{"id":2768,"date":"2024-12-27T17:43:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-27T17:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prairieprod.vcnastaging.com\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2024-12-27T17:47:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T17:47:10","slug":"world-view-gleaning-the-best-solutions-from-world-of-concrete-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/world-view-gleaning-the-best-solutions-from-world-of-concrete-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"World View"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bGleaning the best solutions from World of Concrete 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seventeen team members from Votorantim Cimentos’ North American ready-mix businesses attended World of Concrete this February to learn more about the latest solutions for issues that come up time and time again in the field. We were also on the hunt for advances in equipment and operations processes that will translate into faster, better service for you.<\/p>\n

It was the largest show in seven years, drawing 60,000+ industry professionals and more than 1,500 exhibitors to 745,000 square feet of show space at the Westgate Last Vegas Resort and Casino.<\/p>\n

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Hands-on demonstrations and competitions filled 90% of the parking lots around the resort.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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With construction booming worldwide in the wake of the 2008 slowdown, show officials\u00a0report that attendance was up significantly over last year’s gathering.<\/div>\n
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Shrinkage and curling issues<\/strong><\/div>\n
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A perennial problem for slabs on grade is the control of shrinkage and curling,\u00a0especially in automated warehouse settings. Replacing expensive forklift tires and\u00a0repairing the joints themselves can cost owners millions.<\/div>\n
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Prairie Material Regional Sales Manager\u00a0Chris Rapp<\/strong>\u00a0and Sr. Account Manager\u00a0Joe Ungari<\/strong>\u00a0attended the three-hour seminar on shrinkage presented by\u00a0floor expert\u00a0Scott Tarr. “There were more than 400 people in the\u00a0room – owners, engineers, ready-mix producers, contractors, all looking for solutions,”\u00a0says Ungari.\u200b<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Takeaway: New approaches that reduce or virtually eliminate joints may cost\u00a0more, but they will save money in the long run.\u200b\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Many business owners favor these solutions because they’re less disruptive on the\u00a0operations side,” says Rapp. Tarr presented several options, including the use of\u00a0Type K cement with steel rebar or adding steel fibers and armored control joints.\u00a0\u00a0“At Prairie, we are seeing a number of unreinforced floors at an eight-inch depth\u00a0using Strux fibers and dowels at the construction joints,” Rapp notes.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mix design, with special focus on the types of aggregates used, was a hot topic. Some coarse aggregates are associated with increased shrinkage due to differences in elastic moduli. Others do not work effectively\u00a0with shrinkage-reducing admixtures (SRAs). The correct gradation of aggregates also\u00a0affects quality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Scott explained that concrete designed with low water-to-cement ratios and coarse\u00a0aggregate with the right size, gradation and content helps with shrinkage and curling,”\u00a0reports\u00a0Ken Kalafut<\/strong>, Quality Control Technician at Prairie Material. “Use of SRAs\u00a0is essential in our market, where we have access to quality aggregate.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Moisture in slabs on grade<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Moisture migration through slabs can cause costly floor coating failures and slow\u00a0down construction schedules.\u00a0Nat Morlando<\/strong>, Technical Solutions Manager with Canada\u00a0Building Materials (CBM) and\u00a0Ian Henry<\/strong>, CBM Technical Services Field Manager attended\u00a0a technical session with\u00a0industry expert Peter Craig<\/a>, who outlined newer technologies that reduce the\u00a0drying time before concrete can be covered with tile or carpeting.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Speed of construction is critical to recouping the owner’s investment,” Morlando\u00a0says, “so the pressure to finish jobs quickly is enormous.” The risks are huge,\u00a0too: every year, floor covering failures cost the industry hundreds of millions\u00a0of dollars.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Takeaway: Most current strategies come with a high price tag, but as with floor\u00a0joints, \u200bprevention is wiser than remediation. The emerging best practice is to place\u00a0concrete on a vapor retarder and use a rapid-drying mix.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“In Canada we’re exploring the offering from\u00a0Barrier One<\/a>, an admixture that holds great promise for reducing\u00a0the time to achieve appropriate RH levels from 90 days to 20 days at a more reasonable\u00a0first cost,” Henry notes. CBM is looking for the right project, the right customer\u00a0and the right contractor to do a controlled test of this approach, he adds.<\/div>\n
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Tools and approaches for greater efficiency<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Although WOC is mainly for concrete contractors, it’s a good place to find out what’s\u00a0new from additive vendors and equipment manufacturers, says\u00a0Bill Byrer<\/strong>, Procurement\u00a0Manager for Prestige Concrete Products in Florida. The ideas shared often turn into\u00a0productivity gains that enable us to serve contractors better in all markets.\u00a0“We met with Euclid Chemical and Sika, our main supplier,” Byrer says. “We also\u00a0checked out conveyor trucks and pumps from Putzmeister, compressor trucks from Ingersoll\u00a0Rand and plants from Hagan.”\u00a0All of Votorantim Cimentos North American businesses are refreshing their truck\u00a0fleets, standardizing on Mack chassis (watch video<\/a>)\u00a0and Contech mixer drums for ready-mix operations,\u00a0says\u00a0Matt Clarage<\/strong>, Maintenance Director at Prairie Material.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We were glad to see the setups live at the show. The chassis are giving the cabins\u00a0a more car-like experience. Additionally, the newer automatic transmissions are\u00a0adding a lower gear ratio that will make slow-moving operations smoother and safer,”\u00a0Clarage adds.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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While at WOC Clarage also checked out innovations for monitoring moisture in aggregates\u00a0and new reclaimer systems that will allow a greater percentage of returned concrete\u00a0to be safely recycled rather than hauled away.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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To help dispatch run more smoothly across the Sunshine State, Prestige is adding\u00a0Trackit software from Command Alkon to all trucks, a technology that drew strong\u00a0interest at WOC, Byrer says.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The tablet-based system provides GPS, real-time truck tracking and electronic ticketing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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It also interfaces with the trucks’ ECMs, allowing diagnostic analysis such as engine\u00a0temperature, speed, braking, oil and lubricants to feed directly into the dispatch\u00a0system for preventive monitoring.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Customers will also like the convenience of Trackit, Byer says: “The electronic\u00a0ticket can be generated at the job site, the customer can sign it and get a confirming\u00a0email immediately, which keeps customers up-to-date on costs and usage.”\u00a0Interest in colored concrete drew Nat Morlando to exhibits on granularized color\u00a0pigment systems, especially the\u00a0InCrete system<\/a>\u00a0from Euclid Chemicals. InCrete provides a dry product\u00a0that provides more consistent color with less effect on slump and other concrete\u00a0\u00a0characteristics, along with less spoilage and less dust than bag or liquid color\u00a0systems, Morlando reports.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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More game-changers on the horizon<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With its recent success in capturing interest among builders of mid-rise structures,\u00a0the timber industry poses a significant challenge to concrete providers. Local building\u00a0codes are being adopted that allow timber structures up to nine stories in Canada\u00a0and 12 stories in Portland, Oregon.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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During the conference, Concrete Construction magazine did a\u00a0video interview<\/a>\u00a0with Christi Collins from the American Concrete\u00a0Pumping Association, discussing the threat and steps being taken by industry associations\u00a0to combat this competition.<\/p>\n

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Concrete Construction Correspondent\u00a0Joe Nasvik<\/a>\u00a0reported on the rise of basalt-reinforced fiber polymer rebar (BFRP), which will not corrode in service. Seven times lighter than\u00a0steel while just as strong, BFRP is marketed under the brand name GatorBar.<\/p>\n

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Neuvokas<\/a>, the Northern Michigan\u00a0startup that created GatorBar, boasts a novel manufacturing process that makes the\u00a0new product competitive with uncoated steel. GatorBar will undergo extensive testing\u00a0this year before rolling out to specifiers.\u00a0Check out the\u00a0GatorBar video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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MARK YOUR CALENDAR<\/strong><\/div>\n
American Concrete Institute\u00a0Spring National Conference<\/a><\/div>\n
April 17-21, 2016 – Milwaukee<\/div>\n
World of Concrete 2017<\/a><\/div>\n
January 17, 2017 – Las Vegas<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bGleaning the best solutions from World of Concrete 2016 Seventeen team members from Votorantim Cimentos’ North American ready-mix businesses attended World of Concrete this February to learn more about the latest solutions for issues that come up time and time again in the field. We were also on the hunt for advances in equipment and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}