Displaying items by tag: laboratory

UK: ZwickRoell UK and Ireland has begun the construction of its new headquarters in Worcester, Worcestershire. The facilities will consist of a customer experience centre, a suite of offices, meeting and seminar rooms and a comprehensively equipped demonstration laboratory. Managing director Benno Sadowski said “We are very happy to be establishing a new facility in the Worcester Six Business Park, with its excellent strategic location in the UK.” He added “With our experience of more than 160 years in the materials testing equipment business, we are always investigating ways in which we can better support our customers with our advanced technology testing solutions in addition to creating relationships which embody our brand, vision and values.”

India: Ambuja Cements has launched Concrete Futures Laboratories, a one-stop solution for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) professionals. Eight laboratories across India will enable them to test various aspects of cement and concrete.

CEO Neeraj Akhoury said "Our strong credentials in research and development and innovation have helped us develop new products and services tailored to our customers' needs. We consistently work towards developing cutting-edge solutions for our stakeholders, and the Concrete Futures Laboratory is a testament to our efforts. We aim to create an ecosystem that is focused on collaboration and inclusive growth to build a better and sustainable tomorrow."

Spain: Cemex España has inaugurated its refurbished central laboratory at Buñol, Valencia. The Valencia Plaza newspaper has reported that the laboratory is equipped with new analytical equipment. It will introduce several new techniques for testing cement to the company’s existing procedures.

Quality Director Jesús De la Calle said "The company's strategy is currently focused on decarbonising all of its products and processes and developing specific low-carbon products for specific needs, and the central laboratory is key in the achievement of these objectives." The facility is one of the company’s three central laboratories. The others are situated in Monterrey, Mexico, and Tampa, US. The Buñol laboratory will be closely involved in the conversion of Cemex España’s Alicante cement plant to a ‘benchmark, pioneer’ low-CO2 cement plant.

Brazil/Turkey: Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos has implemented artificial intelligence techniques for cement strength testing across 27 of its laboratories in Brazil and Turkey. The producer says that the technology gives precise cement strength readings after just three days, compared to 28 days without the technology. It also uses a new metric, technical efficiency, to measure cement’s performance in concrete from the customer’s point of view. The implementation has increased available test results by 200% and eliminated 119 hours of testing time in Brazil alone for the company. It says that this has increased its agility in dealing with quality control and customer satisfaction.

The company said, “We at Votorantim Cimentos want to pave the way for the future of civil construction in a simple, agile and sustainable way, strengthening our role at the construction site, working to be the first choice of retailers and consolidating ourselves as a reference in sustainability in the value chain. Therefore, we look at our research and development projects as short, medium and long-term initiatives to leverage innovations in the sector. Many initiatives are aimed at optimising internal processes that impact the performance of our products, such as those involving the use of artificial intelligence to develop applications and predictive models. In addition, based on models for predicting the properties of cements, we have already created others for use in our mortars and concretes."

Kazakhstan: The Technical Regulation and Metrology Committee (KTRM) of the Ministry of Trade and Integration is preparing to introduce new standards for imported cement. The new rules will come into place in July 2021, according to the Kazakhstan News Agency. Following their introduction all participants in the cement industry market, including importers, will be required to perform compulsory qualification confirmation in accordance with the national standards. The KTRM has also started setting up a testing laboratory with a site granted accreditation in late April 2021. The Ministry of Integration and Integration and the Kazakhstan Cement and Concrete Manufacturers Association (QazCem) have also held a meeting recently to discuss key industry concerns and the measures required to combat the spread of counterfeit cement products.

El Salvador: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim El Salvador has announced an alteration to the composition of its flagship product, Cuscatlán cement, developed in laboratories in France and Mexico. Strategic marketing manager Amalia Palacios said, “The new formula offers the end user higher quality and less waste, that is to say a yield of around 20% more for the same price, so that we are improving quality without an impact on the customer's pocket."

China: Anhui Conch Cement has ordered four new Polab laboratory automation systems from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions. The systems will be installed at some of the world’s largest integrated cement plants at Wuhu and Tongling respectively in Anhui province. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Philippines: Republic Cement has lunched its first Fast Laboratory On Wheels (FLOW), a mobile laboratory dedicated to providing technical support to construction and building industry players. The mini-truck, which has a pull-canopy converted into a laboratory, carries equipment and apparatus that can perform tests on concrete, aggregates and cement.

“The growing demand for quality construction solution is a primary motivation for Republic Cement’s move to establish its first mobile laboratory,” said Republic Cement president and chief executive officer (CEO) Nabil Francis. FLOW is intended to support the country’s rapid infrastructure development, under the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.

The mobile laboratory can be transformed into a demonstration area where technical training may be conducted. It can also be despatched quickly to a specific site to provide analysis within hours. FLOW will be deployed in the greater Metro Manila area and regions in Luzon such as Calabarzon and Central Luzon from June 2019.

Sweden: Cementa’s Skövde plant working on project to optimise its grinding process and reduce the clinker factor of the cement it produces. The project is looked at grinding limestone separately as opposed to grinding it with clinker and gypsum, which it currently does. The plant is using a mill it only uses occasionally to grind the limestone to the desired size. A full-scale trial was run in the autumn of 2018. Products from the trial are now being tested at a laboratory.

India: Nuvoco Vistas’ Construction Development and Innovation Centre (CDIC) has been granted accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). It is the third cement producer after Ambuja Cement and RMC (India) to receive the accreditation, according to the Hindu newspaper. CDIC can now conduct more than 100 mechanical tests, out of which 55 tests come under the NABL accreditation covering a range of materials including cement, fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), concrete, aggregates, bricks, blocks, and construction chemicals.