It is no secret that the quality of sand significantly affects the
performance of concrete and the increased
scarcity of clean washed filler sand from traditional sources, such as river
beds, is a growing concern to South African concrete manufacturers.
The shortage of good quality sand has been driving up the price, and also
forcing manufacturers to often make the best of lower-quality material. Also, projects in remote areas often
compel contractors to make use of local materials for their concrete, even if these materials are
not ideal.
Hannes Engelbrecht, GM for inland sales and
marketing at CHRYSO Southern Africa, explains that the real
challenge is to ensure that the concrete produced is of a
consistently high quality and that it matches the technical specifications
demanded by the project.
“We are in an ideal position to assist customers who are faced with this
challenge as CHRYSO’s high technology admixture solutions address the four key
parameters of sand in these situations, namely clay content, fines, absorption
and particle shape,” he says.
The aptly named CHRYSO® Quad range allows customers to manufacture cost
optimised concrete, which meets all the most
demanding performance criteria. Incorporating CHRYSO’s breakthrough ‘Clear’ polymer technology, the range meets the
challenges presented by crushed sand including a high clay content and
excessive fines.
A good example of how this technology has recently been used
is at the remote site of a wind farm in
the Eastern Cape. Given the onerous logistics and prohibitive cost
of transportation, material from local sources
had to be used for the precast elements which were cast on site.
CHRYSO provided the solutions to meet the exacting specifications, which included contributing other admixtures to deal with frequent high ambient temperatures. http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/chryso-to-the-rescue-as-quality-sand-becomes-scarce-2019-04-09/rep_id:4136
