Airside – London Heathrow
Sectors:
Using: 3m x 1.5m x 25mm Airside – Steel C/W Bevelled Edge and SALLY
Having supplied plates for ‘airside’ projects in the past we were aware of some of the problems faced by these challenging sites.
Normal friction treatments were unsuitable for various reasons including;
- Should the resin-grit become unadhered due impact, bending of plates or the scraping of excavators in areas where aircraft may operate it could become extremely hazardous if caught in a jet blast. This could affect personnel, surrounding equipment/infrastructure, plus of course the jet engines themselves.
- When some resin is newly applied and/or becomes wet it can become quite reflective and produces a very unpleasant glare in bright sunshine. Where this would be unlikely to be a issue for road traffic scenarios, for pilots and airport control staff, working many metres above ground in cockpits and control towers, it is a very real issue.
In the past the issue was sidestepped by specifying uncoated (i.e bare steel) for airside works. Something we and our clients had great concerns about, as an untreated plate can be, by its very nature, slick to walk or drive across when wet and muddy.
All of this was handed to the research team who were asked for some deep thinking. It culminated in a airside-anti-glare roadplate coating that is unique to us.
They developed on an existing technique known to be to be the cutting edge of anti skid technology and used on offshore rigs and aircraft carriers.
Our version exceeded any highway specification worldwide having a scrim ratio 70 and still 68 after 1 million foot falls (50 being recommended figure for highway use). It is therefore as effective a road surface as dry asphalt. (as tested by Transport Research Laboratories for Transport For London (TFL)).
It is superior product in many ways to more standard resin encapsulated aggregate coatings.
The alloy it is coated with is part Titanium Carbide, one of the toughest materials known to man and its resistance to wear is fantastic.
They are now part of BAA’s specification for airport work. The aeroplane logo denotes this as ‘fit for Air-side use on airports’.
All of the above in conjunction with our precision machining and bevelling process and the superior SALLY system leaves us with the AIRSIDE SAFELIFT plate. The ultimate plate for airside works.