Attendees of this winter’s World of Concrete trade show are greeted with the message, “It’s not business as usual in the world of concrete and masonry. Changes in technology and infrastructure have opened up new pathways for opportunities.” It’s an apt description of the industry, and T&T has put together a round up of advancements and news from 2018.
Ownership Changes
Earlier this year Hagihara Industries of Japan acquired 100 per cent ownership of BarChip macro synthetic fibre (MSF) distributor Elasto Plastic Concrete (EPC). Hagihara Industries developed the original BarChip fibre in the mid ‘90s, launching in the Japanese construction market in 1996. Since 2000, Hagihara and EPC have been partners in the development and distribution of BarChip macro synthetic fibre concrete reinforcement.
At the time Hagihara Industries said it is excited about the acquisition of EPC. Yoshiaki Hagihara stated: “Hagihara Industries believe that we must always continue to evolve, to become a valuable company for the sake of society and mankind. Through the economic, engineering performance and environmental benefits delivered by BarChip reinforcement, we can increase our positive impact on society. BarChip has been built on the promise of high performance, manufacturing quality and above all customer service.”
Another milestone this year is its announcement that it is the first to build a tunnel in North America using precast segments reinforced with macro synthetic fibers. The first segmentally-lined tunnel project is underway in the North America for the Blacksnake Creek CSO project in St. Joseph, Missouri. According to the company the dose rate is 7 kg/m3 of Barchip BC54 fiber. The project is being constructed by Super Excavators and comprises an 90-inch diameter, 6,648ft (2km) long tunnel among other work.
Lining Systems
GCP Applied Technologies began introducing a new tunnel lining system, Tytro, in the second half of 2018 to the North American market.
The company says Tytro includes all the components required for the design and construction of full lining systems in tunnels constructed using conventional excavation methods: fiber-reinforced shotcrete linings and spray-applied waterproofing.
Diego Granell, global marketing director, tunneling and mining of GCP Applied Technologies says there’s increased interest in new technologies for ground support and waterproofing. “Of course, shotcrete and waterproofing systems are not new, but there have been some significant advances in the segment in recent years and this has led to improvements in the speed, efficiency and cost of placing a tunnel lining.”
He explains, GCP has observed that the use of shotcrete as a permanent lining in tunnels constructed using conventional methods is on the rise. “The versatility of shotcrete means it can play a varied role on site, while still offering better efficiency. In parallel, spray-applied waterproofing technologies have been developed and introduced to the market to overcome some of the installation and repair challenges of the traditional PVC-based waterproofing systems used in conventional tunnels.”
GCP says the new-to-North America lining system has been used in operations across Australia, Asia Pacific and the Americas, by tunnel contractors and mining companies—including urban transportation projects.
Sensing technology
In July AOMS Technologies announced the launch of Lumi Con, an in-situ distributed concrete monitoring platform using fiber optic sensing technology. This new system enables contractors and producers to remotely collect continuous, distributed, and real-time temperature and moisture data from many job sites simultaneously.
AOMS says this is beneficial to help with controlling the curing conditions of the concrete efficiently, managing the maximum internal and differential temperature in mass concrete placements, and measuring the maturity of concrete versus time.
“Lumi Com has been built on AOMS innovative fiber optic sensor technology, which is a proven technology for heavy-duty applications. We are pleased to offer IoT platforms to help industries collect mission-critical data to make informed decisions, streamline workflow and reduce operating and capital expenses,” said Amir Azhari, AOMS’ president and COO.
Compared to existing concrete sensing solutions, AOMS says Lumi Con consists of a simple, ruggedized and recoverable sensor cable which collects distributed temperature and moisture data along the length of the sensor cable to generate a 3D map of data from any concrete slab. It should reduce the labor cost for sensor installation and data collection and offers cloud-based data management and analytics powered by embedded LTE connectivity and a web-based dashboard.
The sensor cables can be retrieved and reused in multiple concrete projects. AOMS says the Lumi Con platform is also a powerful tool for evaluating new concrete mixtures.
