The market innovative LowRider Frameless Mixer from Cesco mounted on the sturdy platform of the Mack Metroliner.
The LowRider gives the astute Agi operator unique safety & operating advances as well as a ROI that no other mixer can provide!
Here’s what Dean Kumnick, Sales Manager of South Qld. Trucks had to say about the Mack Metroliner and the LowRider combinationin a recent post ….
Economix has been supplying concrete to commercial, industrial and residential customers in Victoria for over 30 years. Concrete is not the only game in town for this diverse company – also featuring building supplies, precast and decorative concrete.
To increase their capability for project, bigger pours, Economix came to Cesco to add the Big Daddy Trailer Mixer to their fleet operations.
Economix Semi Agitator from Fatih Arik on Vimeo.
Check out our Deep Foundation Equipment, Agi Mixers & Spares range & have a go in our fun competition on our stand with Clay, Kenny & Rick
Form of carbon incorporated into concrete created stronger, more water-resistant composite material that could reduce emissions.
The novel “supermaterial” graphene could hold the key to making one of the oldest building materials greener, new scientific research suggests.
Graphene has been incorporated into traditional concrete production by scientists at the University of Exeter, developing a composite material which is more than twice as strong and four times more water-resistant than existing concretes.
Unlike previous attempts to use nanotechnology in concrete, which have focused on modifying the existing components of cement, the new technique allows a layer of graphene to be suspended in water.
The method produces a high yield of concrete without defects, which can be used in conjunction with modern manufacturing techniques and could be scaled up, the researchers believe, at a relatively low cost.
The composite could be used directly on building sites, enabling the construction of strong and durable buildings using less concrete and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Using graphene meant the researchers were able to roughly halve the amount of materials used to make concrete.
Its water resistance makes it suitable for construction in areas that are hard to reach for maintenance, while the strength of the composite will make buildings more resilient to future shocks and strains, researchers say. In addition, the technique could be copied in incorporating other nanomaterials into concrete construction in the future, which could pave the way to further innovations in the industry.
Monica Craciun, professor of nanoscience at the University of Exeter’s engineering department, said: “Our cities face a growing pressure from global challenges on pollution, sustainable urbanisation and resilience to catastrophic natural events. This new composite material is an absolute game-changer in terms of reinforcing traditional concrete to meet these needs.”
Graphene is a form of carbon first reliably produced at the University of Manchester by researchers in 2004, work which led to two Nobel prizes. It is made up of a single layer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice. Its structure gives it important physical qualities, including efficient conductance of heat and electricity and unusual strength.
Concrete has been used as a building material since the Romans, some of whose concrete structures still stand today. It is the commonest building material, along with steel, but greenhouse gas emissions from concrete and cement-making remain stubbornly high, in part because of the energy used in their creation but also because the chemical processes required involve the break-up of limestone and release of carbon dioxide.
Cement-making accounts for 6% of global carbon emissions, and manufacturers must make sharp reductions if the Paris climate goals are to be met, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project, in a recent study.
The University of Exeter research, in a paper entitled Ultrahigh Performance nanoengineered Graphene-Concrete Composites for Multifunctional Applications, is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, and was funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The samples of the composite tested so far all come up to British and European standards, so getting the composite material into use should be possible. Dimitar Dimov, lead author of the study, said: “Finding greener ways to build is a crucial step forward in reducing carbon emissions around the world. This is a crucial step in the right direction to make a more sustainable construction industry.”
By Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent, Tue 24 Apr 2018
Mr Electric of Newcastle became involved in the following retrofit of a new agitator into a 2003 Mack concrete truck purely by accident.
Whilst attending to contracted work at Newcastle Ready Mix Pty Ltd, I was brought into a conversation regarding a broken concrete truck and asked if I might look at it and to see if I might have a solution. (more…)
The Start of the Project
The location is Bamaga Australia, one of Australia’s last frontiers. We are connected to the outside world by internet and phone. There is what you might call a road to Cairns. Our nearest McDonald’s store is 1000klm south on a wild 600klm long red dirt track. All our supplies arrive once a week on a ship or by air.
One of the major drivers for development of Cesco’s ground-breaking, new Frameless Low Rider mixer unit has been to reduce the risk of roll-overs, in the design of a safer, more stable and uniquely-mounted agi unit. In the November issue of Owner Driver, Steve Brooks in his article ‘Turn for the Better’ reports on the significant benefits & advances that the Frameless has bought to Boral.
There have been a number of advances in new concrete technology in the past ten years. There have been advancements made in almost all areas of concrete production including materials, recycling, mixture proportioning, durability, and environmental quality. However, many of these innovations have not been adopted by the concrete industry or concrete users / buyers. There is always some resistance to change and it is usually based on cost considerations and lack of familiarity with the new technology.
The latest new concrete technology is beginning to gain acceptance in the industry. Some of the more interesting new concretes are called high performance concrete (HPC), ultra high performance concrete, and geopolymer concrete. They have significant advantages and little or no disadvantages when compared to standard concrete in use today.
High performance concrete usually contains recycled materials and thereby reduces the need to dispose of these materials. Some of these materials include fly ash (waste by-product from coal burning), ground granulated blast furnace slag, and silica fume. But perhaps the biggest benefit of using some of these other materials is the reduction in the need to use cement, also commonly referred to as Portland cement. The reduction in the production and use of cement will have many beneficial effects. These benefits will include a reduction in the creation of carbon dioxide emissions and a reduction in energy consumption, both of which will improve the global warming situation. It is estimated that the production of cement worldwide contributes five to eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, the use of fly ash and furnace slag is usually cheaper than cement and they have properties that improve the quality of the final concrete.
Today’s new concrete technology has produced new types of concrete that have live spans measured in the hundreds of years rather than decades. The use of fly ash and other by-product materials will save many hundreds of thousands of acres of land that would have been used for disposal purposes. Fly ash and other by-products from burning coal, are some of the most abundant industrial waste by-products on the planet. The elimination of burial sites for these waste by-products will translate into less risk of contamination of surface and underground water supplies. When compared to standard concrete the new concretes have better corrosion resistance, equal or higher compressive and tensile strengths, higher fire resistance, and rapid curing and strength gain. In addition, the production and life cycle of these new concretes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90%.
BSI is a new concrete technology that has a much higher tensile and flexural (bending) strength than standard concrete. It is a fiber-reinforced concrete that is combined with premixed dry components. It is much denser than standard concrete and structures built with it will need far less new concrete, perhaps as much as 80% less. The high density gives BSI concrete other properties such as extremely high resistance to corrosion from chemicals. The higher strength of BSI eliminates the need for placement of steel rebar in structural designs. BSI, or some variation with metallic fibers and/or superplasticizers, will be used to build some structural elements less than an inch thick. Overall, structures built with BSI will have much greater life spans and will require far less maintenance.
Ductal is another new concrete technology that is denser than BSI. Ductal uses steel or organic fibers to create a concrete that is stronger than BSI. Interestingly, the ancient Romans used horse hair in their concrete to improve its strength. Ductal is being tested for use in earthquake resistant structures, bridges, tunnels, and nuclear containment structures. Although it is more expensive than traditional concrete there are a number of cost savings that will make it price competitive. Among these cost savings are no steel rebar is needed, less material is needed with less related labor and equipment costs, and structures are thinner with less weight and require smaller foundations. In addition, both BSI and Ductal have low maintenance costs because of their very low porosity and are very resistant to penetration by water or chemicals. They are both resistant to salt water which is very corrosive and damaging to today’s bridges and roadways.
Source: https://blog.royaltyfree-stockphoto.com/?p=2329
Source Site: – https://www.aggregateresearch.com/news/advances-in-new-concrete-technology/
Image caption: Damian Crough, Assoc Prof Tuan Ngo and Dr Ali Kashani in the lab with a block of glass-impregnated concrete
By Sustainability Matters Staff Monday, 21 August, 2017
In the wake of the now infamous Four Corners report on the state of Australia’s glass recycling industry, University of Melbourne researchers have announced their work incorporating waste glass into prefabricated concrete structures.
The researchers claim that finely ground recycled glass in concrete is a viable replacement for sand and existing supplementary material like fly ash and ground-down slag from blast furnaces, with team member Dr Ali Kashani noting that glass can be ground down to particles of similar size to cement and fly ash.
“In the short term, we are confident that adding glass to concrete will allow us to build strong, light and durable non-load-bearing walls with a reasonably high portion of recycled glass,” said Dr Kashani. “Our work has shown it has excellent sound, thermal insulation and fire-resistant characteristics. We are looking forward to working with the cement and concrete industries and building standard regulators to prove the viability of using these products in traditional concrete structures.”
Damien Crough, founding director and board chair of prefabAUS is all in favour of upgrading building standards to allow glass in concrete, noting that existing concrete supplementary materials are “becoming harder to get and more expensive”.
“The cost of glass will be an attractive factor for industry as it is readily available and inexpensive, being about a third of the cost of fine sand or less.”
“The opportunities for a wide range of projects, and the environment, are enormous.”
The research has been funded by Sustainability Victoria and the Australian Packaging Covenant.
MORE: A brief snapshot of the Four Corners story, industry responses and alternatives on the state of the glass recycling industry is given below:-
By Lauren Davis
Wednesday, 09 August, 2017
Earlier this week, a damning report on ABC’s Four Corners program revealed that it is currently cheaper to stockpile and landfill glass waste than to recycle it.
The report stated that recyclers are currently receiving more glass than they know what to do with — particularly in NSW, which produces about 460,000 tonnes of used glass per year. But while the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is apparently aware of the problem, recycling companies are prohibited from stockpiling large amounts of material due to limits placed by the EPA.
So what are the alternatives? Some NSW companies are choosing to dump their glass waste in landfill, accepting the landfill levy of $138 per tonne in the process. Others are arranging to send their waste to Queensland, where such a landfill levy does not exist. The end result is that NSW’s glass waste is sitting around either in warehouses or in landfills, without getting recycled.
You can read the whole story on the sustainability matters website at: https://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/waste/article/australia-s-glass-recycling-crisis-the-industry-responds-809131767#ixzz4tHkXuBOf
Latest statistics point to fast growth in the construction sector off-setting to a degree the general wind-down in the resources sector.
Read the story at https://sourceable.net/ai-group-celebrates-construction-in-july/
Construction across Australia has expanded at its fastest ever pace and is now at its highest level since the Ai Group began releasing the Performance of Construction Index (PCI) in September 2005.
According to the Ai Group and the Housing Industry Association, the PCI rose 4.5 points in July to 60.5, the fastest acceleration on record since the index was first taken amid the mining and construction boom in 2005
PCI readings above 50 indicate an expansion in activity, with higher numbers indicating a faster rate of expansion.
Ai Group head of policy Peter Burn says national construction has remained strong with infrastructure, commercial construction, and residential building combining to offset the mining-related wind-down. “The buoyancy of the sector is evident in strong levels of current activity and employment growth and growing order books,” Dr Burn said.
All four construction sub-sectors expanded in July, according to the index, with house building and commercial construction the major drivers of growth.
Commercial construction was up 9.8 points to 64.3 – its highest level in 12 years – while house building recorded its fastest pace of growth in three-and-a-half years on the back of a solid backlog of work and ongoing strength in demand.
Engineering construction was up 6.9 points to 57.5 and, after contracting in June, there has been a recovery in apartment building, up 4.3 points to 52.6 supported by a sixth consecutive month of expansion in new orders.
New orders, wage growth, employment and rising prices all made strong gains for the month.
At the same time as cost pressures intensified in July – with the input prices up 7.4 points to 73.6 – wages also continued to rise and did so at a higher rate than in June, lifting 3.7 points to 64.6.
The Ai Group said July’s growth in employment was the highest in almost three years and – in line with the expansion in industry demand.
Dr Burn said the pick-up in commercial construction seen over the past three months was particularly welcome.
“In light of the anticipated wind-down in apartment building from the very high recent levels (the PCI) suggests that the national construction industry will continue to play a leading role in the economy for some time to come,” Dr Burn said.
By Christian Edwards
