Sources: CP staff; TEC Products, Hartland, Wis.
A line of thin concrete brick suited to precast panels and tilt-up walls debuted at The Precast Show and Icon Expo, January 11–13 in Indianapolis. The clay product alternative is based on an extrusion method for vacuum-packed concrete mixes TEC Products has developed over the past decade, and brought to commercialization at a production line near Milwaukee.
Armed with two process patents, TEC has crafted an inaugural machine that extrudes 5/8-in. or 1-in. thick brick slabs onto 18- x 16-in. stainless steel pallets. Molded from mixes with 25–50 percent Class C fly ash binder, the slabs receive waterproof coating and surface treatment in line, followed by ambient curing and sawing—the latter netting tolerances typically negating the need for grinding or profiling at the precast plant or tilt-up jobsite.
TEC is the second go-around for a partnership of Terry Fellabaum and Todd Geisert, who developed the Ag-Flow Aggregate Heating Equipment technology, selling it in 2005 to Mixer Systems Inc. The TEC process and machinery has evolved in the interim while Fellabaum was Mixer Systems sales manager and Geisert an independent packaging equipment sales rep. — www.tecproductsinc.com