Kastriot Malci
Technical Support Manager
Toughness made in Canada.
FILCOTEN® passes North American material testing.
<p>The lowest temperature ever recorded was -81.4 °F, the highest +113 °F. Also, severe fluctuations in temperature can occur within only a few hours. It can feel like spring one day and like heavy winter the next. It is an understatement to say that this isn’t an easy environment for materials when it comes to civil engineering.</p><h5> </h5><h5><strong>Testing to separate the wheat from the chaff.</strong></h5><p>In Canada, the suitability of materials for these extreme conditions is tested by the internationally recognized organization ASTM. FILCOTEN® also underwent this testing. “The testing assesses the resilience of materials to drastic changes in temperature,” Kastriot Malci, Technical Support Manager at Hydro BG, the BG subsidiary in North America based in Montreal, explains.</p><p> </p><h5><strong>Extreme cooling and heating – 300 times in five hours.</strong></h5><p>Over a period of several hours the material is cooled down from 39.2 °F to -63 °F, before being heated from -63 °F to 39.2 °F – a temperature difference of more than 100 °F. ASTM’s independent engineers performed this procedure on FILCOTEN® more than 300 times within a period of five hours. The result speaks for itself: The FILCOTEN® partschanged their shape by an average of 0.3 % – hardly any change in shape at all. Furthermore, the average expansion was no more than 0.01 mm.</p><p>The testing engineers could not determine any cracks or damage to the material, either. Following 300 cycles, the samples were still perfectly intact without loss of material. This is where normal concrete suffers significant frost damage.</p><p>Malci is satisfied: “We are now 100 % sure that FILCOTEN® has absolutely no problems with rapid temperature fluctuations”. The ASTM engineers were especially ambitious when it came to testing the material from Austria. “They wanted to challenge the Austrians’ precision, but FILCOTEN® passed the test with flying colors.”</p><h5> </h5><h5><strong>If you make it in Canada, you can make it anywhere.</strong></h5><p>Once again, this result shows that the FILCOTEN® material is way ahead of its competition. One might almost think it was overqualified for European conditions. However, the climate can be unpredictable anywhere. Therefore, it won’t harm to use a product that proved its worth in Canada.</p>
style="color: #9ed300">INFOBOX
Overcoming challenging conditions
Especially challenging environments show that FILCOTEN® is the ideal material for drainage channels: Even at extreme temperature fluctuations, it remains stable without loss of material. Combined with the excellent adhesion of a cement-bound mineral material, there is no infiltration of water between the outer walls of the channel and the surrounding concrete.
Problems caused by coefficients of expansion in plastic and polymer channels.
This is where channel bodies made from plastic or polymeric materials often hit the wall. Their coefficient of expansion is different to the coefficient of the concrete in the surrounding foundation. This may cause cracks and gaps between the channel body and the concrete surface. Possible negative consequences may include infiltration at the transition between the channel/foundation and the element piles, as well as resulting frost damage with raising and sagging inside the channel line.
FILCOTEN® advantages at a glance:
no changing of the channel body shape even at extreme temperature fluctuations
no loss of material
excellent adhesion to the concrete bedding
no infiltration of water
maximum drainage performance
And these are not even all of the benefits of our FILCOTEN® Drainage Systems. We are happy to provide you with information on the entire service portfolio. Please email us at blog@bg-company.comfor further information or individual consulting.
