Food and beverage (F&B) plants must find flooring capable of withstanding challenging onsite conditions, such as heavy footfall, physical impacts, extreme temperatures and the presence of toxic chemicals. When selecting flooring solutions for F&B facilities, they must withstand everything from heavy footfall and physical impacts to extreme temperatures and chemical corrosion.
PU concrete provides the solution. As it is harder-wearing than epoxy and more heat tolerant, making it suitable for industrial environments with harsh climate conditions.
Texel Agency
PU flooring, also known as polyurethane flooring, is gaining popularity in food and beverage facilities due to its exceptional characteristics. This seamless and hygienic flooring solution offers a range of benefits, including chemical resistance, durability, and easy maintenance.
Texel Agency PU flooring in coimbatore provides a smooth and non-porous surface, preventing the growth of bacteria, mold, and fungi. It is also resistant to high temperatures, impact, and abrasion, ensuring long-term performance in demanding environments. In Coimbatore, PU flooring is becoming a preferred choice for food and beverage establishments, thanks to its reliability and suitability for stringent hygiene standards. Trust a reputable PU flooring Coimbatore provider to deliver exceptional results for your facility.
Advantages
PU is the go-to resin for floors that must be impact-proof, crack-bridging, and liquid proof. Designed to withstand abuse from heavy traffic and can even be installed without adhesives or heat welds on concrete floors, PU makes an ideal surface choice for gyms or fitness studios as it can absorb impacts easily while being highly hygienic – ideal for food manufacturing/processing facilities as it won’t stain easily either!
PU flooring also boasts excellent thermal shock tolerance. While epoxy floors may become damaged when exposed to sudden temperature fluctuations, PU systems are far more adaptable and move with the concrete substrate as temperatures fluctuate, which makes PU particularly beneficial in facilities like refrigeration or dairy plants that experience frequent hot and cold swings.
PU is also more resistant to natural chemicals than epoxy, such as lactic acids found in dairy, fruit and food products; epoxy only has limited resistance against these acids while PU can withstand them over time. Furthermore, its moisture resistance allows it to keep up with floor movement without cracking due to abrasion damage.
Applications
PU flooring is suitable for both industrial and commercial environments and can be customized with anti-slip aggregates, anti-bacterial additives and more to meet individual application needs. Furthermore, its excellent chemical and UV radiation resistance make PU an attractive option. While often compared with epoxy floors, they have their own distinctive advantages or disadvantages that could make either better or worse depending on the task at hand.
PU floors differ from epoxy in that it has a longer pot life and less moisture sensitivity, making it simpler for contractors to work with and finishing projects faster – an advantage in tight deadline situations that allows PU floors to be completed sooner.
PU flooring offers several advantages over epoxy in terms of its thickness and durability, which means it can better withstand wear without showing signs of wear. This makes PU an excellent choice for gyms and fitness studios where high volumes of people will be walking across it; additionally, its comfort underfoot makes it an excellent option in schools or offices where footfall impacts could potentially occur.
PU is more chemical resistant than epoxy, making it an excellent choice for food and beverage facilities or areas prone to acid spillage. However, be mindful that chemical leaks or exposure could alter its color so this should be considered when selecting your ideal floor surface.
Expert Recommendations
PU flooring’s durability and chemical resistance make it an excellent choice for heavy industrial spaces, particularly those handling acids or other harmful substances such as food. Because it provides a hygienic surface suitable for school settings or hospitals. PU is frequently utilized by the food and beverage industry.
PU is significantly thicker than epoxy, making it suitable for spaces requiring shock absorption such as impact or thermal shock, temperatures changes or chemicals exposure. Unfortunately, however, its UV resistance is inferior and it will yellow over time.
Maintenance-wise, PU floor coatings require less work than other resin systems. Regular dust mopping and spot cleaning as well as periodic machine scrubbing should suffice to keep your floor looking good; though extreme hot water could potentially damage PU.
From an applicator’s standpoint, polyurethane (PU) flooring can be challenging to work with due to its limited pot life and susceptibility to humidity fluctuations. Therefore, selecting an experienced team for any PU application is key as this will have an enormous effect on the final finish quality. Repairs and upgrades with PU floors require removal-and-replace rather than patching; repairing may only be achieved through replacement rather than patching.
Final Words
While food and beverage facilities often utilize resin floors, selecting one that will offer safety, durability, and hygiene requirements requires taking careful consideration of its intended use – including impacts, chemicals, traffic volumes, temperatures and cleaning regiments that will come into contact with it – before selecting either an methyl methacrylate quartz (MMA) or polyurethane (PU) coating option as best for your facility.
PU flooring coatings boast the same hardwearing characteristics of epoxy floor coatings while being less susceptible to moisture than their epoxy counterparts, making them an attractive option for food industries dealing with dairy, milk and fruit acids that damage other types of floor coatings or self-levelling materials quickly. Furthermore, PU coatings cure faster than MMA floors so they can be put into service faster; in areas with extreme temperatures or moisture conditions experienced applicators will need to use lower pot life materials when installing this system.
