CAA Summer News
August 18, 2005

Please find below, an update on admixture related activities relevant to your business. If you have other gossip you would like to share with us, please e-mail us. If you have been involved in any interesting projects that I can use for publicity, please send details and if possible a picture.


Cementaid have moved, but not far, their new address is:

1 Baird Close
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 9SY

All other details remain the same.


RMC Admixtures are now CEMEX Admixtures, CEMEX UK Materials Ltd.


All other details remain the same.


BS 8443; Special Purpose concrete Admixtures has still not appeared from BSI for public comment.


Concrete Society TR 62 Self-compacting Concrete has now been published and is available. Thanks to all the CAA members who worked on the technical committee and supported the project financially. The European Guidelines for SCC are mentioned in relation to Specification.


The European Guidelines for Self-compacting Concrete, - Specification, production and use are now on the CAA web site admixtures.org.uk as a free download.


EN 934 parts 2 and 6 & EN 480 (several parts), European standards for Concrete admixtures. All the proposed amendments have received a positive vote at CEN but with comments. These comments will now be discussed and agreed at a meeting of TC104/SC3 on 13 September and should then go to CEN for publication but it is unlikely that the final documents will appear before early 2006.


EN 934-3, European standard for Mortar admixtures has now been notified in the official journal of the EU and CE marking can start from early 2006.


EN 934-5, European standard for Sprayed Concrete admixtures. The amendments with the missing test methods to this standard have still not appeared from CEN. This means that it will be well into 2006 before the standard is published.


Corrosion Effects of admixtures. At an experts group of TC104/SC3 in June, the principle of a generic positive list of admixtures which would be exempt from testing to prEN 480-14, Measurement of the corrosion susceptibility of reinforcing steel in concrete, was agreed. This opens the way for the next meeting of TC104/SC3 on 13 September to agree on the content of the draft of EN 934-1 Admixture common requirements.


The European Drinking water mandate. The European Commission (EC) has now confirmed that ready-mix concrete is outside the scope of the EAS mandate because it is not harmonised under the Construction Products Directive (CPD). However, they are now saying that the harmonised constituents of concrete, must be individually certified. This has raised some difficult questions for all constituents but especially for organic products like admixtures. The requirements for EAS certification will now have to appear in EN 934 and will go in the new part 1.
The mandate does not allow for proxy samples unless all the constituents are the same as those going into the actual structure. The use of proxy samples will probably be agreed but who will set the threshold limits for acceptance? At the moment there is no agreed process for this and it seems unlikely that pan European agreement can be easily achieved so acceptance may still be with National regulators. The industry is still pressing for an agreed constituent/component list and there may be agreement on this but new constituents could prove more difficult. The admixture industry continues to be heavily involved in these discussions through CEN TC 104 WG 14 and EFCA being represented on the EC expert group.


The Dangerous (regulated) Substances mandate. This mandate was confirmed by the EU earlier in the year and various committees are starting to meet. However, it is already apparent that there is uncertainty and disagreement over fundamental issues like content of DRS vs release of DRS and whether release after demolition is included. There is also the question of whether the legislation only harmonises the test methods or also includes threshold limits. If there are no threshold limits then the NPD option can be used in those countries like the UK which have no current requirements. BSI is currently forming a new committee to co-ordinate the UK input to the EC expert group and to the CEN committees. CAA has asked to be involved and has also been represented at a UK concrete sector group that has been formed to lobby for our interests.


REACH. The debate and approval of REACH is scheduled to take place in the European Parliament during the autumn of 2005. For admixture producers the danger is that, as currently drafted, REACH will result in the elimination of many of the minor constituents that give unique properties to each individual admixture. They will be eliminated, not because they are dangerous but because of the cost of the testing required by REACH to prove that they are safe. There will also be increased cost for you with more detailed MSDS which your customers will nether read or understand. Please use your influence with our local MEPs to ensure that the legislation is does not result in unnecessary and expensive testing and bureaucracy that is likely to affect jobs and the range and quality of the products which we supply.

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