MAPEI SpA

Founded in 1937 in Milan by Rodolfo Squinzi, MAPEI was born as Materiali Autarchici per l'Edilizia e l'Industria (Autarchic Materials for Building and Industry), shortly renamed Materiali Ausiliari per l'Edilizia e l'Industria (Auxiliary Materials for Building and Industry): initially dedicated to the production of paints, it later specialised in the production of adhesives and other products for laying floors and walls. 

Since the end of the 70s, the company began its international expansion, with the opening of the first overseas plants, following this phase with a decade of product innovations, with important generational handovers and a growing commitment to research and development. In these years the activity of supporting culture and sport also began: in 1993 the MAPEI professional cycling team was born and in 2006 MAPEI sponsored the Italian national football team.

Nowadays MAPEI is a multinational company that offers products, technologies and solutions of all kinds for the building industry. It is precisely the development of complete solutions, not simple products, that distinguishes MAPEI. The company's mission also includes sharing the wealth of experience gained in its eighty years of activity: MAPEI Academy is an accredited training institution, with offices in Italy and throughout the world.


#numbers  #mapeigroup
  • 3 billion euros in turnover exceeded in 2021;
  • +17,8% compared to 2020;
  • over 11.000 employees all over the world;
  • 32 research&development centres


CFS VIRTUAL DESIGNER APP
Antherica for MAPEI

For MAPEI Group we developed the first app for the structural calculation and design of industrial floors.

Gathering more than ten years of experience in the fiber-reinforced concrete and jointless floor sector, the CFS Virtual Designer App provides sector professionals with a tool for identifying the most suitable technical solution for the structural design of an industrial floor, on the basis of the intended use and the specific needs of the customer or the designer.


Industrial flooring: an evolving sector

Before going into details of how the app designed for MAPEI works, let us briefly reflect on the new centrality acquired by industrial flooring and on MAPEI's proposal in this sector.

In the last few years, both in Italy and globally, e-commerce has grown a lot, with an additional boost due to the pandemic: Covid 19 has helped to change the way we shop, increasing the quantity of goods that circulate around the world and that are delivered to recipients in the four corners of the globe.
Hence the growing demand for adequate logistics centres, able to support this flow of goods. These structures have to be equipped with industrial flooring suitable for supporting the capacity of the storage racks and of the forklifts used for handling the goods.

Industrial floors must meet both the structural requirements mentioned above and local and international regulatory standards, as well as increasingly stringent innovation and sustainability criteria.

Concrete Flooring Solutions, the proposal by MAPEI for the industrial flooring, is like a made-to-measure suit, a tailored product optimised on the basis of all the aforementioned structural, regulatory and environmental needs: according to this, the CFS Virtual App Designer emerges as the irreplaceable partner for any designer.

MAPEIFIBRE

Synthetic fibers play a central role in the design of modern industrial floors: in 2018 MAPEI acquired Fili&Forme, a company specialised in the extrusion of plastic materials and in the design of synthetic fibers for concrete. Since then, with growing investments, MAPEI has developed the potential for using fibers in construction, with diversified applications, including, precisely, industrial flooring, where traditional metal reinforcement has been partially (if not entirely) supplanted by fibers.

Synthetic fibers increase the functionality and flexibility of flooring, increasing its duration over time and reducing its impact in terms of CO2 emissions.
Clearly, for the chosen solutions to be efficient and sustainable, it is necessary that the designers, floor layers and all the operators involved, have the necessary know-how to adequately choose the materials and the right mix of fibers and concrete to be used to carry out the project.

And this is where CFS Virtual Designer App comes into play.

CFS Virtual Designer App - the first app for the structural calculation of industrial floors.

Project
www.cfsvirtualdesigner.com
admin dashboard, project creation, projects archive, news, download area

Activities
web-design
interfaces
development

Status
online




Designed for various types of users, from MAPEI technical staff, to designers, up to the end users of MAPEI products, the CFS Virtual Designer App was created to support different categories of professionals both in the design and in the choice of the most suitable products for industrial flooring.

The app offers technical solutions compliant with regulatory standards and local guidelines; it is a transversal and global tool that can be used in any market and location in the world. Through the app it is also possible to access MAPEI fibers community: a virtual community in which professionals can share their projects with colleagues from all over the world.

According to MAPEI's commitment to sustainability and to the undeferrable goal to reconciling the needs of quality construction with the minimisation of the environmental impact, CFS Virtual Designer App calculates the total CO2 emissions of each industrial flooring in its entire life cycle, allowing optimal choices in terms of dosage of the materials in order to protect our planet.

read the article on Realtà MAPEI n. 75






CFS Virtual Designer App: how does it work?


1.  Usable in cloud, CSF Virtual App Designer requires a login to access.

2.  After the login, the user will be able to:
    • create a new project;
    • access the archive of existing projects;
    • download technical and informative materials;
    • read the latest news from MAPEI flooring solutions;
    • contact MAPEI.

3.  Creation of a project:
    • enter the configuration parameters (intended use of the flooring, load, surface, etc.)
    • identification of the technical solution and of the MAPEI materials suggested for the project;
    • calculation of the correct fiber dosage for floor reinforcement;
    • calculation of the quantity of other MAPEI products required ;
    • LCA analysis (Life Cycle Assessment) and calculation of the total CO2 emissions;
    • creation of the downloadable report of the project.



Selected configuration

thickness
surface
concrete class
substrate







Technical solution
system
products
dosage












Ecological footprint
CO2 saved














Languages and units of measure

CFS Virtual Designer App is available in three languages: Italian, English and Spanish. As MAPEI is a global company, all calculations and outputs are available both in the metric and in the imperial systems.

Tecnology, devices and usability

The app was developed using our proprietary platform
Anthericasuite: the suite supports the architecture of all procedures, the workflow and all management roles (see above), ensuring perfect modularity for any future developments.
Thanks to our APIs, in addition, the app is able to interface with any existing application for data acquisition or sharing.
Developed with responsive technology, the app is optimised for all devices and operating systems.

Workflow

A sophisticated workflow system defines permissions for access and action: in addition to normal operations, for example, admin users can create new users and have detailed reports that allow them to monitor the use of the app at a global level.

Target and objectives: for a shared know-how

Published online last February, CFS Virtual Designer app was officially presented at World of Concrete in Las Vegas. Afterwards courses were held to promote its use: one at the MAPEI offices in Bogotà, Colombia, others in Malaysia. New events are planned globally in different venues in the coming months.

In the first phase, the new app will be used exclusively by MAPEI technical staff to promote the Concrete Flooring Solutions project, MAPEI's solution for industrial flooring (and more. Among the other uses: covering hydraulic channels, sidewalks and cycle paths, port docks, airport areas...).

In a second phase it will become available for other professionals in the sector, such as designers and installers.

According to the company's point of view, the tool will support the adequate design of each structure, optimising the cost-benefit ratio and checking their compliance with regulatory and environmental standards.
It will also allow the necessary know-how to be shared among colleagues all over the world, thanks to the virtual fibers community, where projects and technical documentation will be shared.

The scenario is therefore that of a global system that requires structures capable of combining efficiency, durability and environmental sustainability: a scenario in which the CFS Virtual Designer App created by Antherica, a reliable and user-friendly tool for analysis and design, plays an essential role.