Tuesday 27 July 2010

Saint Gobain Technical Fabrics

New GlasGrid® TF developed to revolutionize the pavement overlay process

(Grand Island, NY) – Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics (SGTF) introduces a ground-breaking new addition to the GlasGrid® Pavement Reinforcement System, GlasGrid® Tack Film. The new GlasGrid® TF is an innovative product that contains a patent-pending, highly engineered film that is designed to eliminate the need for traditional tack coat altogether. The fiberglass grid in GlasGrid TF provides protection against reflective cracking while the tack film enhances performance of the overlay, resulting in extended life.

GlasGrid TF is the result of 5 years of extensive research and development at Saint-Gobain’s state-of-the-art R&D facility in Northboro, MA, USA. GlasGrid TF was developed by a team of scientists & civil engineers as an improvement upon the use of tack coat, which is a necessary part of the process when laying roadway applications, but presents a number of hindering issues. When using traditional tack coat, proper, even coverage is difficult to achieve, and curing time restricts paving construction. Also, tack can be tracked easily onto clean roads. GlasGrid TF provides the same benefits of tack coat, but without all of these inherent problems.

The 100% polymer Tack Film provides complete coverage for true quality control of the bonding interlayer. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that the bond improvement with GlasGrid’s TF is superior to traditional tack materials because the bond strength of GlasGrid TF is engaged as soon as the heat of the asphalt material has activated it. Because of this improved bond, GlasGrid TF provides a fatigue life ratio that is roughly 5 times greater than just asphalt overlay alone!
The Benefits of GlasGrid TF include:

• Improved crack-retardation performance for longer road life

• Increased bond for better performance of the GlasGrid interlayer

• No curing of traditional tack coat emulsions for faster paving construction

• Complete coverage of trackless polymer tack film for increased quality control

• Robust film can be driven on and inhibits movement of the grid during paving

GlasGrid TF also provides “greener” benefits. Because no tack coat is required, VOC’s and emissions are reduced during installation. GlasGrid TF is also recyclable and can broken up by standard milling equipment.




GlasGrid is already a long-established pavement reinforcement product in the industry. Known for its high quality, GlasGrid has been used in road and airport runways pavement construction to repair and reinforce the asphalt concrete overlays for over 22 years. GlasGrid has been proven to help reduce and prevent thermal and stress-related reflective cracking in thousands of successful installations worldwide.
GlasGrid TF and the rest of the GlasGrid line is manufactured in the United States at SGTF’s ISO 9001:2000 quality facility in Albion, NY.

Learn more about how GlasGrid TF and our other GlasGrid Pavement Reinforcement System products can increase the life of your paving projects. Visit www.glasgrid.com or email glasgrid@saint-gobain.com.