DB Schenker finds high performance steel fiber does more with less

The challenge

The warehouse needed to accommodate racking systems, which when fully occupied would impose ‘point loads’ of up to 11 tones. With demand for the facility already building up, the timescale for the project was tight. Maintenance downtime in a 3PL warehouse can be very costly, so durability was important. The client was also keen to achieve a ‘smarter’ more sustainable solution.

The solution

Working with the contractor Amana, Bekaert proposed an alternative to the traditional saw-cut, mesh rebar reinforced Slab On Grade floor: a Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete ‘jointless’ approach using Bekaert’s high performance Dramix® 4D fiber.

SFRC floors involve significantly less casting time (no time spent ‘fixing’ steel rebar) and large slabs can be cast without saw-cuts: this reduces casting time and, with no cut edges to degrade under heavy traffic, future maintenance costs are reduced too.

High performance Dramix® 4D fibers have a tensile strength exceeding 1,800 MPa and extra anchorage mechanisms, so the 200 mm thick floor could be cast with just 20 kg of fiber per m³ of concrete – achieving more with less, in a smart and sustainable solution.