Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Know-how to improve the performance of concretes or precast elements and reduce their cost

Country of Origin: Spain
Reference Number: TOES20171116001
Publication Date: 16 November 2017

Summary

A Spanish SME expert in advanced materials offers its know-how in concrete technologies to support precast concrete companies or concrete manufacturers to improve the performance of their concrete or to reduce its cost. They can also optimize the precast concrete elements, increasing the durability, minimizing the weight, or increasing the strength/toughness. They seek partners from civil engineering, construction, industrial and blue-growth sectors for a technical or research collaboration.

Description

Special concretes can provide significant advantages in costs, times and workforce in precast concrete companies, being the most relevant innovation engine nowadays in the sector.

A Spanish company has a long expertise in the field of very-high and ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concretes (UHPC-UHPFRC), selfcompacting concretes (SCC) and fiber-reinforced concretes (FRC). Their know-how is based in 8 years of research, 6 years designing and calculating structures with these elements and three years managing a precast concrete plant which produces these structures. Among others, the company has launched the first real applications with UHPC in the Spanish market: footbridges, panels for housing, stairs, sheet piles and floating structures. These innovations are demonstrating to be cost-efficient, satisfying both clients and users.



The main advantages of these elements are the high slenderness, improved designs, minimum maintenance requirements, longer lifetime, lower carbon footprint and much lower weight. These concrete technologies have improved properties compared to steel-made or concrete alternatives. Wherever steel and concrete are two possible solutions, it is possible that advanced concretes can provide a cost-effective solution. 



The company can provide support in the following fields: optimization of concrete mixtures, development of mixtures with local components, design and optimization of precast elements, redesign of precast elements, technical assistance during the precasting and implementation of technologies in the precast plant.



Being a R&D based and innovative company, they have recently finished a Phase 2 SME Instrument H2020 project for the development of Blue Growth applications with these concretes. Now it is starting the development of a RIA-NMBP H2020 project with other 12 partners for the development of resilient composites for coastal and offshore applications.



The technical team of the company counts with two PhD Civil Engineers and three Civil Engineers. The group is highly skilled in the field of advanced materials, precast concrete elements, project management, and business strategy. These strengths are combined to add value in very different projects such as:



• Optimization of a precast concrete elements to reduce costs or improve performance

• Technical assistance for the use of in-situ special concretes in civil engineering applications 

• Integration of advanced materials in a structure to minimize resources, transportation and costs

• Disruptive applications in non-construction sectors, as aquaculture, industry or urban furniture



The company is interested in being contacted by potential partners for  technical cooperation agreements where the performance of advanced concretes can be exploited. Moreover, the company is also open to receive opportunities of collaboration in research projects to carry out the development of new materials with new properties and applications. A research cooperation agreement will be established in this case.

Advantages and Innovations

The main advantages of these elements are:



• High slenderness, improved designs and aesthetics, high surface and texture quality.

• Minimum maintenance requirements and much longer lifetime

• Lower use or resources and lower carbon footprint

• Much lower weight of the structure (up to 70%), which reduces the costs of transportation and installation.

• The high fiber content of the precast elements avoids macrocracking, providing an improved solution compared to ordinary concrete.

• The capacity developing advanced concrete dosages with local available materials allows a more competitive price compared to commercial pre-bags suitable in the market.

• The structures and elements can be redesigned to take the full advantage of the properties of these advanced materials. The lighter the element, the easier the storage in the production plant.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

The company searches, among others, for companies from the sector of precast concrete industry, modular housing, construction sector, civil engineering, security industry, offshore industry, energy industry, blue-growth or furniture sector to exploit the performance of the  advanced concretes and boost their competitiveness.



The company would also be interested in being contacted by organizations (companies, research centres and universities) to carry out the development of new materials with new properties and applications, especially those addressing blue growth, offshore applications and energy.