When a manufacturing facility involves tens of millions of dollars in equipment, keeping production running 24 hours a day is critical to ensuring a return on capital invested. However, a German manufacturer in China discovered that this all-out drive for efficiency can also exact a toll on the structure of a facility.
After operating for five years, the European firm discovered that the floor of its facility had subsided by as much as 115 millimetres, interfering with production and creating risks of damage to valuable equipment.
With the subsidence threatening not only the integrity of the 3,200 square metre (34,445 square foot) production facility, but also the safety of the European company’s staff, the manufacturer’s management called Finnish engineering firm Geobear, which specialises in employing patented geopolymers to stabilise roads, floors and other load-bearing facilities.
Injecting Strength into a Factory Floor
Invited to examine the five-year-old workshop by the management of the global top 500 auto component manufacturer, Geobear’s team detected subsidence in the floor of more than 11 centimetres, and worked with the team from the German firm to implement a plan to stabilise the floor of the 3,200 square metre (34,445 square foot) workshop within five working days, without disrupting ongoing production.
Following discussions with the company’s management, Geobear’s technical team divided the floor of the facility into four parts, each of which would be repaired in separate 24-hour operations.
The team of European and Chinese technicians first tackled the most severely sunken area, and began drilling holes into the floor at two-metre intervals. Once these shafts were drilled into the base of the workshop, the technical team injected one of Geobear’s patented geopolymers into the foundation. Through the unique technology, which fills cracks and voids in the substrata, and binds the foundation to the underlying layer, the team was able to gradual raise the workshop’s base, and with the help of advanced instrumentation, level the floor without cracking the concrete surface.
All of this was done with minimal noise while the facility’s owner continued production in the workshop. Once the tech team had completed its work – which progressed faster than the original schedule – and vacuumed up the dust, there was no sign of construction having taken place.
Rolling Heavier Loads Through a Shanghai Warehouse
After the success of the workshop project, the owner of the manufacturing facility invited Geobear to assist with enhancing a warehouse that the car parts maker owns in another part of Shanghai.
Unlike the repairs undertaken in the workshop operation, the Finnish company’s task with regard to the logistics facility was to strengthen the load-bearing capacity of the floor in the 1,800 square metre single-storey building.
After a detailed on-site examination, Geobear’s technicians developed a tailor-made solution for the client that allowed it to increase the load-bearing capacity of the warehouse floor from five tons per square metre to eight tons per square metre, without stopping operations in the facility.
Implemented and fully completed in under 18 days, Geobear again employed its polymer injection technology to shore up the base of the warehouse – allowing the owner to move, store and ship heavier loads from the facility, without investing in a new warehouse or excavating the existing foundation and floor.
Geobear Expands in the China Market
This pair of cases are just two among the many successful implementations that Geobear has performed in China, since setting up operations in the country.
Geobear’s China expansion is part of worldwide growth for the high tech construction firm which was founded in Finland in 1983, and has since served clients including IKEA, Procter & Gamble, BMW, Hyundai, Audi, Balfour Beatty, and other industry leaders across 50 countries worldwide.
In China, the company has made its headquarters in Shanghai and serves clients nationwide.
This sponsored feature was contributed by Geobear. To find out more about the company and how its solutions are underpinning companies in 50 countries, please click here.
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