AGV’s or Automated Guided Vehicles are the reliable workhorses of the modern warehouse. They are designed to run smoothly and predictably all day and everyday. AGV’s are great at repetitive tasks moving freight as needed day in and day out. These repeated trips over the same path can be very punishing to concrete floors. The small hard wheels of an AVG can crush control joint sidewalls and grind the concrete surface to dust. This leads to rough, uneven floors that can cause premature breakdowns of AGV drive systems, wheels, and even damaged freight.
“If your AVG could talk, it would ask for Concrete Mender. ” Richard King, Roadware, Inc.
AGV’s move thousands of pounds in a single trip over the exact same path hundreds of times per day.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender with Microdoweling™ penetrates into concrete surfaces repairs concrete cracks, joints and spalls where others fail. Over the years we have noticed some conditions needed for successful repairs in the path of AVG’s.
Repairs need to be as tough as the concrete itself. But not too tough. Let’s say your concrete is a typical 4000 psi in compressive strength. The AGV wheels are grinding away the surface of the concrete and spalling the control joints. You repair the “bad” sections of the path with fairly brittle 10,000 psi epoxy. Now you have sections of the original concrete and sections of much harder epoxy. As the original concrete continues to grind away, the hard epoxy remains and you just created more speed bumps for the AVGs. Concrete Mender will wear with the concrete and deflect with the concrete under load. Your AVG’s favorite path will be smoother longer.
Stop your repairs from popping out. Did you ever notice common warehouse floor repairs popping out in chunks? This can happen when you put a super hard epoxy patch in a not as hard concrete floor. The epoxy is so brittle that it fractures the bond-line when a load is applied. Epoxy repair products have a modulus of elasticity that is so high, it will fracture the concrete before deflecting under load. Concrete Mender has a modulus of elasticity that is slightly less than concrete so it will deflect with concrete concrete under load and gently transfer load from the repair to the surrounding concrete.
Time is money! Closing down aisles or sections of a warehouse is a disruption for everyone including AVG’s. With minimal prep requirements and less invasive techniques including Roadware Easy Injection, 10 Minute Concrete Mender can have your AVG pathways back in service in minutes, not hours or days. You can even make repairs in operational freezers down to -30F.
Concrete repairs for AGV’s need to bond under heavy traffic as well as deflect with the concrete and transfer loads to the surrounding concrete without fracturing.
AVG’s like to take the same path every time. This can prematurely wear out concrete floors. The drive system in a typical AGV can haul a lot of weight, but the floor needs to be smooth. Warehouse and AGV floors can be repaired and open for traffic in about 10 minutes after application with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
A 24″ deep core sample shows 100% injection repair with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
For many years, engineers have looked for ways to fully inject repair polymers into cracked concrete structures. The general consensus is to seal off the crack with a sacrificial epoxy and install injection ports every few inches. Then thick epoxy is injected under high pressure into the crack with expensive resin injection pumps. The process is time-consuming, the epoxy is brittle, the equipment is expensive and the skill level is highly specialized. This makes epoxy injection slow, expensive and not really effective in the field.
At Roadware, we look for ways to make concrete repair fast, effective and easy.
Fast is better. When injecting Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into concrete, the fast gel and cure time allows you to make a full depth repair from the bottom of the crack up to the top. If the crack you are injecting has a large hidden void, Concrete Mender repairs will start to gel and plug up the void in several minutes. Injection epoxy that takes several hours to cure will sink to the bottom of your crack and pool in the base before it has a chance to cure.
Effective. Concrete Mender is a Structural Polyurethane**. It is about as hard as typical concrete with much greater tensile and bonding strength. It is super thin at 8cps with a surface tension 1/3 of water. It can to penetrate concrete cracks and surfaces. Concrete Mender does not need to be forced into cracks with high pressure pumps and extraordinary methods. Concrete Mender can easily flow into cracks and fissures with just simple manual tools and a specially designed application mixer. You can repair more cracks in less time with less waste then ever before. Repairs are structural in nature and will move with the concrete, not against it like very hard epoxies.
Easy Application. For a repair to be effective in the field, it has to be simple enough for crews to apply efficiently. Installation productivity saves money.
Diagram showing Concrete Mender Soft-tip mixer injection into a concrete slab.
To start, simply drill a 3/8″ diameter hole about one inch deep into the crack at several points along the crack. Clean the crack and holes with a vacuum.* (Click here to learn how to work safely around silica dust).
Tape off the top of the crack and around the holes you just drilled with clear duct tape or Gorilla Clear Repair Tape. These tapes have a good adhesive that will stick to the surrounding concrete. Do not use packing tape or other tapes without testing them first.
Assemble a cartridge of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender using out specially designed Soft-tip static mixer. Purge the cartridge of air as directed and insert nozzle into the first hole you drilled earlier.
Gently squeeze the handle of the gun and slowly inject Concrete Mender into the crack. Work product into several holes at a time, moving the cartridge back and forth among them. Allow time for the Concrete Mender to start gelling in the bottom of the crack. As the crack starts to fill completely, you will see Concrete Mender flow under the clear tape from one drilled hole to the other. You may see air bubbling up from one hole as you inject Concrete Mender into adjacent holes.
Once the crack is filled to refusal, move on to the next few drilled holes until the whole crack is filled.
After 10 minutes at 70 degrees or 23 C, pull the tape. You can use a razor scraper, grinder or polishing device to remove and excess material and blend in the repair.
Drilling a pilot hole into a crack to prepare for injection with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
A pilot hole drilled into a concrete crack and ready for injection with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender. Clear repair tape temporarily seals the crack while being repaired.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is slowly injected into the crack using a Soft-tip sealing mixer.
Inject Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into the crack until the product appears under the tape. This repairs the crack from the bottom up. Work several holes at a time allowing the product to gel and seal the bottom as you go.
Slowly injecting Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into 24″ of concrete using 600ml cartridge and soft-tip injection mixers.
Core drilling of the repair shows full depth repair down 24 inches using this method.
The core sample shows full depth repair down 24 inches.
Concrete Mender repair shown under UV light. See how the Concrete Mender flows into the smallest cracks and brings the concrete back to a pre-cracked condition.
Using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and Soft-tip injection mixers, you can structurally repair concrete cracks and delaminations with simple tools and methods. This unique system saves time and money and allow for a high production rate for installers. The drill hole/inject method is much less invasive than traditional cut and fill methods and creates a lot less silica dust on the jobsite. The Microdoweling properties of Concrete Mender and Soft-tip Injection promises to be a winning combination for tough concrete repair challenges.
1006-STR 24-element static mixer with Easy Injection Tip
1006-STR 24-element static mixer with Easy Injection Tip
*“Workers may be exposed to dangerous levels of silica dust when cutting, drilling, grinding, or otherwise disturbing materials that contain silica. These materials and tasks are common on construction jobs. Breathing that dust can lead to serious, often fatal illnesses.” The Center for Construction Research and Training. Click here to learn how to work safely with silica.
** Structural Polyurethane: A polyurethane based material that restores structural integrity and aggregate interlock to distressed concrete by using low surface tension and low viscosity to penetrate concrete surfaces and cross-linking polymer chains to bond directly to the concrete-aggregate matrix. This bonding action utilizes capillary forces to self-inject polymer chains into the surrounding concrete. This material should have a modulus of elasticity less than the surrounding concrete and should not become brittle over time. This material may be combined with manufactured sand to form a PCC compatible polymer concrete that can structurally repair concrete cracks and spalls.
Pool spalls are cleaned and prepared for repair with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
What do you do when your pool has cracks and spalls and it has to be open is three days? Back in 2001, the City of South Saint Paul, Minnesota had a problem with their new splash pool. Just before opening the pool for its second season, cracks and spalls were discovered in the concrete pool bottom and along corner where the floor meets the wall. The damaged was probably caused by the first Minnesota winter for this neighborhood splash pool facility. The repairs needed to be done fast. The pool was scheduled to be open in just three days. Any delay would be a disappointment for local families and political problem for the City who spent a lot of money to build this water recreation facility.
The call went out to see if anyone could come up with a solution. Roadware Incorporated, also located in the City of South Saint Paul, received a call from the Parks and Recreation Maintenance Department to see if we had any ideas. It turns out, Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is a great product for repairing concrete pools. The cross-linked polyurethanes in Concrete Mender and very resistant to water, chlorine and other pool chemicals.
Roadware personnel were at the pool within a few hours and repairs were made using a mixture of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and manufactured sand.
Mixing 10 Minute Concrete Mender with sand in a bucket prior to repairing a spall in the concrete pool floor.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is flooded into the spalled ares and seeded with manufactured sand.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and sand are applied to spalls in the pool floor.
The Concrete Mender and sand bland can be troweled in place and will cure in about 10 minutes.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender mixed with sand is troweled into place.
Vertical surfaces can be repaired by mixing Concrete Mender with fine manufactured sand and troweled in place.
Pool repairs at the pool edge are made with Concrete Mender mixed with sand and troweled in place.
Repairs can be painted using standard methods in 10 minutes after application at 70 degrees F (23C).
Finished repairs were ready for paint in minutes.
All the repairs took just a few hours to complete and the pool was ready for a fresh coat of paint in minutes. The pool was painted and filled with water the next day. The Concrete Mender repairs have largely been forgotten, but continue to perform to this day.
The South Saint Paul Splash Pool in 2017. Concrete Mender repairs in the pool still look good 16 years later.
The Microdoweling™ action of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ can structurally, “glue” concrete back together. Pictured here is a concrete break-out caused by a forklift hitting an anchored steel bollard.
Anchored post hit with forklift causing damage to floor.
Concrete Mender™ was used to re-attach the broken concrete piece and repair the crack.
Damaged floor anchoring steel post is repaired and loose concrete piece re-attached with Concrete Mender™.
After about 10 minutes, the repair was buffed smooth and open for traffic.
Concrete Mender™ repair is buffed smooth and ready for service.
About a week later, the bollard was again hit with a forklift and at the same angle. The repaired concrete held in place. The concrete broke on the other side of the bollard this time. Concrete Mender can’t stop forklifts from hitting bollards. It can help minimize the damage and make lasting repairs.
Concrete Mender floor repair one week after installation. The steel post was hit again with a forklift and is still holding in place.
Roadware is exhibiting at the CP&S show in Milwaukee on October 20-22, 2016 in booth #119. NOW #219
The International Concrete Polishing & Staining Conference and Expo is the only event of its kind specifically designed for concrete polishing professionals. This show offers 20+ conference sessions, an Exhibit Hall featuring polishing equipment and products, slab demonstrations and more.
To take advantage of our exclusive VIP offer for free access to the CP&S Exhibit Hall, simply enter promo code RINC when registering online. We look forward to seeing you at the show! P.S. Be sure to check out the CP&S Conference, offering more than 20 technical and business management sessions geared specifically for concrete polishing professionals!
On Wednesday, October 19 … CP&S is offering Brad Humphrey’s All-Day Leadership Boot Camp for contractor owners and employee leaders in ANY construction business. With more than 35 years in the industry, Brad is a veteran construction contractor and coach who is in high demand throughout the industry. Don’t miss this intensive, all-day coaching session to help you take your company to the next level!
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ top applications:
General full depth crack repair:
Use the high-penetration abilities of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ to make full depth crack repair.
CRACK REPAIR
1. Clean out with diamond grinder and remove dirt and dust.
2. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
3. Add a fine graded silica sand and additional liquid to grade.
4. Strike off excess material and allow to cure for 10 minutes at 70°F.
5. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a grinding stone if desired.
SPALL REPAIR
1. Clean out with diamond grinder and remove dirt and dust.
2. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
3. Add a fine graded silica sand and additional liquid. Work in one inch lifts to grade.
4. Strike off excess material and allow to cure for 10 minutes at 70°F.
5. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a grinding stone if desired.
HAIRLINE CRACKS
1. Score the top of the crack with diamond blade or wire brush.
2. Remove dust with a vaccume.
3. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete
Mender™ supplied in twin cartridges and optional needle tip mixer.
4. Add a fine graded silica sand to larger areas and allow to soak in.
5. Strike off excess material and allow to
cure for 10 minutes at 70° F.
6. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a
grinding stone if desired.
SPALLED CONTROL JOINT
(Fully cured non-moving)
1. Clean out with diamond grinder and remove dirt and dust. Score back spall with blade for a finished look.
2. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
3. Add a fine graded silica sand and additional liquid to grade.
4. Strike off excess material and allow to cure for 10 minutes at 70°F.
5. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a grinding stone if desired.
DELAMINATED SLAB
1. Drill hole into void.
2. Remove dust with a vacuum.
3. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete
Mender™ supplied in twin cartridges.
4. Add a fine graded silica sand and
additional liquid to fill holes to grade.
5. Strike off excess material and allow to
cure for 10 minutes at 70° F.
6. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a
grinding stone if desired.
THRESHOLDS AND
UNEVEN SLABS
1. Clean out with diamond or wire grinder and remove dirt and dust. Score lower edge with diamond blade for a finished look.
2. Flood with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
3. Add a fine graded silica sand and additional liquid to a mortar consistency.
4. Shape with a clean steel trowel and allow to cure for 10 minutes at 70° F.
5. Open to traffic. Finish and blend with a grinding stone if desired. Maintain existing expansion joint if necessary.
Basic SYSTEM in Bahrain is using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ to make rapid curing pebble-crete flooring in Bahrain. The easy mixing Concrete Mender combines with the pebbles and acts as a binder in seconds. The mixture is easy to apply and trowel flat without getting sticky until the final minutes of curing. See the video here.
UPDATE May 4th, 2015
“I will take the opportunity of this e-mail & send you a recent photo of the pebbles application with Concrete mender at PinkBerry frozen yogurt / pictures was taken today, the floor is performing well and the client is very happy / the application will be repeated in Future PinkBerry shops in the region…”
Regards
George Honein
Basic SYSTEM in Bahrain is using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ to make rapid curing pebble-crete flooring in Bahrain. The easy mixing Concrete Mender combines with the pebbles and acts as a binder in seconds. The mixture is easy to apply and trowel flat without getting sticky until the final minutes of curing. See the video here.
Pebble floor application at a Pinkberry Store in Bahrain.
600ml of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is combined with about 6kg of 3-5mm pebbles. The components are mixed be hand, spread out on the floor about 3cm deep and troweled flat. 600ml
The pebbles are completely coated and help in place by the Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™. The floor performs well and creates the look specified by the designer. The floor does not need further sealing. Daily maintenance consists of vacuuming and mopping.
When I first saw this application, I had some questions:
Hello George at Basic SYSTEMS in Bahrain.
Your application has not been tried before with Concrete Mender.
How does the surface look?
It’s giving a wet look / looking really nice.. they have used resin in the past in other outlets, but the problem it was not strong enough and was smelling due to cleaning process.
Are the rocks coated completely?
We have mix it with in a bucket with the Concrete Mender / pebbles size was 3 to 5mm, we have used 600 ml of CM and an average of 6 kg of pebbles, it was completely coated
Do any of the rocks come loose?
Yes some, but it was superficial, we brush it out with hard brush the next day and fill the few areas where the pebbles was removed with same mix materials…
Will the floor be easy to clean?
Well vacuuming and mopping was our instruction to follow…
Do you use a clear sealer after the application?
The pebbles are completely coated/ by sealing it, will loose the natural look as required in the concept design.
