News
An important leap
Together, Junckers and BPI created a solid and unique foundation for the world’s best sports floors. The familiar, first-class solid wood flooring, in combination with a unique shock-absorbing underlay, has given athletes all over the world the ultimate freedom of movement, the optimal protection from injuries and the best chance to perform at their best.
To Junckers, it was an important leap when, in 2016, the company became an official technical supplier to FIBA Eurobasket 2017, delivering five high-performance sports floors to four different locations in Europe. It was an important leap, both for Junckers’ overall penetration and for the branding of specially engineered sports floors on the international sports scene – but also a major leap for BPI in the product development for an extremely demanding segment. There are very specific requirements for sports floors of a calibre which can meet regulatory requirements as well as top athletes’ sustained physical loads.
From railways and buildings to sports
The entire philosophy and the conceptual thinking about the special anti-vibration and shock-absorbing functionality originally stems from BPI’s own experiences and successes in product development for other of the company’s business segments – including the railway industry and the construction industry.
The development in shock and vibration damping materials took off around the turn of the millennium, when BPI received an enquiry from one of the world’s largest suppliers of solutions for the railway industry – edilon)(sedra. The customer needed a product solution for vibration damping and protection of buildings, roads, people and the environment.
There were many factors and conditions which needed to be taken into account – including temperature, humidity and durability. But the product’s elasticity, rebound and dimensional stability after a continued load were particularly crucial factors for selection. In collaboration with one of the world’s largest chemical manufacturers, Huntsman, BPI developed a brand new product that later became known as BPI’s independent product brand – VibraFlex®.
The collaboration between Junckers and BPI goes back to 2004, and product solutions today include three patented varieties of sports floors, each with their own special properties:
DUOBAT 120+ og UNOBAT 62+
A Junckers-patented batten system for permanently installed floor solutions for even and uneven sub-floors at two different heights.
The small, flexible and specially manufactured VibraFlex® units are customised with extremely fine height/width tolerances down to a hundredth of a millimetre, clicked into Junckers patented J-lock plastic elements and then fitted to the batten system as a spring element.
UNOBAT 45
Another of Junckers’ good takes on the ideal solution for permanently installed floors – this time for installation on level substrate. This is a raw material specifically customised for the customer and product, which BPI uses exclusively in manufacturing for Junckers. The battens under the floor are pre-fitted with elastic VibraFlex®lists and are delivered to Junckers in big jumbo rolls for retrofitting, which has given rise to considerable optimisation in production – both at Junckers’ and BPI’s premises.
Proven concept
The automation of Junckers’ production has entailed extremely high demands for tolerances and uniformity, which is why BPI’s own test laboratory continuously ensures that all batches are checked and registered with full traceability. Process-wise, a very effective and future-proof setup has been established between the two companies, while the total product solution has also been designed to last for many years. It is not uncommon to see 10- or 15-year-old floors that still work, and VibraFlex® has also been designed to withstand repeated loads – even for several years – without losing elasticity, shape or dimension.
Read more about VibraFlex® at www.bpi.dk/vores-losninger/industri-anlaeg/ and Junckers’ sports floors on www.junckers.com/dk/sportsgulve/
