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FIVE GOLDEN TROWELS AWARDED IN ASIA

IRS SHANGHAI CONSTRUCTION (CHINA) WINS TWO GOLDEN TROWELS

CHANNAKORN (THAILAND) WINS FOR LARGE COPPERHEAD FLOOR

JILIN DESHI (CHINA) WINS FOR ITS TOPPING ON ELEVATED SLAB

ZACKLIM SRQ (MALAYSIA) WINS ITS 3RD GOLDEN TROWEL

(Shanghai) Five Golden Trowel® Asia Awards were made to four different contractors from three countries in Asia at the Golden Trowel® awards ceremony held at the World of Concrete Asia in Shanghai. This more than doubles the total number of Golden Trowel Asia awards made before this year.

Presented by The Face® Companies of Norfolk, Virginia, USA, Golden Trowels® are given annually in recognition of the flattest and most level floor slabs produced in the world. The Golden Trowel® Asia is a special award available only to contractors in Asia, for producing the flattest and most level floors in all of Asia, excluding the rest of the world. Golden Trowels are awarded in several different categories, based on how the floor was initially struck off, how wide the floor castings are, how much shake-on hardener or steel fibers are used, and other factors that influence the flatness and levelness of the floors. The first Golden Trowel Asia was awarded in 2015 to Zacklim Group of Companies from Malaysia and three more were awarded last year, in Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Three Golden Trowel Asia awards were made this year to contractors from China, but the largest number of Golden Trowel Asia awards won is still in Malaysia, with a total of three. The Golden Trowel Asia award is a 24 Karat Gold-Plated Marshalltown concrete trowel, mounted on a polished granite base with a brass plate describing the project. The granite base rests on a walnut stand. Only one Golden Trowel is awarded in each category. Golden Trowel Gold Plates are awarded to the winner in each category; Golden Trowel Silver Plates recognize outstanding entries that did not win their category.

Shanghai IRS Construction Co., Ltd., from Songjiang District, Shanghai, broke into the ranks of Golden Trowel winners in a big way, with an Asian Record Fmin average in the Narrow Strip Truss Screed Defined Traffic category. (with 5.5 Kg/m2 dry shake) The average Fmin was a truly outstanding149.3, the highest ever recorded in Asia. This is an unusual project. For floors in a high-bay narrow-aisle warehouse like this, flatness and levelness are critical. The lift trucks can reach very high stack heights even over 15 m high, and there is only a few cm of clearance between the racks and the lift truck moving down the aisle. For this kind of floor, we measure using a special “Vehicle Simulator” software that tells us how the lift truck will behave as it moves down the aisle. We measure the vehicle’s side-to-side roll motion, its forward-and-backward pitch or tilt, and we also measure its reaction to bumps or dips in the floor by measuring the rate of change of tilt in both axes. For all F-Numbers, higher numbers are better. The average floor has a Flatness of FF 25, and a levelness of FL 20. F-Numbers are linear, so an FF 50 is twice as flat as an FF 25. This floor had an average Fmin Number of 149.3, nearly 6 times flatter and more than 6 times more level than the average industrial floor in the USA.

Shanghai IRS Construction Co., Ltd. also won a Golden Trowel Asia for another Narrow Strip Truss Screed project, this time in the Random Traffic category. (also with 5.5 Kg/m2 dry shake) This floor was more than 5 times as flat and level as an average industrial floor in the USA. Shanghai IRS is also the only contractor in Asia to win two Golden Trowels in the same year.

Channakorn Engineering Co., Ltd. from Bangkok, Thailand, was also a first-time Golden Trowel Asia winner, in the Copperhead Laser Screed® 12 m wide bay Large Project category. This was a large project, and it is quite difficult to maintain a very high quality level for many weeks with changes in the weather. The concrete castings were large and 12 m wide, also adding to the difficulty of making the floor flat and level. This project included 22 Kg/m3 steel fibers. Channakorn is the second company from Thailand to win a Golden Trowel Asia award.

Jilin Province Deshi Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., of Jilin, China, is one more first-time Golden Trowel Asia winner. Their winning project was a Laser Screed topping over an unshored elevated structural slab, with 5 Kg/m2 dry shake added. Any time you place concrete on an elevated slab, it is difficult to achieve very high F-Numbers. Because of this, this process is not done very frequently in the USA.

Zacklim SRQ Concrete Floor SDN. BHD. from Selangor, Malaysia, won its 3rd Golden Trowel Asia award for a project in Malaysia in the Narrow Strip Large Project category. This was quite a large project, taking many weeks to complete. Zacklim holds the greatest number of Golden Trowel Asia awards of any contractor in Asia, and is also the only Asian contractor to also win a Golden Trowel in the worldwide Golden Trowel contest.

Before this year, there were only four winners of the Golden Trowel Asia. The first was in 2015, and the last three were in 2017. The five awarded this year make a total of only nine Golden Trowel Asia awards ever given. By contrast, in the international (worldwide) Golden Trowel contest, a total of 337 Golden Trowels have been presented since the first Golden Trowels were awarded in 1989.