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.
Originally available in two variants – smooth and rough –, the product
range has been refined and expanded and now includes more than a dozen
different solutions for a variety of challenging requirements. They all
share the same superior resistance and durability. Ucrete flooring
solutions are available globally through specialized applicators.
“Correctly specified and installed, our floors offer very longterm
performance,” Ansell said. “In this way we also make a stand for more
sustainability; what is more wasteful than throwing a floor away after
five or ten years? More and more customers are opting for the real
benefits of a long-lived floor, avoiding the production downtime and
cost of refurbishment or replacement. In 2018 alone, a total of more
than five million square meters of floor surface were coated using
Ucrete solutions. Our commitment is to keep on investing strongly into
our portfolio to enhance already existing products and to develop new
solutions closer to our customers’ needs, to provide enhanced aesthetics
and more ergonomically friendly means of installation.”
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.