iCrete announces new family of advanced self-consolidating concretes

Unibeton Ready Mix, the UAE's leading concrete producer, which has already signed a licensing agreement with iCrete to employ the iCrete Clean Technology system in each of its batching plants throughout in the United Arab Emirates, has also been licensed to offer the SCC mixes.

iCrete's President and Chief Operations Officer Tom Schneider said:

"Every contractor dreams of an affordable concrete that flows into place under its own weight - without segregation or need of vibration. Now that dream is realized with the new family of iCrete self-consolidating concretes - and they can be made in the entire compressive strength range of 3,000-20,000 PSI."

Some types of self-consolidating concretes have been on the market for years, but today SCC is only used on an estimated 1% of total concrete production in the U.S. and perhaps 10% of production in Europe. In the Middle East too, the use of SCC is yet to take off in a significant way. iCrete's self-consolidating concrete mixes offer substantial competitive advantages including superior flow, better finishes, and reduced labor without the increased cost and other problems associated with SCC., making it ideal for the region, which has strong investments in infrastructure development.

According to a recent article in Concrete Construction, a broader transition to self-consolidating mixes has been held back by doubts producers still have about the consistency and robustness of SCC concrete and lingering questions about testing and affordability.

Dr. Per Just Andersen, iCrete's Chief Scientist and one of the world's leading experts in the materials science of concrete, said: "iCrete has now effectively solved the robustness and consistency issues associated with SCC concrete without expensive admixtures. We have developed proprietary algorithms and, using the iCrete Link system, deliver tight procedural control of aggregates, moisture and production quality."

Dr. Andersen added: "iCrete provides SCC mixes that cover both low and medium compressive strength ranges, as well as the typical high strength range for SCC concrete. Dramatic cost savings are possible because iCrete mixes call for a drop in the volume of the most expensive element in concrete - cement. Moreover, iCrete SCC can be produced without the expensive fillers or rheology-modifying admixtures that are required in other SCC. Reliable SCC, of course, also requires no significant vibration - which brings additional cost savings in reduced labor."

Schneider explained: "Contractors find iCrete's SCC mixes produce very high quality finished surfaces - and that's without the use of lots of filler and viscosity modifiers. We produce an optimum material that is very stable and easy to pump. And the iCrete SSC can be designed to meet all job requirements including set-time, pumpability, low-shrinkage, durability, shrinkage and elastic modulus."

Concludes author William Palmer, writing in Concrete Construction: "What's most unique about iCrete is that producers are now easily able to produce robust SCC mixes with precision properties that stay within tolerance without increasing the production and materials costs. Working with the producer's existing raw materials, iCrete's high technology approach is able to produce mixes to meet any performance need."