Bisley expands product range.

(From Gulf Construction)

AS a long-term supplier of raw materials for the manufacture of high-performance concrete to many major projects in the Middle East, the Dubai office of the 50-year-old Australian firm Bisley & Company is busy expanding its product range and diversifying its customer base across the region

Historically, Bisley's involvement with the Middle East's construction sector has revolved around the supply of quality assured silica fume from Holcim, South Africa. "Holcim CSF-90 silica fume is a crucial tool in the manufacture of modern high-performance concrete (HPC)," explains a spokesman for the company. "HPC is defined as concrete that exceeds the performance bounds of normal concretes based on conventional raw materials. Silica fume - in suitably designed mixes - enhances concrete compressive strength, chloride and sulphate resistance, abrasion resistance, cohesiveness, pumpability, electrical resistivity and permeability." "Holcim CSF-90 is produced in strict accordance with ASTM standards and is quality assured in Holcim's ISO9001 compliant facility in South Africa," he adds

Holcim CSF-90 has been used in many prominent developments including the Salalah Port in Oman; Aramco's Ras Tanura refinery, and the Ghazlan power station, Hadeed (Saudi Iron and Steel Company) and the Wadi Leban cable stay bridge in Saudi Arabia; Qatargas (Qatar Liquefied Gas Company), Ras Laffan Port, Qafco (Qatar Fertiliser Company) and Doha Port in Qatar. "In Bahrain, Holcim CSF-90 was extensively used in the Manama-Muharraq Causeway (Shaikh Isa bin Sulman Causeway), one of the most highly-specified concrete projects ever undertaken in the region," the spokesman points out. "Holcim CSF-90 has achieved compressive strengths in excess of 120 MPa in production concrete in the region." A more recent addition to Bisley's HPC portfolio is ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). GGBS has achieved growing acceptance in the GCC, both as a durability enhancer and as a means of lowering concrete heat evolution in large pours, he says. It may be used either as a binary blend with Ordinary Portland cement, or in synergistic triple blends with silica fume. Bisley distributes and markets GGBS from Indorama Cement's ideally located facilities on the west coast of India. Indorama GGBS is a consistent, ground slag manufactured to comply with British Standards, the spokesman points out

In the field of calcium aluminate cement, Heidelberger is Bisley's supplier of choice. Heidelberger's calcium aluminate cements are produced in its ISO9001-certified facility in Europe and exported to more than 40 countries. In the construction sector, these cements have a diverse range of specialised applications including mortar linings for sewage pipes, tile adhesives and grouts, floor levelling compounds, sealants and repair mortars, he says

A further area of significant growth potential is the application of specialised synthetic fibre reinforcement. "In the Middle East, synthetic fibres are generally added as an efficient means of reducing shrinkage cracking of the ...