Trailer floors take a beating. Could bamboo really do the same job as traditional hardwood?
Sustainability matters, but a commercial trailer floor still needs to cope with heavy loads, repeated loading and unloading and years of use.
Choosing a material simply because it is more sustainable isn’t enough. It has to perform.
That’s why we’ve put bamboo flooring to the test.
Why bamboo trailer flooring?
Traditional hardwood such as Keruing has been used in commercial trailer flooring for years. It’s familiar, proven and trusted across the transport industry.
Bamboo offers an alternative. It is fast-growing, weather resistant and offers a strong strength-to-weight ratio.
The important question for us was how it would perform against an established hardwood.
Putting bamboo against Keruing
Our bamboo flooring was tested alongside traditional Keruing hardwood using a test procedure based on CEN 283 / ISO 1496.
Both materials were tested at a thickness of 28 mm under the same conditions.
With a 450 mm traverse, the bamboo samples achieved point-loading results of 5.5 tonnes and 5.3 tonnes, compared with 5.2 tonnes for both Keruing samples.
Testing with a 350 mm traverse produced a bamboo result of 7.4 tonnes, compared with 6.8 tonnes for Keruing. A further bamboo sample achieved 7.5 tonnes.
Across the tests carried out, bamboo matched or exceeded the Keruing comparison results.
For us, that’s the important part. Bamboo offers sustainability benefits, but it also demonstrated the performance needed to make it a serious option for commercial trailer flooring.
What does this mean for fleet operators?
Fleet operators need flooring that can cope with the demands of everyday transport.
The type of freight, loading method and trailer specification will always influence the right flooring choice, but the testing gives operators another proven option to consider.
Our bamboo flooring is available as single floor parts, panel boards with or without anti-slip coating, and custom-made formats.
We’re that confident in its performance that we can offer a five-year warranty.
Could bamboo replace traditional hardwood?
Keruing remains an established choice for commercial trailer flooring, but bamboo gives operators an alternative.
It is fast-growing, offers sustainability benefits and, most importantly, performed strongly when tested against Keruing.
For operators looking at the next generation of commercial trailer flooring, bamboo is worth considering.
For more information about our bamboo flooring and trailer specifications:
01302 732500
sales@montracon.com
montracon.com
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