What is FRP Grating?

What is FRP Grating ?

This Slide show does a great job explaining what FRP Grating is, and what FRP Grating can do. Plenty of photos of FRP Grating installations. 

FRP Grating is a strong, lightweight fiberglass building material used in all kinds of construction from bridges, to huge storage tanks, to children’s play structures.

FRP stands for Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic. One of the biggest advantages FRP Grating has over steel is that FRP simply WILL NOT RUST. That’s why you see a lot of FRP used around saltwater for docks, walkways, and hand rails. FRP Grating looks a lot like steel, so you may have seen FRP at a marina and not even know it.

Chlorine doesn’t hurt FRP either, so we use it in swimming pools and waterparks in to build stairs, railing, and drainage areas.

FRP Grating is no stranger to industrial facilities like potash mines, chemical plants and waste-water treatment plants.

We use it build platforms, walkways, stairs and ladders in corrosive environments where steel would rust away in no time.

Pound for Pound FRP is stronger than steel. It won’t corrode, rot, or conduct electricity. It can be formed into countless shapes and profiles from Beams to Angle to Fiberglass Grating.

Call National Grating at 1-877-984-7788 for your next FRP Grating Project.

 

FRP Grating Load Tables

How much Weight with FRP Grating Support?

Our FRP Load tables show you how much deflection you can expect for various spans. The load tables show the deflection for both concentrated and uniform loads. The greater the distance between supports (span), the more deflection your will have for any given weight.

Molded Grating Load Table: 1" Deep

Molded Grating 1" Load Table (Click to Enlarge)

Molded Grating Load Table: 1.5" Deep

Molded 1.5" Grating Load Table (Click to Enlarge)

Molded FRP grating is used in all kinds of applications where a strong, lightweight deck or walkway is require that will not rust. You typically see molded grating in corrosive environments such as chemical plants, pulp mills, and waste-water treatment plants.

As you can see from the load tables, molded grating can easily support a person walking - even a big guy, as long as you have the required span between your supports.

If your supports are 18" on center, 1" molded grating will have a deflection of 0.123" for a 300 lb uniform load and 0.131" for a 300 lb concentrated load. Most of our customers can live with this amount of deflection.

When your span gets up to 30", you may wish to consider going to the stronger 1.5" deep grating. 1.5" molded grating will have a deflection of 0.283" for a 300 lb uniform load and 0.181" for a 300 lb concentrated load.

For load tables on 2" molded grating and Pultruded FRP grating, call Fiberman at 1-877-984-7788 and we will be happy to send you the load tables.

How Heavy is FRP?

FRP is light. Very light.

Most FRP structural shapes like beams and angle only weigh 25% of the weight of steel and 70% of the weight of aluminum. Steel and wood are far heavier than FRP.

This makes FRP an excellent choice when weight is an important factor when designing a structure.

You'll often see FRP used in children's play structures and for pedestrian bridges in cases where an all-steel design would be too heavy.

FRP has the added benefit of being non-corrosive, which makes FRP preferable over a wood design in wet environments, like over a stream.

How Light is FRP?

Here's a fun video we made of our young fabricator, Russ Jarvis, curling a 20 foot 6" by 1/4" FRP
wide flange beam.

 

If this beam were made of steel, it would weigh over 500 pounds. (Even Russ might have a little trouble with that!)

This beam is made of  FRP so it 'only' weighs 150 lbs. No problem for FIBERMAN! 

 Call Fiberman at 1-877-984-7788 for a quote on your next FRP project.

Molded FRP Grating Versus Pultruded Grating

We are often asked to explain the difference between Molded fiberglass grating and Pultruded fiberglass grating.

MOLDED FRP GRATING

• Molded Grating has a square or mesh pattern similar to a checker board. The squares are typically 1.5” on center. It is also available with a 1” x 4” rectangular mesh Pattern.
• Molded Grating is equally strong in both directions so the panels can be rotated 90 degrees and have the same support characteristics. 
• Molded Grating is available in 1”, 1.5” and 2” thick panels. 
• Molded Grating comes in 3’ x 10’, 4’ x 8’ and 4’ x 12’ panels.

For Pricing and availability click on: Molded FRP Grating.

PULTRUDED FRP GRATING

• Pultruded Grating consists of a series of parallel bars. The bearing bars typically have a ‘T’ or ‘I’ profile as in T-Bar or I-Bar. 
• The bearing pars are kept parallel with a series of cross-rods 6” apart that run at 90 degrees though the bearing bars. Cross-rods are not intended to be applied in the span direction.
• Pultruded grating can only support weight in the direction of the bearing bars. The bearing bars must traverse from support to support. 

For Pricing and Availabilty visit: Pultruded FRP Grating.

FRP Pedestrian Overpass

9th Street FRP Pedestrian Bridge

New York City

Just blocks from Ground Zero, thousands of New York pedestrians walk over a stretch of Bedford fiberglass-reinforced deckboard on their daily commute. It all started with one contractor's search for a long-lasting alternative material.

Challenge Architects and municipal leaders charged Tully Construction with finding a decking material that would last - one that wouldn't rot or corrode. They also didn't want it to shrink or swell, causing nails and screws to pop up and pose a tripping hazard. And the surface needed to provide good traction for safety. Tully discovered FRP and Bedford responded promptly with samples and quotes. That response ultimately won Bedford the job.

Bedford supplied fiberglass-reinforced deckboard that snaps together without a lot of additional time-consuming fabrication. Tully had never worked with FRP before, so they were surprised at how easy it was to work with and install. The contractor was so impressed with the material, they say they'll use it again.