Sweden: Cementa's Skövde plant working on project to optimise its grinding process and reduce the clinker factor of the cement it produces. The project is looked at grinding limestone separately as opposed to grinding it with clinker and gypsum, which it currently does. The plant is using a mill it only uses occasionally to grind the limestone to the desired size. A full-scale trial was run in the autumn of 2018. Products from the trial are now being tested at a laboratory.
India: Nuvoco Vistas' Construction Development and Innovation Centre (CDIC) has been granted accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). It is the third cement producer after Ambuja Cement and RMC (India) to receive the accreditation, according to the Hindu newspaper. CDIC can now conduct more than 100 mechanical tests, out of which 55 tests come under the NABL accreditation covering a range of materials including cement, fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), concrete, aggregates, bricks, blocks, and construction chemicals.
Poland: LafargeHolcim Poland has invested Euro2.5m towards setting up an automated laboratory in a new building at its Kujawy cement plant. The laboratory will be used to test and analyse the quality of raw meal, clinker and cement every hour over a 24 hour period. Results are then fed back to the control room to allow for production line modifications.
The new facticity was constructed and commissioned in less than 10 months, covering all sampling points. Setup included installing pneumatic conveyors to connect sample points to the laboratory. The longest was 0.5km.
Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim has launched Bélier Cement CemRoute, its first road cement product in the country. It was presented at the Exhibition of Infrastructures of Abidjan. It follows joint work between LafargeHolcim's research centre and the Laboratory of Public Works of Ivory Coast.
The cement producer says that the new product offers specific advantages to road builders including releasing less heat than other comparable products, less cracking and increased durability of pavements by improving the bearing capacity of the soil.
LafargeHolcim also used the product launch to introduce the 'LaboMobile,' a mobile laboratory for on-site analysis. The laboratory is intended to help builders improve the performance of their work through material identification, concrete formulation, optimisation studies and/or control.