Intermediate deck coated in winter

At car park ZZ6 serving the Leibstadt nuclear power plant in Switzerland, intermediate deck 2 was recently given a slip-resistant OS 8 coating. Using MC-DUR TopSpeed ensured that the work could be successfully carried out despite the wintery conditions prevailing.

The town of Leibstadt is located on the Upper Rhine close to the border with Germany in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It boasts Switzerland's youngest and most powerful nuclear power plant, built in 1984. The complex includes a multi-storey car park, of which decks 2 and 3 were to be refurbished in two separate project phases. The first phase saw provision of an OS 8 coating on the deck of the middle car park level at the end of 2020.

 

Deck coating in winter
The scheduling of the job required working from mid-November to mid-December, including all installation repairs, substrate preparation and coating. Despite low temperatures of 5 to 6.5 °C, high humidity between 73 and 80 % and strong winds, the client Kernkraftwerk Leibstadt AG wanted all measures to be carried out without expensive enclosures or heating costs. It was therefore decided to refurbish the deck using a combination of MC-Floor TopSpeed SC and MC-Floor TopSpeed. Both products can be applied down to a temperature of 2 °C and are integral to both the OS 8 and OS 10 surface protection systems provided by MC.

Intermediate deck coated with OS 8 system from MC

The 2,700 m2 area of intermediate deck was first shot-blasted and then primed with MC-DUR TopSpeed SC. The two-component, transparent reactive resin based on KineticBoost-Technology® cures quickly and is largely immune to humidity and temperature. As a primer for mineral substrates under EP and PU coatings, it can be filled with mineral aggregates. For the Leibstadt contract, MC-DUR TopSpeed SC was mixed with kiln-dried quartz sand, applied with a squeegee and then fully scattered with quartz sand in the grain size range 0.2 to 0.6 mm. For the following bedding layer, a fast-application, moisture-tolerant MC-DUR TopSpeed roller coating was applied without any sand fill, after which the surface was fully scattered with quartz sand in the grain size range 0.8 to 1.2 mm. The top seal of MC-DUR TopSpeed was then roller-applied and again allowed to cure naturally in the knowledge that any moisture or temperature influence would be negligible.

 

MC-DUR TopSpeed offers high abrasion resistance and strong anti-scratch resilience. It is resistant to diluted acids, alkalis and salt solutions as well as being UV-stable. And the decision to use it paid off in full as the refurbishment project in Leibstadt proceeded. With the low temperatures and high humidity encountered, standard systems would not have had any chance of success. The anti-slip and waterproofing OS 10 coating of the upper parking deck, which also measures 2,700 m2, was subsequently completed in the period from March to April this year, again using the MC-DUR TopSpeed system.