BASF’s Construction Chemicals Business Unit recently unveiled two new innovative admixture product ranges - sureTEC (Super Retention Technology) and Glenium ® 8008 UHS (Ultra High Strength) - at the Concrete 07 Conference and Exhibition in Adelaide. The central theme of this event is ‘Design, Materials and Construction Concrete for the Future’ .”
“Innovation is the essence of business success. We cannot sustain our leadership in construction chemicals industry without innovative products and solutions that enable our customers to meet the needs of global megatrends towards sustainable construction,” said Dr. Boris Gorella, Group Vice President and head of BASF’s Construction Chemicals Business Unit, Asia Pacific.
Set to revolutionise concrete construction, sureTEC and Glenium ® 8008 UHS (Ultra High Strength) are formulated to meet the everincreasing demands for improved efficiency and durability – in terms of overall construction process and finished concrete structure.
As well as representing the culmination of several years of research and development, these two new innovative products BASF has launched also represent a significant step forward in both product technology and sustainable construction.
“BASF Construction Chemicals aims to generate more business in Asia Pacific to double its global sales by 2015. One way to achieve this goal is to leverage our state-of-the-art research and development capabilities to create better products and solutions like the one we are presenting today.” Dr. Gorella added.
The global megatrends in sustainable construction is centred on the four key themes of improved durability; increased performance flexibility; better economy (through faster completion); and maximum sustainability, including the efficient use of energy and resources.
Importantly, these megatrends focus on ‘entire-lifespan’ sustainability, rather than simply the construction process. As an example, together with factors such as energy consumption during construction, the amount of ‘embedded’ energy invested in the construction materials and the overall environmental ‘footprint’ of the structure and sustainable construction. Industry megatrends also demand structures with longer service lifespans, and lower energy consumption – both in terms of daily operation and, most importantly, reduced ongoing maintenance requirements.
Leo van den Heuvel, Regional Director, BASF’s Construction Chemicals Business Unit, Pacific, commented, “As is the case throughout many international markets, sustainability is a primary consideration in Australia – particularly in terms of the built environment. This has resulted in a significant increase in demand for products and technologies that help to minimize the overall environmental footprint and maximize the durability of buildings and structures.“
“With that in mind, we believe that innovative solutions such as sureTEC and the Glenium ® 8008 can, and will, play a significant role in assisting our customers to meet their sustainability targets by improving workability of their construction operations, and energy efficiency and durability of the finished structures,” he added.
Developed with a focus on sustainable construction, sureTEC , represents a major evolutionary milestone in admixture innovation. sureTEC, which stands for Super Retention Technology, delivers a new benchmark in concrete workability, enabling concrete producers to gain control over workability between the batching plant and the placement site for two hours or more – far beyond previously known levels. It enables concrete producers to consistently provide a specified workability of concrete, even in hot weather, and regardless of unfavourable external factors such as traffic conditions and site access make it difficult to estimate the time window between batching and placement of the concrete.
Available as a ‘standalone’ admixture, or as a premixed ‘in-product’ additive with selected BASF admixtures, sureTEC can be used with mixes of all workability levels, from low workability (eg 10cm slump) through to high performance Self Consolidating Concrete. It provides outstanding quality control and consistency across concrete batches which, in turn, assures a high consistency of workmanship – a major prerequisite for long life-cycle construction.
Importantly, sureTEC technology does not extend setting time or delay strength development of the concrete. Indeed, the contrary is true, with sureTEC influencing both parameters positively.
Together with the sureTEC Super Retention Technology which enables improved workability and greater efficiency, BASF is also launching its new Glenium ® 8008 Ultra High Strength (UHS) concrete admixtures. Utilising the latest in high performance polymer technology, Glenium ® 8008’s unique formulation delivers concrete mixes with final strengths of over 100MPa.
Not surprisingly, the ability to produce Ultra High Strength concrete is seen as a critical factor in urban and inner-city areas where ground space is scarce and expensive. By allowing lean design structures with smaller and fewer columns as well as wider spans, UHS concrete can play a major role in assisting designers and architects to enlarge room space and maximise the usable floor area.
Glenium ® 8008 sets a new industry benchmark in UHS concrete admixtures. Incorporating the latest generation polycarboxylate technology, Glenium ® 8008 products address a number of issues and challenges traditionally associated with the manufacture of UHS concrete, particularly in terms of setting times. The low dosage required – even when the proportion of water to binder is at 20% or less - minimises their impact on setting times.
About the BASF Construction Chemicals
BASF’s Construction Chemicals division is the leading supplier of chemical systems and formulations for the construction industry. Continuous innovation and tailor-made solutions ensure its customers are more successful. Its Admixture Systems business unit specifically helps customers in the ready-mix, precast and manufactured concrete and underground construction industries. The Construction Systems unit offers a wide range of products for sports and industrial flooring, external renders and wall insulation, expansion joints, wood preservatives as well as specialist repair mortars, tile adhesives and waterproofing membranes. The division operates production sites and sales centers in more than 50 countries and achieved sales of €2.2 billion with approximately 7,500 employees in 2006.
About BASF
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. As a reliable partner to virtually all industries, BASF’s high-value products and intelligent system solutions help its customers to be more successful. BASF develops new technologies and uses them to meet the challenges of the future and open up additional market opportunities. It combines economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility, thus contributing to a better future. BASF has approximately 95,000 employees and posted sales of €52.6 billion (approximately $66.1 billion) in 2006. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com