What is AFC 4800 coating?
AFC 4800 is a specially blended Aluminium Titanium alloy non-slip coating applied by thermal spraying. Once applied the coating provides a rough texture which has excellent non-slip properties whilst being extremely hard, infinitely durable and is abrasion and wear resistant. Thermal spraying is a process of applying pure or alloyed metals as coatings onto a wide range of base materials. The metals applied are not paints with metal particles, but solid metals that are melted, atomised and sprayed to make a coating.
The atomised molten metal particles cure instantly as they land on the base material that is normally grit blasted first. The grit blasted surface provides the perfect key to produce a well-adhered coating.
Spraying parameters can be changed to create textured coatings that give a variety of grip levels suitable for public walkways through to fork lift loading ramps. In some applications, coatings are sealed after metal spraying.
The Project.
Customer approached us with need to apply a hardwearing non-slip coating to existing floor plates for use in busy London transport setting.
- Plates are a stainless-steel checker plate design and require additional non-slip properties.
- Customer advised specific PTV (pendulum test value) values were required and the optimum value needed to be in the range of 75-80 PTV.
Initial test samples were produced and tested with a final PTV of 85. Far exceeding the customers target range.
- Industry standards state that a surface with PTV of 36 or greater will have low slip potential in pedestrian areas.
- Bare stainless steel checker plate was tested at a PTV of 45, so the addition of our AFC 4800 coating presented a vast improvement in non-slip performance.
Trial & Real-World Application
Project moved on to full-scale trial and real-world application for testing in a live environment.
- A single set of floor plates were treated with our AFC 4800 non-slip coating and placed in situ in a high footfall location within the London transport network.
- Treated plate set has been subjected to weekly visual inspections and monthly PTV testing.
At Week 4 mark:
- Treated plates were beginning to show visual signs of wear to the top surface.
- A shiny appearance had begun to form along the centre of the plates.
- This led to a clear focused wear pattern down the centre line of the plates.
- Initial assumptions had been that the wear would be evenly distributed across the full surface face.
At Week 7:
- Despite the evidence of focused wearing, the plate still performed well when subjected to a PTV test with a result of 60-75.
- Footfall across the treated plates was estimated at 225,000.
At Week 9:
- Visible wear continued to form on the surface.
- Due to the now heavily worn centre line, the decision was made to end the trial at this stage.
- Following closer inspection of the plate set, there was still clear evidence of AFC 4800 being present on the plate surface.
- PTV test was completed and final result of 55 was recorded.
- Whilst this value had decreased from the initial value of 85, it still exceeded industry standards and was higher than bare checker plate.
Following the end of trial and technical discussions with the customer a second set plates have been treated with a heavier coating of AFC 4800. From our learnings of the first trial regarding the natural focus of the wear pattern, the application of AFC 4800 has been focused on the heavier footfall areas of the plate set. This second treated set of plates remains on test and is continues to preform well.
