Seismic Hazard? No problem
Nicomac’s false ceilings answer to every need
Whenever an earthquake occurs, the majority of the damage for the industrial buildings concerns the non-structural elements and in particular the false ceilings: entire panels, or parts of them, can fall and it can determine damaging to goods, production-stop and may jeopardize people safety. This is a risk that Nicomac’ s clients can avoid for their cleanrooms, thanks to our anti-seismic false ceilings.
The thirty-year experience in Italy (one of the countries with the highest seismic hazard in the Mediterranean) and around the world has brought Nicomac to develop, in collaboration with Hilti Italy, standard solutions for false ceilings and their systems able to front all the safety needs of the various seismic hazard zones in the planet.
The earth shakes: can your cleanroom hold?
In case of earthquake, the common false ceilings could not resist the strains. The more detected damages are particularly caused by:
1. Additional load of ceiling lights, not effectively anchored
2. Hammering in correspondence of the partition summit or the firefighting sprinklers
3. Structure of the false ceiling not calculated to absorb the quake’s actions on the horizontal plane
The consequential risks are:
1. Obstruction to escape routes
2. Production interruption
3. Risk for people ’s safety and damaging of productive plant in case of heavy false ceilings
The solution: Nicomac Europe + HIilti Italy
In order to simplify the approach to the problem of anti-seismic false ceilings, Nicomac Europe and HILTI Italy have studied six standard solutions. According to the hazard seismic zones (3 low, 2 mid, 1 high), three applications can be used for walk-on or not-walk-on false ceilings. Moreover, Nicomac Europe can study, calculate and certify a dedicated project on specific conditions thanks to a specialized engineer.
Case History #1
Nicomac Europe provided a walkable anti-seismic false ceiling in a low seismic zone (zone 3). Since the project didn’t foresee particular critical situations, Nicomac and Hilti Italy chose the corresponding standard solution (walkable Zone 3)
Case History #2
A customer had to set-up a non-walkable false ceiling in a high seismic zone (zone 1) and entrusted Nicomac.
Nicomac Europe and its design engineer identified the suitable structure considering the high seismic zone, the building structural parts and the false ceiling configurations.
Seismic pinout: the advantages of Nicomac’s solutions
- System integrated with the standard static solution: some static supports are substituted with seismic ones with a regular distribution according to the telluric action
- Flexibility of installation: minimization of the interferences with the static supports thanks to the hinged upwinds connections
- Compatibility of the seismic solution with profile supporting the panels: MF-FL12 plate connection between the vertical binary and the horizontally aluminium binaries
- Rigid system: fixing of the room perimetric walls is not necessary
Elements composing the system
- 600x600mm/600x1200mm semi-expanded/steel PVC or pre-painted aluminium/two sheets of laminated HPL or pre-painted steel + inside insulation, weight ≤35kg/m2 panels
- Double coplanar warping of aluminium profiles with box-like core (T-grid)
- Ceiling fixing with threaded bar
- Connection between the bar and the profiles through tailor-made steel plates
- Presence of accessories (tensioner, snood) to give flexibility to the system in the installation phase
- Hanger with mail disposition 1200x1200mm
- Max descent: about 3,00m
Anchorages certified for seismic performances in C2 category
A lot of international laws require the usage of C2 anchorages qualified for most of the applications. Nicomac Europe and Hilti Italy propose a wide array of solutions in this category.
Furthermore, Nicomac proposes solutions to anchor even on non-standard structures:
– Steel fixing (beams): clamps to avoid drilling; nails to avoid welding
– Steel fixing (corrugated sheet): hook for corrugated sheet – MF TSH
– Fixing on thin structures: concrete pre-cast slab, honeycomb ceilings and prefabricated slabs with HUS3 screw anchor
Nicomac Europe can supply walkable and not walkable anti-seismic false-ceilings certified with continuous panels in conformity with the current laws
