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More than 1,500 different rubber matrix designs for the production of sophisticated concrete slabs

June 4, 2020

More than 1500 different designs to produce sophisticated hermetic plates

Property owners, municipalities and architects place continuously higher demands on floor and wall coverings for both indoor and outdoor use for their respective projects. High-quality concrete slabs are increasingly being chosen as an inexpensive alternative to ceramic products and natural stone.

Hermetic press

These premium concrete slabs are best manufactured using hermetic presses. Slabs for outdoor usage, or slabs that are exposed to high weight loads, are made from two different concrete mixes, while slabs for indoor areas with a thickness of less than 30 mm are produced with only one concrete mix. In both cases, a liquid glossy facing concrete forms the visible surface side. In the manufacture of more solid outdoor area slabs, the earth-moist core concrete acts as the integral support for the finish facing concrete. When installed, only the premium surface finish of the facing concrete presents the high-grade architectural aesthetics for superior results.

The structural surface profile of the concrete slab is determined by specially configured matrices within the profiled plate inset into the mold. These steel plates with a vulcanized rubber layer are manufactured by our experienced specialists in Regensburg and represent the negative profile of the final concrete paver surface.

The team working with the head of this department, Stefan Kaiser, satisfies the worldwide customer demand with a selection of more than 1500 different designs for matrices up to the format 1200 mm x 1200 mm. This capability makes SR Schindler the global market leader in this important and steadily growing market segment. Of course, we also produce design drafts for customer-specific matrices.

In addition to the surface structure, we can also use the matrices to create chamfers or curves, which clearly sets apart the finished concrete slab from the usual bulk goods and gives our customers the opportunity to better serve new market openings with differentiating high-quality and innovative products. Picture 3 shows our craftsman creating a customized matrix to satisfy a customer request. 

In addition to the customized design of the matrices in our manufactory in Regensburg / Germany, advising customers on the innovative development of new matrix designs is a core competency of our specialists. The final design is always reconciled to the critical physical process considerations.  

In addition to the flowability and abrasiveness of the face mix concrete, the force characteristics of the press must also be considered to expertly select a suitable matrix design and rubber compound. The State-of-the-Art controls of our vulcanizing press confirms a high standard of process stability; and, as a result, a consistently high product quality utilizing our matrices is assured.

In addition to matrices for our own hermetic presses UNI 500 and UNI 1200, we also offer matrices for all common third-party products. Our product portfolio for hermetic presses is supplemented by spare and wear parts such as front distributor plates, press stamps and wear frames. At SR Schindler, we take pride in viewing ourselves as a solution provider rather than a product provider. For this reason, in addition to hermetic presses, we also manufacture complete production lines for the surface finishing of concrete slabs and paving stones. Our global spare parts supply chain and after-sales service supports our customers with efficient response and delivery times. If necessary, we also deliver spare parts on public holidays and weekends to keep our customers´ production running.

You can read the complete article in

CPI 03/2020

 

Preparation of a design draft

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TOP-WERK GmbH


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