Upstate New York producer Taylor Concrete pinpoints GGBF slag as a means of reducing block and brick unit mix designs’ portland cement by 20 percent, but increasing finished products’ net area compressive strength nearly 50 percent over ASTM C 90 requirements
Source: Taylor Concrete Products, Inc., Watertown, N.Y.
Upstate New York producer Taylor Concrete pinpoints GGBF slag as a means of reducing block and brick unit mix designsÌ portland cement by 20 percent, but increasing finished productsÌ net area compressive strength nearly 50 percent over ASTM C 90 requirements. Tests of various supplementary cementitious materials, conducted with New York’s Cornell University and Clarkson University, revealed that NewCem slag cement tempers the carbon factor in masonry units attributable to portland cement productionÛwith no additional cost to customers. Taylor Concrete has a dedicated NewCem silo, sourcing the powder from Lafarge North America’s Oswego, N.Y., terminal.
Product molded from the slag cement mix also meets New York State Concrete Masonry Association (NYSCMA) FM2000 Assurance of Quality Program guidelines, to which Taylor Concrete has complied for five years. The program calls for CMU to exceed a net area compressive strength of 2,800 psi, a 47 percent increase in unit strength against the 1,900-psi requirement of ASTM C 90 (Standard Specification for Load-Bearing Concrete Masonry Units). The higher strength enables engineers to decrease the amount of vertical reinforcement and/or design with smaller masonry units. Either option yields wall assemblages containing less material than structures of conventional CMU design. By utilizing the FM2000 target, Taylor Concrete reports, reinforcement lap-slice lengths can be reduced and greater wall area constructed using the same quantity of grout and steel. Material and labor savings ensue.