In response to the growing demand for efficient and cost-effective methods of industrial floor preparation and rehabilitation, flooring solutions provider Diamond Products launched its new ranges of floor grinding, polishing and cleaning systems onto the South African market in September last year at the bauma Africa trade show, notes company director Brian Clark.

Diamond Products is the exclusive distributor of Diamatic flooring, grinding and vacuum systems in Southern Africa. It is also the exclusive distributor of the floor-grinding and polishing pad range, Quickchange. Both these products are manufactured in the Netherlands.

Clark tells Engineering News that the Diamond Products range of floor-grinding, polishing and maintenance systems, along with its floor-grinding and polishing consumables, has changed the game in terms of industrial floor preparation, as it is more cost effective and energy efficient than tools previously available on the market.

Clark adds that the Diamond Products range of industrial floor preparation and maintenance products provides an efficient and hygienic alternative to the industry standard. “The Diamatic range of floor-grinding machines is available in sizes ranging from the 180 mm single head system to the 780 mm triple head remote control system and is far more productive, efficient and hygienic than industry-standard manual labour.”

The Quickchange range includes a universal adaptor plate that enables the Diamond Products tooling to be attached to most of the traditional floor-grinding machinery available in South Africa. The Quickshine floor-grinding and polishing pads are diamond-coated for the efficient cleaning and maintaining of marble, granite, polished concrete and terrazzo and can be used with or without chemical cleaning agents.

Kimberley Hospital Project
Diamond Products codirector Darryl Gray says the company recently worked on a project with hospital infrastructure provider Tronkon, which included the construction of six operating theatres, an emergency centre, four ward blocks, a high-care unit, an intensive-care unit and consulting rooms at the Kimberley-based public hospital in the Northern Cape.

The construction of the 146-bed hospital is scheduled to be completed in August. Tronkon, is contracted to build the hospital and Diamond Products has been contracted to supply a range of equipment for floor preparation.

Diamond Products supplied the grinding machinery that was used in the grinding of the hospital floors. The project included levelling 10 000 m2 of floor space, which was done with Diamond Products’ 435 WP grinding machine.

The Quickchange 16/20 diamond grit pads were also used – these were attached to the client’s Diamatic 435 floor-grinding machine through its universal adaptor plate. “The Quickchange system provided a high-quality and precise grind at a considerably discounted rate, which reduced the overall costs of floor grinding by 30%,” explains Gray.

Further, he says custom-made tools from the Diamond Products product range were used to meet the specifications of the hospital flooring.

“Unlike a store’s floor that is quite smooth and flat, hospitals need vinyl flooring material to be laid on top of concrete to meet the health and safety requirements, as it is easier to clean.

“For that purpose, after the concrete surface had been laid, the floor was ground to a smoother and more acceptable finish. Diamond Products floor grinding equipment was used to create a rougher texture to prepare it for the binding with the vinyl flooring material,” elaborates Gray.

Diamond Cup Grinders
Diamond Products launched a new versatile range of diamond cup grinders in November last year. Clark says the new cup grinders are designed for 115 -, 125- and 230-size hand-held grinders for use on materials such as stone and cement.

“The double-row segmented diamond cups offer a greater surface area of grinding diamonds which, in turn, results in time being saved during projects. The cup grinders use synthetically manufactured diamonds, boosting their performance,” notes Clark.

The company offers the cup grinders in three forms of grit – coarse, medium and fine. The coarse-grit grinders are suitable for the removal of large layers of material and can remove layers of paint and smooth layers of concrete and excess material.

“The medium- and finer-grit cups remove less material, but are guaranteed to provide a smoother finish. The system is versatile because it can be used in conjunction with the Diamatic floor-grinding and polishing systems,” he concludes.