In this day and age it’s no surprise that more and more work areas are being automated. Flat roof maintenance doesn’t have to rely only on supervision by eye and hand, either: there are modern technologies available that reduce the risk of human error to a minimum, while saving up to 40 percent on flat roof maintenance. Below we present the solution by SENSE Monitoring that was implemented in the Llentab halls as showcased in the factory of Oknoplast.
For the sake of economy, large-area buildings are designed with low-inclined roofs with internal inlets usually draining the water. Though tried and tested, a solution like this means that the maintenance personnel has to be at the top of their game and check on a regular basis for any obstructions. Potential leaks, often resulting from mechanical damage to the roof coating sustained during snow removal, can prove to be no less of a nuisance. Monitoring the permitted snow loads, too, requires labour-intensive and hardly precise manual measurements. And any possible negligence can be very costly or even fatal: let’s not forget about the recent cases of the roof subsiding in the hall formerly occupied by a Media Markt store in Gdansk, another roof collapsing in the car showroom in Lublin, or the widely publicized, most tragic construction disaster in the modern Polish history that befell the MTK hall in Katowice years ago.
The risk of similar accidents repeating, however, can be reduced to a minimum by implementing automated measurement systems. “Familiar with the typical problems of administrators and maintenance supervisors, we know full well that every defect or fault can incur more or less substantial losses,” says Przemysław Gałązka, CEO at SENSE Monitoring, the producer of the S-One system. “And so we offer a service that registers potentially dangerous events on-the-fly, from clogging of inlets, through soaking of insulation layers, to weight of snow drifts.
The S-One system relies on the unique measurement method, utilizing relatively simple devices. “The measurement array consists of a network of laser sensors mounted on support points of the roof girders and target boards placed in the spots of the highest deflections. The measurement results are analyzed in the cloud that accessible via a dedicated mobile app,” explains Artiom Komardin, constructor at SENSE Monitoring. “Our system helps facility administrators in their everyday work without burdening the personnel with any extra duties. The client is automatically notified by e-mail or text in the event of exceeding any indicators, which allows him or her to take appropriate steps before the situation gets out of control.”
The effectiveness of the S-One system is acknowledged by its satisfied users: “Our decision to install Sense S-One was pretty obvious. It’s the only system on the market that neither interferes with the construction (no drilling or welding required) nor disrupts the production,” says Paweł Wilczek, infrastructure engineer in the maintenance department at the Oknoplast factory in Ochmanów near Cracow. “And the production traffic in our facility is truly at maximum capacity. Our company is innovative and receptive to new technologies, so we didn’t need much convincing.”
The S-One solution can be successfully implemented in a variety of constructions, including steel halls, best showcased by the aforementioned factory of Oknoplast Group. “The construction of that factory is a piece of our history,” says Michał Szpilewski, CEO at Llentabhallen, the manufacturer of steel halls. “Our collaboration with Oknoplast Group started in the second half of the 1990s when we built the first 3,600 sqm. The facilities were successively expanded, and today they take up 38,000 sqm of space overall,” he recounts. “The Llentab system was perfectly suited to the needs of the dynamically expanding Oknoplast Group. All their halls were tailor-made, so the assembly method was the deciding factor. Thanks to the ingenuity of our team of constructors, we were able to offer optimal solutions that expedited connecting the halls we built before with those under construction. The plate-wool-plate wall lining system by Llentab with factory-made punching that we used proved to be of great help, allowing us to move or dismantle some of the walls to facilitate traffic between the halls,” says Szpilewski. “Some of the structures we’ve built are open canopies, constantly exposed to the elements. The Llentab halls are a perfect fit for those, because the whole structure is well-protected against corrosion, with all its elements hot-dip galvanized, which makes the halls durable even in unfavourable weather conditions. I think that our long-standing collaboration is a testament to the quality of the Llentab halls and their suitability to the ever-growing needs of our clients.”
Currently, the S-One system monitors two manufacturing halls constructed by Llentab for Oknoplast Group. In 2018 the system is planned to be expanded to the whole factory in Ochmanów. Interestingly enough, the S-One system is offered on a license fee basis and doesn’t require much investment.