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Food Factory Flooring: What Are Your Options?

When it comes to your food factory flooring, you may be thinking what options do I have?

The 3 Main options for food factory flooring are polyurethane, Epoxy resin and acrylic resin. All of which have their own benefits and drawbacks that need to be considered.

In this blog, we are going to take a deeper look into each and hopefully, try to help you choose your next food factory floor.

So, if you’re ready to upgrade your food factory floor, or just looking at options, read on to find out more!

The 3 options

Polyurethane food factory flooring

The industry standard at the moment is polyurethane (PU) flooring due to its high-ish compressive strength. This makes them relatively resistant to scratches and thus a popular option in high traffic spaces such as a food factory. PU floors also cope well in extreme temperatures as the floor is able to expand and contract, making cracking less likely from thermal stress.

You might be thinking,

Works well in extreme temperatures? No cracks? This is perfect for my food manufacturing facility…

However, the downtime that comes with PU flooring may be its biggest downfall.

PU can take around 3-5 hours to dry and 3-5 days to fully cure…

Fully cured means able to resist chemical attack – including water. If you spill water on the floor, it will interrupt the curing process, stopping the resin from achieving its full strength.

Therefore, you would have to close your factory for at least 3 or maybe 5 days to allow the installation. Just because it has a low initial cost doesn’t make it cheap!

It can also become very difficult to clean and unhygienic when dirt becomes trapped in the pinholes that can form while curing.

Epoxy resin food factory flooring

So we’ve seen the benefits of PU, as well as the big issue with downtime and hygiene, so now let’s have a look at Epoxy resin flooring for your food manufacturing facility.

Epoxy has a high-ish compressive strength, just like PU, allowing it to protect underlying concrete layers from impact, wear, water, oil and other chemicals it may encounter.

But if you thought PU cure time was long, wait until you find out about epoxy resins…

Depending on the room temperature it can take up to 7 days for epoxy to cure, resulting in a much longer shutdown needed.

Epoxy is also very hard to repair once damaged, and these repairs will need to be maintained constantly, like a pothole in the road.

Each repair will also require a factory shutdown to allow for cure time, which will be extremely detrimental to food production.

Secondly – and perhaps most crucially – Epoxy will often discolour and corrode if exposed to lactic acid – not ideal if using dairy products. So, unless you’re working on a vegan food manufacturing facility, you may have some issues with spillages on your floor.

Acrylic resins for your food factory floor

Both Polyurethane and Epoxy are not without their setbacks – most notably, the downtime and hygiene implications.

So, is there a resin flooring solution that overcomes the above setbacks?

You’ll be pleased to know that there is. It’s Acrylicon’s Unique Resin Flooring.

Acrylicon is from the Thermoplastic family of resins. These resins can cure and un-cure, as they are reactivated by uncured resin. There is, therefore, no risk of delamination within the flooring system, as there are no joints; Excellent for working in a bacteria-free food manufacturing facility.

Secondly, the cure time of Thermoplastic resins is unbeatable. Curing fully in two hours, Acrylicon will allow the factory to be back up and running with very little disruption to the business.

Conclusion

When Choosing your food factory floor, it is important to think about what you actually need from it, as well as if you can afford to shut down for long periods of time.

If you are looking to save cash in the short term, it may come back to haunt you in the long term. So, it is always important to fully understand what you’re buying and using.

For a free, no-obligation flooring assessment with one of our local experts, get in touch.

About Acrylicon

Acrylicon, the go-to industrial flooring company, has been implemented by Unilever, Walkers, McCain, Network Rail and many more companies that understand the cost implications of shutting down.

Their fast cure combined with the immense compressive strength saves you time, money and hassle when it comes to your industrial flooring. They can work at weekends or in business downtime to ensure minimal disruption to your daily processes.

With a life expectancy of up to 4-8 times longer than traditional resins, Acrylicon’s unique chemical composition ensures you get better value for money than from any other resin floor available.

Acrylicon’s long-lasting resin flooring is used across a variety of sectors including in food factories, commercial kitchens, warehouses, hospitals, supermarkets and car parks.

All new flooring comes with a 10-year performance warranty for complete peace of mind. Every installation is carried out by trained and certified regional installers so there are no split warranties.