A company floor with reduced carbon footprint

In 2017, Prologis purchased the last 150,000 square meters of available land at Vossenberg West II business park in Tilburg. In recent years, phased construction has taken place here on Tilburg DC 5, a so-called build-to-suit distribution center with maximum flexibility for users. Having previously completed phases AB and CD, Twintec is now putting the finishing touches to the industrial floors in phase EFG. A floor that distinguishes itself from the two previous phases because of a requested flatness requirement and the various tests in the field of sustainability and CO2 emissions.

Twintec is a familiar face at DC 5 in Tilburg. "We have already successfully completed the first two phases at an earlier stage," begins Marieke Pitlo of Twintec. "Phase EFG we are now making on behalf of ASK Romein. This is also a hybrid reinforced floor with steel fibers, the Twintec®ULTIMATE, just like in all other DC 5s of Prologis, but with one big difference: Twintec now produces a flatness in accordance with DIN 15185 'all over' in one direction."

Maximum flexibility

Prologis' choice of DIN 15185 'all over' one-way for phase EFG ensures maximum future flexibility, Pitlo acknowledges. "The halls can then be divided flexibly: a change in the racking plans is no problem at all. The three phases involve a total floor area of 37,000 m². A job we complete in sixteen days with the deployment of our in-house produced Laserscreed and Toppingspreader equipped with special facilities to achieve the high flatness. There are also three mezzanine floors and the office floors, all adding up to 4,681 m². In total, just under 5,800 m³ of concrete was processed in those sixteen days into the floors with an average thickness of 16.5 centimeters."

CO2 footprint

Twintec realized the floors in DC 5 as CO2-neutral as possible. Pitlo: "This already starts with the engineering of the floor. Thickness, user function, amount of reinforcement, all components are included. After all, this is a Breeam Very Good project. In addition, the use of steel fibers also provides the necessary CO2 savings." Twintec is very active with new developments in reducing its carbon footprint.

Ambitions

Twintec Group and thus also Twintec Netherlands has in its core values the environment and thus also CO2 emissions in high regard. "For example, we extensively test our Twincon® fiber, a fiber extracted from old car tires," explains Pitlo. "It results in a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions compared to using a traditional steel fiber. With this fiber we produce, among other things, the ECO Twintec®ULTIMATE, which we have also applied here on the DC 5 project in Tilburg. In addition, we are conducting tests with our shrinkage-reducing aggregate, and we are constantly pushing to further develop our machines. Our sister company Topp & Screed has now developed and commissioned an electric laser screener, the TS6100E. Also in the field of polishing machines steps are made. In cooperation with Hofstede Trading BV we have deployed 5 electric polishers at DC with good results. Ultimately we want to achieve a CO2 neutral floor during the entire lifetime of the floor. Our Twintec Research & Engineering department does a lot of research on this. We therefore expect to be able to hand over a CO2 passport of every single floor produced before too long."