MANUFACTURERS – DECEMBER 2017

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John Harris has joined the Besser Co. Technical Service team, bringing 25 years of hands-on block and brick production experience plus plant management skills. Based in Phoenix, he will be on the front line working to bring the latest technology and new equipment to manufactured-concrete producers.

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PRODUCERS – DECEMBER 2017

Minnesota’s Cemstone Companies assembled employees from its namesake, Amcon block and TCC Materials divisions for a formal 90th anniversary celebration at the U.S. Bank Stadium. The Minneapolis venue is one of the most recent milestone projects built with materials and products from Cemstone brands: 916 bags of mortar; 750,000 block; 115,000 yd. of ready mixed; and, 65,000 tons of Dakota Aggregates sand.

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ACI recognizes excellence in concrete innovation

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The American Concrete Institute honored 12 concrete projects at the 2017 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards gala during the Institute’s convention in Anaheim, Calif. The overall winner was R•torso•C, a concrete minimalist residence in Tokyo. The Excellence in Concrete awards program was created to honor the visions of the most creative projects in the concrete industry, while providing a platform to recognize concrete innovation, technology, and excellence across the globe. In order to be eligible for participation in the Excellence Awards, projects needed to be winners at a local ACI Chapter level and submitted by that Chapter, or chosen by one of ACI’s International Partners.

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Green certification, standards forces align

Global testing and certification provider TÜV Rheinland has partnered with the international standards organization GIGA (Global Innovations Green Algorithms) in a new initiative to help construction designers and engineers build more sustainable buildings. Under a partnership announced last month at the 2017 Greenbuild in Boston, some content from TÜV Rheinland’s global Certipedia certificate database will feed into GIGA’s online material data hub, Origin, which highlights certified, environment-friendly building materials and products.

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‘RELi’ resilient building standard rises to level of LEED rating system

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The U.S. Green Building Council formally adopted the Resilient Building and Design Standard, RELi, during the 2017 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston. Paralleling USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design series, the standard is billed as a prescriptive roadmap to help architects, businesses, city planners, developers and governments design buildings, neighborhoods and communities to better withstand natural disaster shocks and stressors.

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NPCA calls for Sustainability Awards project, product entries

The National Precast Concrete Association is accepting 2018 Sustainability Awards submissions in two producer and two associate member categories, respectively: Best Project and Best Company/Plant; Best Product and Best Company/Plant. Each category will have one winner; other approved entries will receive honorable mention. Graphics profiling all entries will be prominently displayed at The Precast Show 2018, February 22-24 in Denver, and featured at www.precast.org and in upcoming NPCA periodicals.

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Precast pavement manual dovetails 100th lane mile of installed product

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To address a fragmented engineering and technical library supporting members’ products for mainline concrete highway repair or construction, the National Precast Concrete Association Precast Concrete Slabs Committee enlisted leading practitioners Peter Smith, P.E. and Mark B. Snyder, Ph.D., P.E. to write and produce the photo- and schematic-rich Manual of Jointed Precast Concrete Pavement.

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Coal ash recycling at record rate, lower concrete market metric aside

The American Coal Ash Association Production and Use Survey, released late last month, pegs 2016 Class F and Class C fly ash consumption in concrete at 14.4 million tons, down 8 percent from the prior year’s record 15.7 million tons. ACAA attributes the dip to regional supply shortages that resulted from power plant shutdowns and generating stations’ changing fuel profiles. Demand for fly ash remained strong across all concrete markets last year, the group affirms, and utilization likely would have been higher absent logistical disruptions.

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LafargeHolcim meters solar film-faced UHPC cladding wattage

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A two-year collaboration between LafargeHolcim Ltd. and Dresden, Germany-based Heliatek GmbH has netted a photovoltaic concrete façade product capable of generating double the amount of energy typical of roof-based solar panel arrays. At 60 percent of the exterior, the cladding has the potential to generate 30 percent of a 10-story building’s annual energy requirements. Unveiled at Batimat 2017 in Paris, it combines LafargeHolcim’s Ductal ultra-high performance concrete, suited to architectural applications in ½-in. or greater thickness; and, Heliatek’s flexible, ultra-light HeliaFilm, weighing 1 kilogram/square meter (2.2 lbs./10.75 sq. ft.) and produced in shades of blue, gray and green.

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