50th anniversary of Ucrete: the world’s toughest floor since 1969
- The flooring solution for the most challenging environments
- Functional for decades
- Fast and straightforward installation
The world’s most resilient flooring from the Master Builders Solutions range is celebrating a major anniversary: 50 years ago, the Ucrete flooring solution was patented. Ucrete is based on a unique resin technology that provides these floors with exceptional resistance to aggressive chemicals, extreme mechanical impact, and thermal shock. Ucrete floors are particularly suitable for use in aggressive process areas as encountered in the food-and-beverage, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, for example. They form homogenous surfaces with a minimum of joints and, where required, slip-resistance properties for safe and hygienic work environments. The impenetrable and impermeable Ucrete surfaces retain their stability at temperatures of up to 130 °C and meet even the strictest requirements in terms of hygiene. Depending on the exact variant, Ucrete can be installed in a matter of hours or a few days, and, if applied correctly, retains its functionality for decades.
Development of Ucrete began in the late 1960s as part of the search for a resilient, durable and easy-to-apply floor coating for chemical plants. Polyurethane as the basic ingredient, a controlled reaction with water prior to application, and aggregates hitherto only used for concrete proved to be the ideal solution. “The properties of Ucrete – whose name is a combination of Urethane and Concrete – were nothing less than revolutionary,” said Philip Ansell, Marketing Manager, Ucrete Industrial Flooring Europe at BASF. “Ucrete was insensitive to any residual moisture in the substrate, which meant it could be installed quickly – ideal in any refurbishment work, which, from then on, required almost no downtime. The resin-based solutions available up to that time required the substrate to be very dry – a preparatory step that took, and still takes, a lot of time and effort.”
- Ever since then, Ucrete flooring solutions have found widespread application across the world in cases where resilience and durability are high priorities. “One of the oldest Ucrete floors still in service was installed on the premises of a brewery in Nigeria in 1982,” said Ansell, who only recently documented the exceptional resilience of the flooring solution with the “Ucrete Destruction Challenge”. “In 1975, a large international soft-drink company furnished one of its plants in Ireland with a Ucrete solution; and have made regular use of Ucrete floors in their plants around the world ever since. Our customers know that they can rely on the performance and the durability of our Ucrete flooring systems – and they want that reliability again and again. Innovation has been our key driver since 1960, and the strong investments made over the years on R&D activities brought us to reach several milestones such as:
- 1982: The first antistatic hygienic terrazzo floor for the pharmaceutical industry;
- 1993: The first flow applied heavy duty screed with thermal shock resistance for ergonomic application;
- 2003: The first systems with specifiable slip resistance profiles as key safety requirement for the food-and-beverage industry;
- 2011: The first non-tainting, rapid curing systems, to minimize downtime even at chill temperatures;
- 2018: Monolithic, thermal shock resistant antistatic flooring.”
Ucrete’s extremely low VOC content, as recognized by third parties like Eurofins, which awarded Ucrete with the Indoor Air Comfort Gold Certificate, together with its versatility and specific properties – resistance to extreme chemical, mechanical and thermal impact; low-maintenance long-term durability for decades; hygiene; skid-resistance and electrostatic conductivity, if required – make Ucrete the perfect flooring solution throughout the food-and-beverage, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries as well as in the aerospace, electronics, engineering, textile and the mining industries – wherever resistance to aggressive service conditions is required.
You will find further information about our products and system solutions at: www.ucrete.basf.com
About the Construction Chemicals division
BASF’s Construction Chemicals division offers advanced chemical solutions under the global umbrella brand Master Builders Solutions for the construction, maintenance, repair and renovation of structures. The brand is built on more than 100 years of experience in the construction industry. Our comprehensive portfolio encompasses concrete admixtures, cement additives, chemical solutions for underground construction, waterproofing systems, sealants, concrete repair & protection systems, performance grouts, performance flooring systems, tile-fixing systems, expansion joints & control systems and wood protection solutions. The Construction Chemicals division’s approximately 6,500 employees form a global community of building experts. To solve our customers’ specific construction challenges from conception through to completion of a project, we draw on our specialist know-how, regional expertise and the experience gained in countless constructions projects worldwide. We leverage global BASF technologies and our in-depth knowledge of local building needs to develop innovations that help make our customers more successful and drive sustainable construction. The division operates production sites and sales offices in more than 60 countries and achieved sales of about €2.4 billion in 2017.
About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of more than €60 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.