1. Ready-mix Concrete is Economical
- Local Materials: Readymix concrete is made from local raw materials. In addition, most worksites are within a few km’s of a Readymix Plant.
- Lower Maintenance Costs: The longevity of the material allows it to withstand very extreme temperatures and degrees of humidity. Consequently, structures or buildings made of concrete are the best long-term investments.
- Readymix concrete features
- Compressive Strength (crush resistance): It can reach very high figures, which allows people to build structures that are both slender and very strong.
- Fire Resistance: Readymix concrete is naturally fire-resistant, which slows the spread of fire (flame propagation)
- Thermal Insulation: The ability of readymix concrete to absorb heat during daytime and to return it in the cool of the night makes it the ideal material for building comfortable homes.
- Sound Insulation: Well-built readymix concrete structures allow very good levels to be reached in this field.
- Easy and Safe use and assembly
- Speed: Many new techniques allow construction lead-time to be reduced (self-placing readymix concrete, etc)
- Workability: Readymix concrete can be pumped over long distances, horizontally and vertically, to its place of use. It can be fluidized (plasticised) sufficiently to make it flow easily. Conversely, it can be made sufficiently compact, dense and thick to protect a radioactive area completely.
- Safety: Readymix concrete provides excellent conditions of sterility and hygiene.
- Concrete is Versatile
- Plasticity of Shapes: Readymix concrete allows complex and curved shapes more effectively than any other material.
- Flexibility: Readymix concrete is highly adaptable to the specific needs of different worksites.
- Design and Beautification: Readymix concrete can be used with a wide range of colours, patterns and textures. Different combinations of these can produce spectacular effects.
5.Service
- Readymix concrete provides customers with unique service quality thanks to:
- A network of Readymix Plants that is so dense that there is always a Readymix plant within a near radius of worksites.
- The availability of a large fleet of concrete mixer trucks that allow delivery rates to be kept under control and optimised
- A whole range of special services for difficult worksites: pumps, conveyors, night deliveries, etc.
6.Quality
- Readymix concrete guarantees quality, because:
- The materials of which it is made are themselves subject to stringent quality requirements.
- Rigorous quality control is carried out throughout the manufacturing and delivery process
- The formulation and manufacturing of the concrete are covered by the South African Bureau of Standards. Sarma has a Quality Audit, read more about it under Quality Standards.
7. The Diversity of Solutions
- Readymix concrete meets a great variety of needs in terms of technical sophistication, ease of use/assembly and design, thanks to:
- The use of multiple combinations of the cement aggregates and admixtures stored on production plant sites.
- Comfort
- Deliveries of readymix concrete can be taken directly from the readymix plants or the concrete can be delivered to worksites by concrete mixer trucks.
- The pace of deliveries can be adapted to the customer’s needs and can change from one hour or day to the next.
- The use of readymix concrete keeps worksite nuisance (dirt, congestion, noise, etc) to minimum levels.
General
Readymix concrete is one of the oldest building materials known to man. Concrete is made from aggregates, particularly sand and gravel bonded together permanently with powdered cement, water and a bit of air to make a durable, compact, fire-resistant and watertight building material requiring little or no maintenance.
Concrete is the only major building product arriving at the job site in a plastic state that can be moulded into nearly any shape before it hardens into an extremely strong, long-lasting material. This economical, easy to make product ranks as the world’s most widely used building material. In fact, it serves as the foundation for nearly all of the skyscrapers, factories, dams, bridges and overpasses built today.
Over the last twenty years, incredible advancements have been brought to the concrete industry in the form of automatic features, electrical, air hydraulic controls, high discharge equipment, materials measurement and handling, plus scale operations.
In order for building to remain standing it needs a stable foundation. Without that foundation people would have no place to live, work or learn. Concrete is the unchanging base that is the starting point of all buildings. Without realising it, society depends on concrete every day. Concrete is expected to keep our homes standing and our schools stable. Even travel is dependent on concrete’s presence. It holds the bridges up so people can cross rivers, and it provides a surface on which the cars drive. To get from one city to the next, people need concrete. Due to it, people can get to their jobs, some of which concrete helped to create.
Without concrete society would be a jumbled mess. It gives people houses to live in, buildings to work in, and roads to travel on. In a hidden way concrete influences our lives. There are many material benefits in concrete, like providing a foundation for building and roadways while creating jobs, but there is also an underlying lesson of stability and strength that people can find in concrete.