Cost efficiency and safety regulations prioritised

Manufacturer of gratings, stair treads, pressed floors and safety handrails Vital Engineering reports that its custom-made range of flooring products prioritises safety while also reducing the overall cost to the client through the provision of ease of maintenance and ensuring low on-site installation costs.

Vital MD Dodds Pringle advises that when it comes to flooring, taking short cuts, mostly through being ill-informed, can lead to unforeseen delays in project completion. “In our view, effective design not only impacts on safety, which is top of our agenda, but it also affects other, less obvious issues, such as ease of upkeep and a smooth installation process on site.

“For instance, in many steel buildings, it is easy to run piping and ducting through the floors as holes and passages can be easily cut out in the grating floors.

“Further, it would reduce considerable downtime, as installation of flooring can easily be undertaken with less rework and changes, and modular units [are used], which makes for more cost-effective and efficient transportation and storage,” elaborates Pringle.

Vital also provides a full consultation service, drawing its customers’ attention to potential pitfalls and hidden installation costs in every project, as well presenting clients with a vast array of options regarding materials and finishes.

“We offer the widest spread of product offerings in the market from various manufacturers and manufactured in different parts of the world, and we advise our clients that the choice of materials that they want to use should be dependent on the overall design of the project,” says Pringle.

He adds that many of Vital’s clients prefer the galvanised mild steel finish, as it is resilient and has a hardy finish.

“We offer other special finishes, but, in harsher, more demanding conditions, these may have lim- ited life spans, and damage can be caused through installation, transportation and handling. In these instances, we often look to fibreglass to meet the special finishing requirements of the architect,” elaborates Pringle.

Vital, whose client base is mostly power plants, petro- chemicals plants, process plants, water treatment plants, the mining industry, and structural and civil engineering projects, also custom-designs its products.

“Because we place great emphasis on designing for safety, we use only the highest-grade steel, such as WA355. We also pride ourselves on continually introducing new products and finishes onto the market to suit individual design requirements,” Pringle says.

Vital recently released an expansion of its sunscreen materials. The expanded sunscreen metals, which have been designed with lighter materials, add considerable cooling efficiencies.