Displaying items by tag: testing

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.”

UK: Bunting has opened the Bunting-Redditch Customer Experience Centre at its Bunting-Redditch facility in Redditch, Worcestershire. The centre is equipped with high-intensity magnetic separators, eddy current separators and a revolutionary electrostatic separator. Bunting said that it will enable its engineers to work in partnership both remotely and at site.

General manager Adrian Coleman said “Having the ability to test and prove the separation capabilities of a specific machine is priceless. There is a constant flow of materials arriving to be tested and being returned. We are fortunate enough to have unique laboratory-scale technology that enables separations that are simply not possible in other test houses. Investing in our new Customer Experience Centre has already generated orders that previously we would not have secured.”

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."

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has appointed Stéphanie Bondoux as its director of certification and accreditation. In her new role, Bondoux will help the company to comply with France’s technical norms and standard practices. In order to ensure that it continues to meet the highest industry standards, she will assess the performance, the sustainability of solutions and the safety of the various applications while fostering Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies’s policy of innovation. This will involve close collaboration with both the producer’s testing segment and accreditation bodies.

Bondoux was previously head of accreditations and regulatory frameworks for Liechtenstein-based building materials producer Hilti's Western Europe business, having begun her career as a fastening product manager there. She holds a master's degree in marketing from Sorbonne University, Paris.

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.

US: Forney LP has appointed Peter Jones as Platform Sales Manager for its ForneyVault construction materials testing (CMT) software platform.

Prior to joining Forney, Jones was Senior Municipal Software Specialist/Multi-Link Division for Link Computer Corporation in Bellwood, Pennsylvania. He also worked as Commercial Account Manager/Natural Resources for W W Grainger of Pittsburgh. He also spent 12 years with Sysco Food Services in Pittsburgh, last serving as Business Development Manager. He holds a bachelor's degree in management, accounting and finance from Hiram College in Ohio.

Forney LP sells products in the materials testing industry with a focus on material testing equipment for cementitious materials like cement, mortar, grout and concrete for the construction industry, downhole cement and proppant materials for oil and gas industry, and general metals testing. It sells its products to more than 75 countries. Its corporate headquarters is located near Zelienople, Pennsylvania with manufacturing facilities and stocking warehouses in the eastern and western US.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) plans to establish a new cement testing facility. The Philippine News Agency has reported that the department has made an allocation in its 2021 budget for the facility.

DTI Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) Catajay said “For setting up a testing facility for cement by BPS, our target is to finish within the first half of 2021. Our procurement of equipment is on-going, so that we can conduct testing in the third quarter of 2021.”

The Philippines presently has two cement testing facilities.