Floor Gratings

About Floor Gratings and Floor Grating Manufacturers Including: Bar Grating, Metal Grates, Plastic Grating, Stair Treads & Steel Grates.

Floor gratings are a common fixture in most industrial, production and factory environments. Floor gratings material was first used in the flooring of ship engine rooms towards the end of the 1940s. Its use has since expanded and floor grating manufacturers produce floor gratings for general buildings, production plants and manhole covers. Floor gratings feature a textured surface created by holes in or texture placed into the surface of the material. The percent of open area is important in allowing the required amount of light, water, air and sound to pass through the grating. Choose floor gratings when it is important that liquids or debris not be collected on the flooring, easy installation and fabrication is preferred and complex floor patterns and hard to fit areas make solid floor installation difficult.
 
Floor grating manufacturers make floor gratings of various materials including metals like steel and iron or fiberglass reinforced plastic. Depending on the corrosive nature of the building’s environment and needed load strength, floor gratings are manufactured in various thicknesses and grip patterns. Both perforated and expanded metal fabrication techniques are used to create the majority of floor gratings. The available patterns of floor gratings vary from diamond shape to oval, and each pattern has different inherent strength properties. The choice of pattern of floor gratings is both practical and aesthetic. The most heavy duty floor gratings are made out of welded or pressure-locked interlocking bars. These fiberglass or metal bars provide a stable floor situation that is less likely to bend or warp with extended use.
 
There are many, many types of floor gratings. Expanded metal grating is either regular or flattened and made of carbon steel, aluminum, stainless steel, pre- or hot-dipped galvanized steel, copper, silver, nickel and ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Expanded metal grating is used in enclosures, supports, protection (guards for machine and heaters, etc.), security and decoration. Bar grating is either non-serrated or serrated for slip resistance (i.e. the top surfaces of the bearing bars have been notched). Safety grating is made of pre-galvanized steel, stainless steel and aluminum. It can be assembled with clips. Different types of fiberglass grating include pultruded, open-molded and compression molded. Conductive top grating is light weight, slip resistant, has a long service life and low installation cost and drains unwanted static electricity.
 
Floor grating manufacturers produce products that are most often used for the implementation of increased traction and tread for workplace safety. Often, floor gratings are required by regulation standards in certain areas of a factory or warehouse, including areas near potential fluid or lubrication leaks or as part of stairs and high walkways. These floor gratings provide slip resistant areas and extra grip for vehicles such as forklifts. Another common use for floor gratings would be for the covering of an area which needs adequate drainage of fluids as in the case of an industrial-sized refrigerator or freezer. Sometimes the floor gratings are used as part of a buildings ventilation system, providing free travel of air to areas, rather than strict foot grip safety.

Types of Floor Gratings

• Aluminum grating has excellent corrosion resistance under a variety of service conditions, light mass and high strength-to-weight ratio.
  
• Bar gratings are floor gratings that are made with thicker metal or fiberglass bars, which are either welded, pressure locked or riveted together. They are used for stronger support purposes, such as stair treads.
  
• Covered grating is a durable, molded fiberglass floor product combining slip resistant floor plates and molded grating.
  
• Expanded metal grating is lightweight, durable and inexpensive, provides some traction and does not need special equipment to be installed. The openings range from 3/16” to 2”.
  
• Fiberglass gratings have lightweight durability and an anti-corrosive nature. Pultruded fiberglass has a higher load capacity than standard molded fiberglass.
  
• Metal gratings are the norm in the floor grating world. The metals used most often are stainless steel and iron, but aluminum is sometimes used in lighter traffic and load situations.
  
• Perforated metal is a type of metal fabrication technique which punches holes of various sizes and patterns via a punching press. This type of metal is often used along with expanded metal to create floor gratings.
  
• Plastic grating is never 100% plastic but is often reinforced with fiberglass.
  
• Pressure locked grating offers the widest variety of load bearing bar spacing and can be manufactured efficiently in small quantities. Pressure locked grating is one of the most versatile types of grating.
  
• Stair treads have perforations and textured surfaces to prevent slipping and related accidents.
  
• Steel grates consist of many parallel and perpendicular steel bars that can bear weight, but still allow air to pass.
  
• Welded grating is formed by electrically fusing cross bars to steel load bearing bars.

Floor Gratings Terms

Anchor – The device by which grating is attached to its supports.
 
Bearing Bars – Load-carrying bars made from steel strip or slit sheets or from rolled or extruded aluminum and extending in the direction of the grating span.
 
Bond –The intersection of two strands in a grating pattern.
 
Carriers – Flats or angles which are welded to the grating panel and nosing of a stair tread.

Cross Bars – The connecting bars that extend perpendicularly across the bearing bars. Where cross bars intersect the bearing bars, they are welded, forged or mechanically locked to the bearing bars.

Cutout – A section of grating that has been removed to allow pipes, ducts, columns, etc. to pass through the grating.

Grating – An open grid assembly of metal bars, in which the bearing bars running in one direction are spaced by rigid attachment to cross bars running perpendicular to them or by bent connecting bars extending between them.

Grating Frame – A metal frame that contains floor grating and provides a means to anchor floor construction.

Grating Tread – The surface of a step constructed of a type of grating.

Hinged Panels – Grating panels which are hinged to their supports or to other grating parts.

Kick Plate – A flat bar attached flat against the outer edge of a grating and projecting above the top surface of the grating to form a lip or curb.

Nosing – A special L-section member serving as the front or leading edge of a stair tread or of grating at the end of a stair.

Reticuline Bar – A sinuously bent connecting bar extending between two adjacent bearing bars, alternately contacting and being riveted to each.

Rivet Centers – The distance center to center of rivets along one bearing bars.

Reversible Grating – Grating so constructed that it may be installed either side up.

Span of Grating – The distance between two points of grating support.

Straight Cut – That portion of the cut edge or cutout of a grating which follows a straight line.

Trim Band – A band that is not load-carrying but primarily used for aesthetic purposes.

Width – The overall dimension of a grating panel, measured perpendicular to the bearing bars.