Onboard cameras equipped with artificial intelligence can help drivers improve their performance and producers defend themselves against lawsuits. Professional athletes watch film; lots of film. They look for patterns in what they did right and (most importantly) what they did wrong. When that knowledge is paired with dedication and hard work, it removes coincidence and paves a proven path to…
Read MoreSources: Federal Highway Administration; CP staff The Federal Highway Administration has published the driving metric—global warming potential (GWP), measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per cubic yard (kgCO2e/yd.)—attending nine concrete mix classes specified for cast-in-place or precast transportation pavements, elements and structures. The Concrete Thresholds tables provide GWP data that Low Carbon Transportation Materials (LCTM) Grants recipients require to meet…
Read MoreNot long ago I was asked by a person outside of the ready mixed concrete business about our greatest strength and asset as an industry. Without hesitation, I immediately told them it was our drivers. Drivers make up a total of approximately two-thirds of all the employees for a ready mixed producer. They deliver concrete to the point of where…
Read MoreSources: Furno Materials, Mountain View, Calif.; CP staff A $20 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) grant will support a venture of Illinois-based Ozinga, top U.S. independent ready mixed concrete operator, and Furno Materials, a Silicon Valley startup eyeing ASTM C150-grade cement production with 20 ton/day capacity modules. The Furno process uses…
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Expect artificial intelligence to impact all aspects of the fulfillment process. “If it ain’t late, you ain’t making money.” Sound familiar? This has been a decades-long mantra of ready mixed concrete (RMC) dispatchers all over the world when pressured to minimize the typical 17 to 23 percent of total costs due to logistics. And the bookend customer complaint to dispatchers…
Read MoreSunrock Industries, a ready mixed concrete, aggregates and asphalt producer with North Carolina flagship plus Ontario and Alberta satellite operations, has named Mike Nolan as president. He arrives with 20-plus years in construction materials management roles, primarily at Lafarge North America, Lafarge Group and VCNA Prairie. During assignments in Illinois for the latter producer and on both sides of the…
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A look at how game-changing technologies have been transforming ready mixed concrete and batching. Cementitious materials have been around for a very long time, with the ancient Romans often cited as the first accomplished engineers to exploit them via volcanic pozzolanas. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, significant development took place in England and France. Ultimately, ordinary portland cement—named after the…
Read MoreSources: The Sunrock Group, Raleigh, N.C.; CP staff Sunrock Industries, a key North Carolina ready mixed concrete, aggregates and asphalt producer with Ontario and Alberta satellite operations, has named Mike Nolan as president. He arrives with 20-plus years in construction materials management roles, primarily Lafarge North America, Lafarge Group and VCNA Prairie. During assignments in Illinois for the latter producer…
Read MoreSources: Mack Industries, Valley City, Ohio; CP staff Mack Industries has acquired the Bluffton Precast Concrete Co., a Bluffton, Ohio business under the Akin family for 55 years. The deal marks an eighth precast operation for Mack Industries, joining home state, Michigan, North Carolina and Florida plants, along with four Ohio ready mixed concrete sites. “We are honored and excited…
Read MoreRimere, Newport Beach, Calif. developer of processes extracting high value compounds from natural gas, has entered a codevelopment agreement with Golden State neighbor Holliday Rock, a key player in ready mixed, aggregate and asphalt production, to quantify the potential of graphene to improve concrete strength, elasticity, shrinkage, shielding and durability. Composed of a single layer of atoms, graphene exhibits extraordinary…
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