Atro Transport Instaation and maintenance Guide June 2017 Contents Atro Transport products are designed for a ong, troube-free ife, providing a higher degree of comfort and safety for your customers, easier maintenance for your staff, ess downtime for repacement and repairs, and higher resae vaue. To obtain optimum performance from your Atro Transport fooring, carefu consideration shoud be paid to the foowing: Preparation of the subfoor Correct instaation Appropriate, reguar ceaning routine Important: faiure to insta Atro Transport products correcty wi affect the product guarantee. Instaation 1. Subfoor preparation 2. Inspection and toos 3. Layout and cutting 4. Adhesives and instaing 5. Fash / sef coving 6. Seam grooving 7. Weding equipment 8. Heat weding seams 9. Heat weding trimming 10. Cauking / mastic 11. Instaing step moding 12. Protection/cean up Ceaning 13. Ceaning overview
Step 1: Subfoor preparation Vehice inspection Before instaing Atro Transport products, carry out a vehice inspection. Check the subfoor is propery fixed and a heavy overhead work compete. The area must be cear of a other tradesmen. Guidance, information and training are avaiabe from Atro as part of the Atro Assurance of Customer Satisfaction. Atro wi work with your chosen adhesive manufacturer as required. Wooden subfoors If the wood has been treated with insecticide or fungicide, aow it to stand for 30 days, or as recommended by the manufacturer, in a dry, warm atmosphere so that the treatment chemicas dry out competey. Note that an impregnated subfoor, i.e. pywood, is normay ess absorbant than a non-impregnated one. Stee and other meta foors Degrease and abrade meta foors to remove a traces of corrosion and provide an effective key for the adhesive. The surface shoud be fat and smooth. Compound foors Abrade compound surfaces to provide a good key for the adhesive uness a two-component (reactive), epoxy or poyurethane adhesive is used. Subfoor preparation Irrespective of the type of subfoor, surfaces must aways be cean, smooth, dry and free from dust, dirt, oi, grease, and other contamination which may impair adhesion when the adhesive and fooring are appied. Vacuum ceaning is recommended. Subfoor preparation for repair or refurbishment It is important to check the subfoor for such probems as corrosion, moisture penetration and cracks and, if necessary, bring the subfoor up to a suitabe standard. In certain instances the instaation may benefit from the appication of a suitabe primer in accordance with the primer manufacturers instructions to achieve a successfu bond. Step 2: Inspecting your materias Check you have the correct foor stye and coour, pus enough fooring to compete the job. A pieces shoud be from the same batch (dye ot). Turn fooring sheets to get the best match. If there is any shade variation do not insta, but ca your Atro saes representative. Inspect stair trims and nosings (modings) and insta them in the correct order as some need to be instaed before the fooring. Contact your oca Atro saes representative for specific detais. Check your adhesive 1. Pywood subfoors use acryic adhesive, an approved contact adhesive or poyurethane adhesive. 2. Stee and auminium subfoors use a pressure sensitive acryic adhesive, an approved contact adhesive, or a two-part poyurethane. 3. Areas of water spiage, extreme temperature changes or heavy roing oads, use water resistant contact adhesive or two-part poyurethane. 4. Cap strips, cove formers and vertica surfaces, use approved contact adhesive. Toos you wi need 1. Standard trimming knife with straight, curved or hook bades and a straight-edge ruer. 2. Notched trowe for adhesives. Contact adhesive may be sprayed on (subject to oca egisation). 3. A variety of roers and weights to ensure proper bonding. Step 3: Layout and cutting Environmenta requirements Atro Transport products must be stored and instaed at a temperature of between 14 C (58 F) and 27 C (80 F). They shoud be accimatised to these temperatures 48 hours prior to use. Cutting to size Review foor pan or drawings and estabish seam pacement. Lay fooring out on a fat, cean surface and aow materia to reax at the recommended instaation temperature. Cut pieces to necessary width and ength, aowing about 25mm/1 inch extra at each end for trimming. In the case of jig-buit vehices, where the foor area dimensions are constant, a tempate may be used. 1. Cut materia in pace by freehand methods using a utiity knife, or pattern scribe using a tempate 2. Fash / sef-cove up the side of the vehice to the required height. A soid PVC cove former must be used when fash / sef-coving to support the fooring and to achieve an optimum radius to faciitate ceaning 3. Trim seams net (not tight). Do not eave a gap 4. Cut seams using any of the foowing methods: Straight edge and fit Overap and trace Underscribe (recess method) Pre-cut kits In circumstances where accurate bueprints can be provided, Atro can suppy pre-cut kits to your specification. This can cut instaation time and costs contact your Atro saes representative for detais.
Step 4: Adhesives and instaation Appication of adhesives With a types of adhesive, oca environmenta aws must be observed. It is the responsibiity of the appicator to determine such aw prior to proceeding. Water-based acryic adhesives 1. Coat the subfoor ony, using a notched trowe which compies with the adhesive manufacturer s instructions, observing requirements regarding open time, atmospheric temperatures, humidity and subfoor porosity If immediate bond is desired, the doube drop system may be used 1. After appying adhesive to the subfoor, using the recommended trowe 2. Pace fooring into wet adhesive and ro thoroughy 3. Pu back fooring, eaving adhesive fim on subfoor and back of fooring materia. After adhesive becomes touch-dry, re-pace the fooring 4. Ro the fooring thoroughy 5. Press down firmy to ensure compete adhesion over the entire area Repeat this process with the second haf of the foor covering Contact adhesive (e.g. sovent-based nitrie and neoprene) Proper ventiation of the work area is essentia where sovent-based adhesives are used. There must be no fames, incandescent or simiar heaters or other ignition hazard, which coud ignite the fumes from these highy-fammabe products. In a cases, foow the adhesive manufacturer s heath and safety recommendations. 1. Cut Atro Transport product to size 2. Lay in pace 3. Genty fod one haf back 4. Appy the adhesive to the subfoor 5. Appy a coat of adhesive to the exposed underside Appication of both types of adhesive is best achieved by spreading with a smooth or sma notched trowe or by the spray method. Reaction adhesives (e.g., based on poyurethane) Appy adhesive to subfoor ony, using a notched trowe which compies with the adhesive manufacturer s instructions, observing requirements regarding open time, atmospheric temperatures, humidity and subfoor porosity. 1. Cut Atro Transport product to size 2. Lay in pace 3. Carefuy fod back one haf 4. Appy adhesive to subfoor 5. Position foor product on adhesive and ro thoroughy to ensure good contact with subfoor 6. Repeat this process with the other haf 7. Avoid pressure points e.g. By the kneeing unti adhesive is fuy cured 8. Do not wak on the fooring unti the adhesive has fuy cured - typicay 24 hours Instaation of sef-adhesive fooring 1. Cut Atro Transfor product to size 2. Lay in pace 3. Carefuy fod one haf back 4. Use a hook bade to cut the iner from the underside of the foded-back foor covering, taking care not to damage the foor covering 5. Carefuy remove the protective fim iner from the exposed section and dispose of responsiby 6. Position the foor covering into the fina ocation ensuring a air is dispaced to perimeter 7. Repeat the above for the remaining foor covering 8. Appy constant pressure using suitabe hand roers to achieve successfu bond Logos to be instaed on steps 1. Centre ogo or pace re pan onto sub base 2. Cut Atro Transport Logo to size if required 3. Carefuy fod one haf back 4. Appy moisture toerant adhesive to the subfoor as per adhesive manufacturer s instructions 5. Repeat for the other haf 6. Use roer or simiar to ensure a over contact into adhesive and weight down if required 7. Aow adhesive to cure 8. Remove any protective fim
Logos for setting into foor 1. Lay ogo in pace according to pan 2. Draw around ogo perimeter with penci 3. Carefuy fod one haf back 4. Appy moisture toerant adhesive to subfoor as per adhesive manufacturer s instructions within the penci ine 5. Pace ogo into wet adhesive use roer or simiar to ensure a over contact into adhesive 6. Carefuy fod the remaining haf of the ogo back 7. Repeat the above 8. When the adhesive under the ogo has cured, ro out main fooring over ogo 9. Carefuy upift one haf and appy adhesive to subfoor 10. Pace fooring back into adhesive 11. Repeat for other haf 12. Cut around the perimeter of ogo through the overaid fooring to form a tight joint 13. When the adhesive has cured the joint between the ogo and main area of fooring can be grooved and hot weded Important Aways foow the recommendations of the adhesive manufacturer, taking care to protect surfaces which shoud not receive adhesive. Heath and Safety Advice Before using any adhesive, users shoud refer to the MSDS (Materia Safety Data Sheet) for correct safety advice and to determine the eve of PPE (Persona Protective Equipment) and RPE (Respiratory Protective Equipment) that is required. A COSHH (Contro of Substances Hazardous to Heath) assessment and risk assessment shoud be carried out before using the adhesive. In the case of contact with eyes or skin, rinse immediatey with penty of water and seek medica advice. Step 5: Fash / Sef-Coving Instaing Fash / sef-coving It is not recommended that mastic be used for seaing seams between vertica and horizonta surfaces. A mastic bond is not as effective as a wed and cannot be regarded as ong term protection against water penetration. Some pubic vehice buiders use the corner wed method. Provided the wed is correcty executed, making a watertight seam, this can be an effective soution. Ensure was are soid, smooth, dry and free of a paint, oi, etc Step 6: Grooving A 3mm groove must be cut eveny aong each foor joint using a hand or automatic rotary grooving too. Step 7: Heat weding equipment Toos you wi need Atro weding rods to wed seams (check a profies and coour before starting weding). Hot air weding gun. Ensure you use the right wed nozze to match the rod profie. Feed roer to hand wed hard to reach areas. Spatua to trim weding rod fush with fooring surface. Trim pate for initia trimming of weding rod. X-ACTO (router) hande and bades to trim weding rod on fash (coved) surfaces, hard to reach areas and corners. Specia weding profies Different weding rod profies have been deveoped to meet varying customer needs, incuding round, trianguar, mushroom, Spanish, French and SH. Standard round profie WR Standard trianguar profie WR T For sef-adhesive instaations, avoid standing on the iner surface prior to instaation and ensure that a iner materia is disposed of appropriatey and responsiby, so as not to cause a trip or sip hazard. Ensuring Thorough Adhesion Whatever the appication method or adhesive used, it is essentia that every part of the foor covering is in contact with and bonded to the subfoor. This can be achieved by using a variety of simpe accessories which are avaiabe through Atro directy or Atro distributors. Standard Mushroom profie Spanish profie French profie SH Profie WR M WR B WR HB WR SH Pressure roer Cork pressure wedge or fat board Weighted device Sand-fied pastic bags
Step 8: Heat weding seams Preparation Ensure that there is no gap between one section of fooring and the next. Potentiay, seams are the weakest points and most ikey source of water ingress, causing the fooring to detach from the subfoor. The Atro heat weding method, correcty foowed, eiminates this risk. Seams must be grooved and cear of debris before weding. Cean hot air weding nozze with wire brush. Turn gun on, set temperature to between 4-6 depending on oca votage and eave to heat for 10 minutes. Test wed on a scrap piece of fooring. Wed rod shoud fuse without burning or discoouring. Weding When heat setting is correct, cut the right coour of wed rod to the required seam ength. Start at one end, put rod into nozze and begin. Carefuy move gun aong seam at constant speed. N.B. ensure fusion between the wed rod and foor covering on either side without eaving a gap beneath the rod. Such a gap resuts in a weak spot which is easiy damaged and aows water to penetrate. If weding is too fast, rod wi not fuse propery. Keep speed nozze at right anges to the foor. Do not ean gun to eft or right. You may need to wed haf the ength of the seam and trim off, then wed from the opposite end overapping onto the trimmed wed at the centre. Reguate heat and speed to make a wake on either side of the weding rod. If wake turns dark, ower heat setting, or go a itte faster. Whee arches and verticas Grooving is not aways needed where was and foor form a natura 90 degree ange. Wed around whee arches and verticas with mushroom or bus wed rod to avoid the need to trim or cauk (mastic). Round rod wi require trimming. Step 9: Heat weding trimming Trimming Ony when the wed rod has cooed shoud it be trimmed with a spatua. If excess rod is trimmed whie hot, the wed wi contract as it coos, thereby eaving a concave seam. On fat seams, trim wed rod in 2 stages. 1. Pace trim pate over wed rod and trim top ayer of thread with spatua knife. Thread can be warm or cod. 2. Once the rest of rod coos, use spatua knife, without trim pate, to trim excess wed fush with fooring surface. If defects are present after trimming, regroove and rewed affected area, then trim fat once coo. In corners or coved (fash) areas use X-ACTO (router) bades to trim once wed rod has cooed. Atro strongy recommend that wed in buses be checked at reguar intervas, at east annuay. Step 10: Cauking / Mastic A areas where the foor covering has been cut or is not continuous must be adequatey seaed, incuding seat bot hoes. Where a watertight sea or joint is necessary, but the hot wed method is impractica, seect a good quaity waterresistant mastic, such as Atromastic. For Atromastic coours and instaation information visit www.atro.com Where physica damage is possibe, from the frequent contact of uggage over seams, for exampe, the use of a mastic is no substitute for a wed and is not considered good practice. However, where a mastic is the ony possibe soution, use one which bonds chemicay with the fooring, to avoid its being washed or worn away in use. Fit fooring neaty in pace. For a cean finish, protect adjacent surfaces with masking tape, exposing ony the area to be seaed. Cut tube nozze to aow 3mm / an eighth of an inch bead and insert tube into cauking (skeeton) gun. With steady pressure on trigger, move nozze aong channe, fiing gap. Smooth Atromastic before it dries. Remove masking tape in 5-10 minutes. Curing takes 24-48 hours.
Step 11: Instaing step nosings (modings) Every vehice type uses specific, individua finishes and nosings (modings). Each manufacturer has a unique nosing (moding). and instaation procedure. For auminium step nosing (moding) appy neoprene cartridge adhesive to one surface ony. Press into pace. Measure and dri hoes, counter sinking for screws aong top. Sweep up a debris. Step 12: Protection and cean up Remove any adhesive on top of the fooring with white spirits or minera spirits. N.B. Do not use ketones, acetones or other chemicas that wi damage the fooring surface. Protect the fooring with non-staining type protection to ensure other tradesmen do not damage the foor. Atro Transport products do not require seaing, however seaing can be appied using Atrogoss 211 or equivaent emusion. The appication of a seaant affects the sip performance of the fooring and it is the responsibiity of the owner to assess the eve of sip performance required. Pease contact your oca Atro saes representative for more information. Step 13: Ceaning overview Toos you wi need Reguar ceaning of Atro Transport products is essentia. There are two ceaning cyces. Reguar Maintenance and Deep (Scrub) Ceaning An idea schedue uses both. 1. Sweep or vacuum aises daiy. 2. Wet cean aises weeky. 3. Major overa cean every three months incuding stain treatment. 4. If maintenance becomes sporadic, fooring can be restored using the deep (scrub) cean procedure and appying very concentrated soutions of ceaning agents. If in any doubt about any aspect of ceaning Atro Transport products, pease contact your Atro saes representative. Atrocean 44 is approved for use on Atro Transport fooring, other manufacturers such as Taski and Johnson aso provide suitabe detergents, pease contact your Atro saes representative for further information if you are unsure about which product to use. Atro aso suppy a Ceaning Kit containing a bus brush, a Fo-Pac brush, a mop head, ceaner, instructions and MSDS sheet. Ceaning agents The composition of ceaning agents varies widey. They may be designed to remove specific soiings, or be formuated with respect to heath, safety and environmenta issues or the needs of the fooring itsef. Akaine ceaners are best suited to the ceaning of buses and coaches as they generay dea with the majority of sois. N.B. Use a twin compartment mop bucket or two buckets to keep cean and dirty water separate as good rinsing of residua dirt and ceaners is essentia to prevent discoouring and reduction of sip resistance. For further information or technica advice te: +44 (0) 1462 707600 emai: transportenquiries@atro.com or www.atro.com