Engineering Materials Laboratory conducts 37,183 tests last year

This was revealed during a discussion session held at the DCL office in Karama last week with the representatives of the consultancy offices.

Eng. Ali Ahmed Elian, Head of Engineering Materials Laboratory Section said that the Section carried out 37,183 field density tests during 2006 and has already completed 10,915 tests upto April this year. Compared to the previous years there is a huge difference in the number of field density tests. In 2005 the number of field density tests was 12,521 whereas in 2004 it was only 11,020.

He said the second popular test was compressive strength of concrete cubes. Last year the Section carried out 23,165 tests in this category whereas the number of tests carried out upto April this years was 12,067. There has been a steady increase in the number of this test also. During 2005, the Section carried out 18,885 tests in this category whereas in 2004 the number was 11,726.

Elian said the meeting, attended by 60 representatives of Consultancy offices, was held based on the policy of Dubai Central Laboratory to keep constant relations with its customers.

Elian, who gave a presentation on the new services, also discussed with the participants to know their opinions about the current services of the Section in order to improve them and properly supervise the projects.

Talking about the new tests started by the Section, he said tests on ceramic tiles and fire testing will be commencing soon. The other tests started recently include chemical test of steel, wire strand, flyash, micro silica, thermal insulation and pipe testing.

The Section already conducts tests on tensile strength of steel, compressive strength of concrete cubes, bitumen content test by ignition method and field density tests.

Elian told the consultants that the Section has carried out a total of 341,432 tests during 2006 compared to 206,534 tests in 2005 and 80,334 tests in 2004. He said the Section has already carried out 131,045 tests upto April this year.

The Section has received 65,331 requests for tests during 2006 and was handed over 106,722 samples for tests. Last year the Section issued a total of 105,234 reports on the tests carried out by it.

A questionnaire was also distributed at the end of the discussion session and the participants were requested to tell what new services they would like to be introduced by the Laboratory.