The Influence of Surface Properties of Floor Materials on Ease of Cleaning in Production Animal Houses
Nyckelord:
floor materials, surface properties, cleaning, speed of cleaning, animal productionAbstract
The conditions of animal buildings require to some extent different properties of building materials than in other buildings. Floor surfaces are of special interest, since they should stand strong mechanical and chemical stress and they should also, when used in laying areas for animals, be as comfortable as possible to lie on. Besides those properties the floors should be easy to clean. As the production units become bigger the time spend to non-productive work as cleaning should be minimized.
Concrete and different kinds of epoxy and polyurethane coatings and compounds with different filling have been tested in laboratory. Friction of dry, wet and dirty surfaces has been measured with different methods. Also the roughness of dry and dirty surfaces has been measured with different methods. The reason for using different measuring methods has been to find out witch of the methods would describe best the desirable properties for floors in animal houses.
On concretes friction and roughness and ease of cleaning on the other hand seem to be opposite properties. With plastics the ease of cleaning is also depending on the surface properties. The cleaning time per unit with plastics is much smaller than with concretes even if the measured roughness or friction is on the same level. Wearing affects the ease of cleaning both on concrete and on plastic surfaces.
