Design

Heard Group Expansion Joint Systems have stepped away from tradition and created a simplistic range of expansion joint covers that have larger movement ranges, negating the need for multiple cover plate sizes, thereby eradicating unnecessary waste and simplifying the specification process. For example our Light Duty Floor and Medium Duty Floor Expansion Joints cover 95% of all movement ranges commonly found in retail and multi-storey developments as they both have up to 60mm of movement.

Our expansion joint cover products include simple two piece floor systems, three piece mechanical floor systems, wall, floor to wall and multi-storey car park expansion joint systems, all with the ability to handle significant thermal and environmental movement as well as pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

The only expansion joint cover systems available in Australia with heavy duty 4mm thick 304 stainless steel centre bars, designed for longevity and heavy load bearing.

The centre bar is the component that holds the three extrusions together, the two base plates and the cover plate.

With solid nylon balls injection moulded to each end of the centre bar, the centre bar sits inside the joint diagonally across the joint opening, with each nylon ball sitting in the base tracks. As the concrete slabs move as a result of thermal or environmental stress, the centre bar, via the nylon balls, slide up and down the base’s tracks inside the joint. This allows the joint to expand and contract dependent upon whether the concrete slabs are moving inwards or outwards.

Our heavy duty, stainless steel centre bars ensure our expansion joint covers last the test of time by avoiding corrosion, the ultimate cause of expansion joint cover systems failing.

A key design factor of our expansion joint base system is that the tracks that retain the centre bars have grooved channels for the purpose of removing sand, debris and small amounts of concrete slurry during installation and the life of the system, which would otherwise foul the centre bar nylon balls from actuating in its tracks.

Another key design feature of our expansion joint covers are the extruded grooves on the bottom of the base plates. These grooves allow the expansion joint bases to key into cementitious or epoxy grout bedding, locking the system into the structural slab.

A further key design feature of our expansion joint covers, not offered by other manufacturers, is that our expansion joint covers all have continuous anchor leg systems. That is, the component of the base that allows the joint to be fixed to the structural slab has a continuous anchor leg preventing bedding grouts or epoxy from entering the void of the expansion joint gap. This ensures the expansion joint cover system is securely fixed to the substrate.

The cover plate, the most visual piece of the expansion joint cover is tightly held down on the bases via the centre bar. For installation both internally and externally, our expansion joint covers can be selected in 25UM aluminium clear anodised finish, 25UM coloured aluminium anodised finish, stainless steel or P5 grip rated stainless steel.

Innovative design allows our products to seamlessly connect to a majority of expansion joint cover products marketed in Australia for an easy retrofit installation.

Our expansion joint covers are designed to accommodate both water and fire seals. Both our water and fire seals are installed into the expansion joint gap prior to the expansion joint cover system being installed.

Our fire and water seals are custom manufactured to suit the movement range of the expansion joint gap in your project.