Reckitt is a UK-based global manufacturer of products in the hygiene, health and nutrition sectors, with brands including Strepsils and Nurofen — both produced at this site — as well as Dettol, Finish, Durex, Gaviscon, Air Wick and Clearasil.
The 2000 m2 site is a flagship one for the company and is fully GMP pharma compliant, which means products are consistently manufactured to defined quality standards.
Kemtile has worked for Reckitt for many years, and is a trusted supplier to select the appropriate flooring system for their requirements.
For this particular project, Kemtile was asked to propose a suitable flooring system in the main access corridors, which link to all the manufacturing suites, granulation rooms and packing areas, which need to withstand frequent, heavy traffic.
With ForkLift trucks delivering raw materials to various rooms for use in the manufacturing process, the flooring needs to withstand persistent and regular heavy loads. Some of these materials are powders, which are transported in heavy stainless steel bulk containers.
The existing floors in the corridors consisted of marble terrazzo tiles on a thick screed/concrete bed. Because of the weight of the loads transported along the corridors, the tiles had started to crack and the screed began to collapse, so constant repairs had become necessary.
Kemtile used specialised hybrid/electric excavation equipment to remove the tiles then cleaned the areas and installed a quick curing, heavy duty, epoxy based underlayment screed — Stonset TG5 plus copolymer screeds. This was then overlaid with its high performance Stonclad GS epoxy floor screed. Installation was very quick because of the use of power trowels providing a very flat, dense floor finish.
A resin rich, self-smoothing electrostatic dissipative coating product — Stonkote ESD — was then laid on top. FLTs that move up and down the corridors generate a static charge called tribocharging, which could ignite the powders being transported, so using an ESD product in the system was a vital safety consideration.
Additionally, Kemtile also provided Protectorseal wall coatings and stainless steel kerbs.
Speaking of the project, James Johnson from Reckitt, said: “Recognising our need for an electrostatic dissipative flooring system was the latest demonstration of expertise from Kemtile, delivering the best flooring solution for our specific needs that we can absolutely rely on."