Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Producing consistent, high quality self-consolidating concrete (SCC) can be tricky business. When you get it right, it’s a beautiful thing. It flows smoothly into every nook and cranny giving precast products an almost architectural surface finish. Get it wrong, which is easier to do than getting it right, and you have a big mess on your hands. For several years, the Trenwa, Inc. manufacturing plant in Dacono, Colo., USA, just north of Denver, had a love/hate relationship with SCC. The plant was built in 2001 and included a new batching plant that featured a centrally located horizontal, spiral blade mixer to supply the firm’s precast production floor. Trenwa specializes in precast products for underground utilities, wastewater and other industries. The 50-year-old firm is a family business headquartered in Ft. Thomas, Ky. and with additional manufacturing sites in Florence, Ind. and Lakeland, Fla. Like most precasters, Trenwa was still using conventional concrete mixes ten years ago when the firm’s Colorado plant was built and at its Florida plant. Conventional manual vibration was needed to gain the deep penetration of the mix into the reinforcement lattice in its precast forms.