May. 13, 2024
RotoTank™ Floats are made from LLDPE Plastics which are non-harmful for the Environment and Extremely durable. A great deal of research and testing went into our unique design to Manufacture the Various sizes available.
Are you interested in learning more about pipe floats for sale? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Manufactured to meet and surpass International Standards, RotoTank™ are the best Pipe Floats on the South African market
What are they used for? The simple answer – They are wildly used for supporting HPDE Pipe or suction / discharge hoses in place, on a body of water such as a lake, dam, or the Ocean.
They are designed to withstand and absorb the impact of energy from a moving vessel or object and protect the pipeline from sinking or possible damage.
The design has been tried and tested to withstand the ebbs and flows of strong wave patterns as well as strong winds and currents.
Bright colours are recommended for visibility and to act as a warning to oncoming boats or vessels in the area.
Highly recommended for the Mining industry as well as water treatment Facilities and Agriculture.
You may ask yourself why round like a football and not elongated as other pipe float manufactures, well the simple answer is that a round ball is the most solid and hard wearing shape, not only pipe floats but many other products around the world use this round circular shape. So, to ensure we created a strong and long-lasting product for our clients, we set our designers to work, they create and tested various options until they came to the most durable design. RotoTank™ Floats will outlast and out preform any other pipe float on the market.
When putting RotoTank™ Pipe floats under pressure due to their unique design they will pop upwards with no weak spots, compared to elongated floats that lead to sagging in the mid-section.
Calculating the amount of flotation can sometimes be difficult, but here are a few simple ways to calculate how much flotation you need for most non-covered residential wooden docks:
(If you have a more complicated dock situation with unusual loads, please scroll down)
Take the square footage of your dock and multiply it by the multiplier number in the table below to find out how much total buoyancy you need for your dock. The total buoyancy for each of our dock floats is listed on our dock floats page. Divide the total required buoyancy by the buoyancy per float to determine the number of floats you will need.
5/4" x 6" Pressure Treated
282" x 8" Pressure Treated
2" x 6" Pressure Treated
312" x 8" Pressure Treated
5/4" x 6" Composite
312" x 8" Pressure Treated
2" x 6" Composite
35
EXAMPLE #1:
A 12' by 12' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" pressure treated decking would be calculated as follows:
12x12= 144 square feet x 28 = 4032 lbs of buoyancy required. You will typically want to have floats placed in all corners and no more than 8' apart. Whether you use several smaller floats or fewer larger floats is totally up to you as long as you achieve at least the total recommended buoyancy. With this in mind, take a look at our extensive selection of floats at Our Dock Flotation Page In this example, you can use 6 of the DF-364812 (36" x 48" x 12" floats) which yield a total buoyancy of 4146 lbs.
EXAMPLE #2:
A 12' by 12' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" composite decking would be calculated as follows:
12x12= 144 square feet x 31 = 4464 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 4 of the DF-486012 (48" x 60" x 12" floats with 1190 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 4760 lbs.
EXAMPLE #3:
A 8' by 16' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 2" x 6" pressure treated decking would be calculated as follows:
8x16= 128 square feet x 31 = 3968 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 6 of the DF-364812 (36" x 48" x 12" floats with 691 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 4146 lbs.
EXAMPLE #4:
A 10' by 20' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" composite decking would be calculated as follows:
10x20= 200 square feet x 31 = 6200 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 8 of the DF-364816 (36" x 48" x 16" floats with 905 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 7240 lbs. or you can use 6 of the DF-4512 (48" x 60" x 12" floats with 1190 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 7140 lbs.
For More Complicated Dock Systems with Unusual Loads:
1. Determining Your Live and Dead Loads
The company is the world’s best dredge floats supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
Your first step is to determine the live and dead loads of your floating structure.
The dead load is the weight of the framing, decking, connections, flotation units, and all permanently-attached equipment, such as pipes, pumps, utilities, benches, etc. As a general rule of thumb, the dead weight on most residential docks that are constructed using lumber is typically between 10 and 15 lbs/ft² of structure.
The live load is essentially the weight of the people and gear that will be placed on the floating structure. It is recommended that the structure be designed for approximately 40% submergence, so that the remaining 60% can be used to support the live load.
2. Determining the Quantity & Size of Floats Needed
Your next step is to calculate how many floats you will need to float the live and dead loads you've just calculated. Start by consulting Table 1 below, which shows how much weight each size float will support at four different depths of submergence. Decide which float size you wish to use and how deeply you want to submerge it. Then select from Table 1 the accompanying buoyant force for that float at that submergence and divide your calculated dead load by that buoyant force. Under normal everyday conditions, the floats should never be submerged more than 50%.
For example, assume a small 10'x12' swim dock with a calculated dead load of 1440 pounds. Table 1 shows that a 24" x 48" x 16" float will support 239.2 pounds when 40% of it is submerged. So, six of these floats will support the raft (1440/239.2 equals 6), which will leave 60% of each float above the waterline (a freeboard of 9.6 inches). The available live load which can now be supported on this swim raft is 2184 pounds. Here's the supporting calculation. Table 1 shows that it takes 3588 pounds to submerge these six floats to 100% (6 x 598 equals 3588). So then 3588 pounds of buoyant force minus the 1440 pound dead load of the dock leaves 2148 pounds of available live load. It's important to remember that the live load will NEVER be distributed equally, so always add extra flotation if you feel you may come anywhere close to maximizing out the available live load.
3. Determining Bearing Area Needed
Your final step is to determine how many square inches of the structure's cross-members you should place in contact with the floats to transfer the structure's weight to the floats. To determine the size of this float contact area in square inches, multiply the dead load of the structure by the appropriate Design Factor in Table 2 (based on the expected wave action). Since this is the contact area for the entire structure, and since you want to determine the contact area for each cross-member which will be bearing on the floats, divide your answer by twice the number of floats you'll be using (assuming a minimum of two cross-members per float).
For example, if the 10'x12' swim dock is located on an inland lake, multiply its dead weight (1440) by the Design Factor for inland lakes, found in Table 2 (0.32). Thus, 1440 x 0.32 equals 461 square inches of drum surface, which equates to 77 square inches of contact area for each of the six supporting floats (461/6 equals 77). Since each float must have contact with at least two cross-members of the structure, each cross-member should have at least 38.5 square inches in contact with the float (77/2 equals 38.5).
Table 1. Buoyant Force of One Standard Dock Float at Four Depths of Submergence
*** We highly recommend that our floats never be submerged more than 50% ****
1Freeboard is the vertical distance between the water level and the top of the float.
2The buoyant force is the load that can be carried by one billet at the stated percent submergence.
3Dock floats are not designed to be fully submerged. Values indicate displacement-related total buoyancies for reference only.
Table 2. Design Factors
Location of Floating Structure Design Factor Sheltered Waters
RotoTank™ Floats are made from LLDPE Plastics which are non-harmful for the Environment and Extremely durable. A great deal of research and testing went into our unique design to Manufacture the Various sizes available.
Manufactured to meet and surpass International Standards, RotoTank™ are the best Pipe Floats on the South African market
What are they used for? The simple answer – They are wildly used for supporting HPDE Pipe or suction / discharge hoses in place, on a body of water such as a lake, dam, or the Ocean.
They are designed to withstand and absorb the impact of energy from a moving vessel or object and protect the pipeline from sinking or possible damage.
The design has been tried and tested to withstand the ebbs and flows of strong wave patterns as well as strong winds and currents.
Bright colours are recommended for visibility and to act as a warning to oncoming boats or vessels in the area.
Highly recommended for the Mining industry as well as water treatment Facilities and Agriculture.
You may ask yourself why round like a football and not elongated as other pipe float manufactures, well the simple answer is that a round ball is the most solid and hard wearing shape, not only pipe floats but many other products around the world use this round circular shape. So, to ensure we created a strong and long-lasting product for our clients, we set our designers to work, they create and tested various options until they came to the most durable design. RotoTank™ Floats will outlast and out preform any other pipe float on the market.
When putting RotoTank™ Pipe floats under pressure due to their unique design they will pop upwards with no weak spots, compared to elongated floats that lead to sagging in the mid-section.
Calculating the amount of flotation can sometimes be difficult, but here are a few simple ways to calculate how much flotation you need for most non-covered residential wooden docks:
(If you have a more complicated dock situation with unusual loads, please scroll down)
Take the square footage of your dock and multiply it by the multiplier number in the table below to find out how much total buoyancy you need for your dock. The total buoyancy for each of our dock floats is listed on our dock floats page. Divide the total required buoyancy by the buoyancy per float to determine the number of floats you will need.
5/4" x 6" Pressure Treated
282" x 8" Pressure Treated
2" x 6" Pressure Treated
312" x 8" Pressure Treated
5/4" x 6" Composite
312" x 8" Pressure Treated
2" x 6" Composite
35
EXAMPLE #1:
A 12' by 12' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" pressure treated decking would be calculated as follows:
12x12= 144 square feet x 28 = 4032 lbs of buoyancy required. You will typically want to have floats placed in all corners and no more than 8' apart. Whether you use several smaller floats or fewer larger floats is totally up to you as long as you achieve at least the total recommended buoyancy. With this in mind, take a look at our extensive selection of floats at Our Dock Flotation Page In this example, you can use 6 of the DF-364812 (36" x 48" x 12" floats) which yield a total buoyancy of 4146 lbs.
EXAMPLE #2:
A 12' by 12' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" composite decking would be calculated as follows:
12x12= 144 square feet x 31 = 4464 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 4 of the DF-486012 (48" x 60" x 12" floats with 1190 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 4760 lbs.
EXAMPLE #3:
A 8' by 16' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 2" x 6" pressure treated decking would be calculated as follows:
8x16= 128 square feet x 31 = 3968 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 6 of the DF-364812 (36" x 48" x 12" floats with 691 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 4146 lbs.
EXAMPLE #4:
A 10' by 20' floating dock constructed with 2" x 8" framing and 5/4" x 6" composite decking would be calculated as follows:
10x20= 200 square feet x 31 = 6200 lbs of buoyancy required. In this example, you can use 8 of the DF-364816 (36" x 48" x 16" floats with 905 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 7240 lbs. or you can use 6 of the DF-4512 (48" x 60" x 12" floats with 1190 lbs of buoyancy each) which yield a total buoyancy of 7140 lbs.
For More Complicated Dock Systems with Unusual Loads:
1. Determining Your Live and Dead Loads
Your first step is to determine the live and dead loads of your floating structure.
The dead load is the weight of the framing, decking, connections, flotation units, and all permanently-attached equipment, such as pipes, pumps, utilities, benches, etc. As a general rule of thumb, the dead weight on most residential docks that are constructed using lumber is typically between 10 and 15 lbs/ft² of structure.
The live load is essentially the weight of the people and gear that will be placed on the floating structure. It is recommended that the structure be designed for approximately 40% submergence, so that the remaining 60% can be used to support the live load.
2. Determining the Quantity & Size of Floats Needed
Your next step is to calculate how many floats you will need to float the live and dead loads you've just calculated. Start by consulting Table 1 below, which shows how much weight each size float will support at four different depths of submergence. Decide which float size you wish to use and how deeply you want to submerge it. Then select from Table 1 the accompanying buoyant force for that float at that submergence and divide your calculated dead load by that buoyant force. Under normal everyday conditions, the floats should never be submerged more than 50%.
For example, assume a small 10'x12' swim dock with a calculated dead load of 1440 pounds. Table 1 shows that a 24" x 48" x 16" float will support 239.2 pounds when 40% of it is submerged. So, six of these floats will support the raft (1440/239.2 equals 6), which will leave 60% of each float above the waterline (a freeboard of 9.6 inches). The available live load which can now be supported on this swim raft is 2184 pounds. Here's the supporting calculation. Table 1 shows that it takes 3588 pounds to submerge these six floats to 100% (6 x 598 equals 3588). So then 3588 pounds of buoyant force minus the 1440 pound dead load of the dock leaves 2148 pounds of available live load. It's important to remember that the live load will NEVER be distributed equally, so always add extra flotation if you feel you may come anywhere close to maximizing out the available live load.
3. Determining Bearing Area Needed
Your final step is to determine how many square inches of the structure's cross-members you should place in contact with the floats to transfer the structure's weight to the floats. To determine the size of this float contact area in square inches, multiply the dead load of the structure by the appropriate Design Factor in Table 2 (based on the expected wave action). Since this is the contact area for the entire structure, and since you want to determine the contact area for each cross-member which will be bearing on the floats, divide your answer by twice the number of floats you'll be using (assuming a minimum of two cross-members per float).
For example, if the 10'x12' swim dock is located on an inland lake, multiply its dead weight (1440) by the Design Factor for inland lakes, found in Table 2 (0.32). Thus, 1440 x 0.32 equals 461 square inches of drum surface, which equates to 77 square inches of contact area for each of the six supporting floats (461/6 equals 77). Since each float must have contact with at least two cross-members of the structure, each cross-member should have at least 38.5 square inches in contact with the float (77/2 equals 38.5).
Table 1. Buoyant Force of One Standard Dock Float at Four Depths of Submergence
*** We highly recommend that our floats never be submerged more than 50% ****
1Freeboard is the vertical distance between the water level and the top of the float.
2The buoyant force is the load that can be carried by one billet at the stated percent submergence.
3Dock floats are not designed to be fully submerged. Values indicate displacement-related total buoyancies for reference only.
Table 2. Design Factors
Location of Floating Structure Design Factor Sheltered Waters
* Dock Builders Supply assumes no responsibility or liability for the completeness or accuracy of the above calculations and / or recommendations. This information is provided as a guideline only. For exact flotation requirements and dock designs, you should have a structural engineer design plans for your specific application. * Dock Builders Supply assumes no responsibility or liability for the completeness or accuracy of the above calculations and / or recommendations. This information is provided as a guideline only. For exact flotation requirements and dock designs, you should have a structural engineer design plans for your specific application.
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