and it also controls and mitigates plastic-shrinkage cracking whilst reducing segregation and bleed water. In addition to being considerably lighter, TUF-STRAND SF is substantially more cost efficient, it will not corrode and it is hugely time saving for contractors - as it can do the job that rebar does in 30-40% of the application time!

Concrete reinforced with TUF-STRAND SF boasts three-dimensional reinforcing with enhanced flexural toughness, impact and abrasion resistance and it also reduces equipment wear and fibre rebound while simultaneously increasing build-up thickness compared to steel fibres for shotcrete applications.

Typically, in a cubic meter of concrete on a floor there can be anywhere from 12kgs to 45kgs of steel, however all of this can be replaced with TUF-STRAND SF by using approximately 1.8kgs to 5kgs of fibres per cubic meter of concrete. When spread over a development such as a high-rise building, manufacturing plant or logistics hub, the accumulated weight savings are truly phenomenal.

Unsightly rust stains, spalling and structures being weakened by corrosion are a thing of the past thanks to TUF-STRAND SF, so developers and building owners can rest assured that even the largest, most demanding buildings will have reliable, low maintenance concrete for the long term.

Choosing Flowcrete India to supply its concrete reinforcement solutions comes hand-in-hand with expert advice and market-leading experience. Its technical sales team is well versed in concrete mix design and how fibres work in combination with chemical admixtures, cement additives, air entrainment and other specialty products, which means that it can advise on how to best utilise fibres to achieve the necessary performance.

TUF STRAND SF is the future and it promises to be an exciting, cost-cutting, time-saving, more reliable, revolutionary future. In the years to come, architects and contractors alike will be wondering just how they ever managed without it! To find out how you can be at the forefront of concrete technology, get in touch with Flowcrete India today.