Shrink wrap warehouse partition training

Tufcoat carried out a project at a pharmaceutical plant in Ireland, with a team consisting of two Tufcoat instructors and four scaffolders to be trained.

Tufcoat sheeting was selected to create a sealed partition in a warehouse whilst remedial works were carried out in one area, enabling operations to continue as normal without the risk of dust contamination. Work began at around 8.30am Saturday morning, firstly with an introduction to the equipment, shortly followed by positioning the first sheet.

The main area to be covered was fairly simple, consisting of a scaffold structure 10m high, by 60m long. However a 2m gap between the top of the scaffold and the warehouse roof presented a bit more of a challenge.

The space had to be thoroughly covered; a task which involved thoughtful planning due to an abundance of protruding metalwork, ducting and an awkward corrugated roof cladding. Needless to say, this had quite an impact on our supplies of patch tape!

Two of the trainees were taken up in a scissor lift to position the top of the first sheet, and were instructed on where to make cuts for tubing etc, with the rest of the team below cutting the 15m sheets to length.

Once the sheeting had been opened up to its full width of 7m and clipped in place, the second sheet could be positioned in the same fashion. This allowed for an overlap of the two, providing ample space for the vertical weld. The scaffolders took to the various processes rapidly, rotating tasks to ensure they each had sufficient time getting well accustomed to each.

After only a couple of hours everyone was able to work well as a team and were set on what needed to be done, resulting in an extremely rapid rate of production.

As the rolls used were 15m Tufcoat sheeting on a 10m frame, there was adequate material left to entirely seal around the outside. This process is achieved by taping a long strip of plastic, about 300mm wide, to the main sheets along the outside edges, then attaching this to the walls and floor. This was simplified greatly due to their smooth concrete finish.

By only 1.00pm, the hanging and welding processes were complete, and shrinking had commenced. Unfortunately shortly after this time the Tufcoat team had to depart for the flight home, but everyone involved was impressed at the amount achieved. The scaffolding team continued as they had been instructed, creating an extremely effective sealed partition with a high quality professional appearance.

In total eight rolls of 15x7m Tufcoat sheeting were used to cover the main structure, with the off cuts put to use creating the final seal.