Prairie is the Midwest’s foremost provider of prescription-to-performance concrete. Experts in our state-of-the-art laboratory work to improve and perfect our standard mixes and to create custom formulations to meet the most exacting engineering and design standards.
Mike Pistilli, an ACI fellow and member of the ASTM Standards Committee, heads our research effort. Mike and his team test each ingredient used in our concrete products, performing analyses such as automatic titration, hydration-of-heat examination, calorimetric examination, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, and spectrophotometry.
Our lab facilities in Bridgeview, Illinois, house the only electron scanning microscope in the Midwest capable of performing crystalline structure analysis and X-ray diffraction chemical analysis. Using this and other advanced tools, our experts study the characteristics of hardened concrete, as well as admixtures, aggregates, and other cementitious materials. Our goal is to ensure that the right elements are present in the correct proportions and fully conform to the manufacturer’s specifications—tests that, in turn, guarantee the quality and precision of every batch we deliver.
Prairie’s R&D team leads the way in developing custom mixes to address specific design and engineering challenges.
We designed the 20 high-performance mixes used to construct Trump Tower Chicago, performing dozens of tests to arrive at the right formulations for supreme strength, fast setting, flowability, modulus of elasticity, and more.
We selected and tested special lightweight aggregates and formulated the pumpable lightweight mixes for 353 North Clark Street, Chicago, a 50-story tower featuring 1.25 million square feet of lightweight concrete slabs supported by composite metal decks.
Whatever the demands of your current project, our Technical Services Group is ready to work with you.
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