The Concrete Producer articles from April 2003

The Concrete Producer archives from April 2003

A dash of salt for good luck.(concrete mixing)(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... Sometimes it's hard to see the forest because of the trees. For example, I've been recently thinking about how much windshield cleaner I used last winter. Now that I think about it, I was adding a gallon of that blue stuff every time I fueled....

Precast concrete provides: safety option.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... When Southern Nuclear, Atlanta, needed a concrete building that met Category I structural requirements, they turned to BE & K Engineering, Birmingham, Ala. The building, now complete, is a radioactive waste processing facility that offers...

Book provides tips for structural safety.(News)
April 1, 2003... "The Pentagon Building Performance Report," published by the American Society of Civil Engineers, has been put together by the building performance study team that investigated the structural performance of the Pentagon during and immediately...

Slag cement use increasing.(News)
April 1, 2003... The Slag Cement Association (SCA), Sugar Land, Texas, reports that slag cement use increased by 22.4% from 2001 to 2002--from 2.37 to 2.90 million metric tons. The usage figures represent slag cement shipped as a separate product and as a...

Use your head: Gold Helmet Award nominations now open.(Call for Entries)
April 1, 2003... The Mine Safety Appliances Co. (MSA), Pittsburgh, is working to promote safety on the jobsite by awarding a employee who has been "saved" by his or her hardhat. Nominate an employee or customer for the MSA's Gold Helmet Award, which recognizes...

Searching for excellence in precast design.(Call for Entries)
April 1, 2003... The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago, calls for entries for its Precast Design Awards: The Search for Excellence. Structures completed within the past three years that were substantially constructed with plant-manufactured...

WOC update.(News)
April 1, 2003... The 2003 World of Concrete boasted record attendance. Registrants to the Las Vegas show numbered 71,100, the second highest number in the show's history. To register for next year's event in Orlando. Fla., visit www.worldofconcrete.com.

Upcoming conferences & events.(Calendar)
April 1, 2003... Post-Tensioning Symposium The Second Annual Post-Tensioning Institute Technical Conference and Exhibition will be held May 18-20 in Huntington Beach, Calif. This technical symposium focuses exclusively on the rapidly growing technology of...

Fleet management 101: by taking courses online a fleet manager can gain knowledge--quickly and inexpensively.(E-Concrete)(Transportation Management Training Series)
April 1, 2003... Managing a fleet of trucks can be tough for any producer. You have to worry about your drivers, mechanics, new safety regulations, cost issues, and a whole host of other things. And how do you keep your employees trained and up-to-date with the...

Concrete chemistry with slag: environmentally friendly slag from across the pond.(What's New; Compagnie du Sol's Daniel Gouvenot and Hubert Vattement get US patent)
April 1, 2003... In recent years there has been substantial research performed on the use of new materials for aggregate in the production of concrete. Many of these materials are actually the byproducts of other manufacturing operations involving large...

Revised air test.(Troubleshooting)
April 1, 2003... Q. In the past several months, we've been having trouble gaining inspector approval of our concrete when they used the revised air test (ASTM C 173-01). Most testing problems seemed limited to projects where we batched concrete with lightweight...

Ternary mixes.(Troubleshooting)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Q. I've heard ready-mix people talking about ternary mixtures. What's a ternary mixture, and is it something I might find in a specification? A. You could very easily find it in a specification--in fact you've probably already used one,...

Discolored driveways.(Troubleshooting)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Q. A customer has asked us to examine a concrete driveway that we poured about two years ago. It's now showing some odd discoloration. When dry, the concrete is uniformly the same color. But after a rain, or when water is run over it with...

Taking concrete to the next level.(As the Drum Turns)
April 1, 2003... Day in and day out we drive around our respective cities carrying on our everyday routines. We drive across bridges, pass tall buildings, and read in the newspaper about the latest tests that are being conducted on rocket engines so our...

The future of concrete: high-tech instrumentation and a keen sense of a producer's marketing opportunities propel Surendra Shah into the next level of R&D.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2003... Bendable concrete. Fiber-reinforced materials. "Smart" concrete. Sound like construction products that some science fiction hero might use? Hardly. These are just few projects currently being studied by research teams under the direction of...

Gray water recycling: tips on how concrete producers should evaluate recycling equipment and process.(third part)
April 1, 2003... Third of three parts. Once a concrete producer has decided to install a concrete recycling system, he has some important choices to make about how to handle the gray water discharged from his reclaimer. Should the gray water--the water and...

Proprietary mix designs: unique designs are a vision of things to come.
April 1, 2003... A growing trend among ready-mix producers is the non-submission of mix I design proportions with mix design requests. The specifier and engineer reject the mix because of missing material proportions, while the producer claims proprietary...

Turning up the heat: two basic types of water-heating systems fit any operational requirements.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... I guess the fact that the phrase "staying in hot water" means something good in the concrete production industry. It's an example of jargon that is unique to our world. No doubt this saying gives the concrete producer some peace of mind on the...

Energy-efficient instantaneous heating.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This manufacturer offers a highly efficient on-demand direct-contact system that uses a patented combustion chamber featuring a vertical column filled with stainless steel packing rings. Incoming water flows downward through the column and...

Waste oil boilers.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... Reznor waste oil boilers feature flow control pumps said to automatically deliver the correct amount of oil to the boilers and ensure complete combustion without adjustments for viscosities ranging from No. 2 fuel oil through 50 weight waste...

High-capacity instantaneous system.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... With a daily capacity of up to 120,000 gallons, this heating system's burner firing rate matches the makeup water flow rate to guarantee a constant water temperature. It features completely automatic operation with temperature control and...

Continuous heat supply.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This company's water heaters provide an instant and continuous supply of hot water through the use of a heating coil that is heated by an oil or gas burner. The units are said to produce up to a 100[degrees]F spike within 1 minute. The D Series...

Electronic temperature-control system.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... The Electronic Dial-A-Matic Temperature Control System is an upgrade over this manufacturer's reliable pneumatic model. Its averaging probes are installed in the producer's overhead bins and provide a true average aggregate temperature and a...

Inexpensive heat source.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This company's electric-powered heat pumps can heat and cool concrete with the same machine and reportedly offer the lowest-cost method of water heating: one-third the cost of heating with a fossil fuel-fired boiler. In addition, these units...

Direct-fired gas units.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This manufacturer's line of gas-fired heaters offer top-mounted gas burners that fire downward through a centrally located flame tube and heat falling water that has contacted metal packing rings. The units reportedly are capable of heating...

Coil system with steam capability.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... The Tankful Winter Concrete Water Heating System offers the flexibility for both instantaneous and stored water heating-and steam production for aggregate beating with the addition of a vented tank. Seventeen different models recover 389-4920...

One-step heating.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This manufacturer's direct-contact water heaters reduce the heating process to one step compared with a conventional boiler's two. Unlike a typical 100-psi boiler system that provides 338[degrees]F steam to a shell and tube heat exchanger to...

Extended heater life and guaranteed efficiency.(Product Pulse)
April 1, 2003... This company guarantees 99.7% efficiency and exhaust within 10[degrees]F of incoming water on its RM-99 direct-contact water heater. Available in capacities of 10-100 gpm or more, the RM-99 uses stainless steel construction to ensure extended...

Release agents simplify form work.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Form-release agents or form oils represent only a small fraction of the cost of a manufactured concrete item, but they have a big influence on the quality and appearance of the concrete surface. Today, precasters can choose from among...

Works in difficult mixes.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Fully biodegradable and nonhazardous, the solvent-based Releaser 2.0 and 2.1 release agents are designed for difficult mixes that have a high slump and/or high concentrations of cement, superplasticizer, or pigment. These release agents have a...

Water-based agent meets VOC requirements.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Crete-Lease 20-VOC is a water-based environmentally friendly release agent that can be sprayed onto any kind of form or formliner to create smooth, attractive concrete. It reportedly will not leave bugholes--even if over-applied. This form...

Quick, clean release and removal.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Sealtight Duogard Multi-Reactive Form Release contains a chemically inert ingredient that prevents concrete build-up and provides clean and quick form release and removal. The release agent also reduces the potential creation of bugholes, cuts...

Non-stick surface aids work.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Kleen Kote leaves a very thin film when applied, leaving forms, equipment, hand tools, and tracks with a non-stick surface that resists concrete, asphalt, dirt, and other debris. The water-based release agent is safe for use on all surfaces,...

Multi-use release agent.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Formulated with organic chemicals, this product provides quick and easy release for all types of forms and liners and will not impair the bonding of paint or other surface coatings. Contractors can use the release agent on forms and liners made...

Prevent adhesion, reduce bugholes.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Prevent concrete from bonding to plywood, steel, aluminum, and plastic formwork with Atlas Release. The organic compounds contained in Atlas Release react with concrete to prevent adhesion, provide easy removal of forms, and produce bright,...

Vegetable oil form release agent.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Farm Fresh is a 100% natural organic chemical release agent, ideal for sensitive enviromnental situations such as bridge formwork over rivers and streams or potable water reservoirs. According to the manufacturer, Farm Fresh not only leaves an...

Rust protection.(Products for the Producer)
April 1, 2003... Grifcote RI protects steel forms from rust a minimum of 90 days when they're stored outside and covered and 12 months when stored inside. Equally beneficial, the inhibitor does not need to be removed before bringing the forms back into...

Flowing with knowledge: symposium notes on self-consolidating concrete provide an instant status report on the industry's hottest topic.(Bookshelf)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Last November in Chicago, concrete professionals gathered to learn about the concrete industry's most exciting topic, self-consolidating concrete (SCC). The First North American Conference on the Design and Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete...

Computerizing ready-mix production: a complete software management system for volumetric mixers can increase productivity.(Fleet Factors)
April 1, 2003... BOBware, developed by AMS Software of Wilsonville, Ore., is designed specifically for the mobile mix concrete market. The continuous mix onsite trucks now can have the same type of computerized advantage that hatched ready-mixed concrete has...