CAA Autumn NEWS 2007
November 8, 2007

CAA Autumn NEWS 2007

MEMBER UPATE

Les Hodgkinson retired from Grace Construction chemicals last year and left the CAA technical committee earlier this year after many years of service, including at least two spells as chairman of the TC. More recently he has been the CAA representative on the EFCA TC and has contributed to a number of their technical publications including the European Guidelines on Self-Compacting concrete. The new CAA TC representative from Grace is Steve Walton.

Neil Austin is also retiring from Grace soon and has also left the CAA Council after many years service. He represented CAA at EFCA when it was founded 23 years ago and became its first Vice President. His wise council on many issues affecting the CAA will be greatly missed. The new CAA Council representative from Grace is Graham Moorfield.

CAA Secretary John Dransfield has also decided to reduce his activities and is no longer secretary of EFCA, the European Federation of Concrete Admixture Associations but will continue as CAA secretary for several more years. In his position as EFCA secretary, John represented the Federation on several key European Committees including the commission expert group on drinking water and the CEN committee TC104/WG14 on concrete and the environment. CAA will continue to support John in attending and reporting on these meetings.


SUSTAINABILITY

The whole life sustainability of concrete is second to no other construction material but unfortunately it is often judged only on the embedded carbon content as supplied and not on its socio economic advantages or its thermal mass in use. The concrete industry is working hard to improve the perception of concrete by supplying better environmental information as well as reducing the initial carbon footprint.

The CAA policy is to work with Concrete Industry suppliers and producers to reduce the environmental impact of concrete as supplied and to demonstrate the whole life sustainability and socio-economic benefits that concrete provides to society. The CAA own environmental policy includes the use of responsibly sourced materials, optimised production, minimised waste and effective transportation of its products to customers.

At UK level the CAA is involved with the UK Concrete Platform sustainability group. Additional information can also be found at www.sustainableconcrete.org.uk

Additional CAA information on Environmental and Sustainability can be found on the CAA web site www.admixtures.org.uk under Publications Admixture Environmental Sheets (AES)


BRITISH STANDARDS ACTIVITY

CAA has been active on B 517/SC1/WG 30 where the UK works on producing BS and European standard test methods. The following draft European Test methods will be appearing soon for CEN Enquiry.
* - slump flow including T500 value;
* - V-funnel test;
* - L-box test;
* - sieve-segregation test;
* - J-ring test.

Further information can be obtained from the CAA secretary or from BSI.

The BS test method for water absorption of concrete BS1881 Part 122 is due for revision and it has been agreed to widen the scope to include laboratory testing and also to specimens other than cores. The CAA secretary has agreed to produce the first draft.


EUROPEAN STANDARDS ACTICITY

EN 934 parts 1 and 5 are new standards covering General Requirements for Admixtures and Admixtures for Sprayed concrete. They have now passed their final vote and should be published later in 2007. The introduction of Part 1 will require editorial changes in parts 2, 3, 4 and 5. The changes will be agreed at the TC104/SC3 meeting in November 2007 but will have to go for a UAP vote so are unlikely to be effective before mid 2008.

EFCA has asked for some further amendments to EN 934 Parts 2, 3 and 4. It is hoped that these can be considered at the same time as those noted above.
Part 2 Concrete Admixtures, changes would allow local cements to be used as an alternative to reference cement for Factory Production Control, provided a correlation with the reference cement had been established.

Part 3 Mortar admixtures, changes are needed because the requirements are to stringent and difficult to meet, even for products with a long track record of satisfactory site use.

Part 4 Grout admixtures, changes are required following amendments to the European Grouting standards EN 445, 446 and 447.

EN 480 part 14, Corrosion test method, has passed formal vote and been published. When EN 934-1 is also published, Admixture CE marking will have to include a declaration on any corrosion effects on embedded steel. Most admixtures will be covered by the approved constituents list and will not have to be tested but a small number, especially those used in prestressing applications may need to declare the chemicals used and the result of the corrosion test to EN 480-part 14.


FIBRES

The following four standards have now all been published:
EN 14889-1: Steel fibres
EN 14889-2: Polymer fibres
EN 14845-1: Reference concrete
EN 14845-2: Effect of fibres on the strength of concrete


EN 206

A draft specification has been produced for Self-Compacting Concrete as EN 206-9. This will be going for a CEN vote later this year.
EN 206 is due for revision in 2010 and work for this is currently focused on:

* - The use of additions
* - Aspects of conformity and identity testing
* - Reviewing the concept of equivalent concrete performance



CONCRETE SOCIETY

A new TR on Foamed Concrete is under preparation with support from the CAA. There is also a proposal to produce a new guidance document on Mould Release agents.

The following reports have recently been published
Good Concrete Guide 1: Concrete for Industrial Floors

* - Technical Report No. 63. Guidance for the Design of Steel-Fibre-Reinforced Concrete.
* - Technical Report No. 64. Guide to the Design and Construction of Reinforced Concrete Flat Slabs.
* - Technical Report No. 65. Guidance on the use of Macro-synthetic-fibre-reinforced Concrete.
* - Technical Report No. 66. External In-Situ Concrete Paving



EFCA

Bert Kilanowski has stood down as TC chairman and his place has been taken by Rabinder Khurana.
With most of the work now complete on the admixture standards and test methods EN 934 and EN 480, there has been a shift in work emphasis to Environmental issues. REACH, Regulated Dangerous Substances, GHS and the CPDW legislation will all impact on admixture supply and use. EFCA is working closely with the European Concrete platform in coordinating its activities in all these areas.

The European concrete Platform has also been producing a number of publications on concrete related issues. These include:

* - Fire Safety and Protection with Concrete ECP brochure
Energy Efficiency of Concrete Buildings ECP brochure

The UK version of both are available on the CAA website Publications page

Other ECP Brochures due out soon include Concise Eurocode 2 and 8 Eurocode 2 "How to" leaflets



EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Drinking Water CPDW-EAS. This Mandate is currently stalled because of difficulties in how to show compliance with the regulations in different European Member States. The difficulties are such that it has not even been possible to complete the harmonised test methods. The concrete industry is still hopeful that an approved constituent list can be agreed that will allow most concrete to conform to MS regulations under a WT Without Testing procedure. EFCA continues to be directly represented at the Expert Sub group on cementitous materials.

The work on Dangerous regulated substances is now progressing and the European Concrete Industry has taken a leading roll in proposing a WT Without Testing, WFT Without Further Testing procedure that would, like the drinking water, allow most concrete to conform to MS regulations. If agreed by CEN TC 351, these proposals are due to go for wider consultation at European Member State level, early in 2008.

Admixtures will be classified under REACH as a 'preparation but many of the substances used to make admixtures will have to be registered. Admixture Manufacturers are currently working with their suppliers to prepare the substance based technical and chemical safety reports that must be logged with the European Chemicals Agency ECHA. These will lead to enhanced, use specific Safety Data Sheets and this is the only change that most final users of admixtures and concrete will see..


For further information on any of these areas of activity, please contact the Secretary on phone/fax 01564 776362.

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