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New CEMEX concrete innovation provides building solutions in France and Ireland

Date published: April 28, 2010

When an important pre-cast concrete producer wanted to double its rate of production at a facility in France, and when Ireland’s leading public works contractor needed to extend a tram line in just 36 hours, they approached CEMEX for a building solution. CEMEX responded with Promptis®.

Promptis® is CEMEX’s cutting-edge fast formwork removal (FFR) concrete that was innovated by our Research and Development team based in Switzerland’s Center for Technology and Innovation. A close partnership between the R&D team and the CEMEX operations in Europe made it possible to transfer this solution from the laboratory to the customer. With this concrete technology, consisting of CEMEX’s own and newly developed admixture products, we can now offer a concrete that in four hours reaches a level of compressive strength that is achieved in normal concrete only after 18 hours. By the end of 2010 Promptis® will be available globally to CEMEX customers.

In France, the pre-cast customer placed an order for 2,000m3 (roughly 50m3/day for 9 weeks) of Promptis® in order to significantly increase the production cycle of one of its pre-cast facilities. Several of their customers had made large orders that needed to be sourced in a short period of time, and with the highest quality standards. Promptis® allowed them to fulfill their customer’s special requirements.

In Ireland, the customer needed to complete a vastly ambitious project: the extension of a tram track line required a concrete that could be cast in 16 hours, and be fully hardened, ready to open for traffic the following morning at 1:00 am. Prior to the delivery date, tests were carried out to optimize the mix design and ensure that the targeted performance could be achieved in the expected cold weather conditions (as low as 5°C). The team had only one working day and the weekend to prepare the ready-mix plant for the bold project.

CEMEX came through and delivered results; only six hours after the last casting, the tram lines were handed over to the customer, ready to resume operation immediately.

"Without your team’s dedication and support, we would not have achieved the end result," says Darren Devane, Contracts Manager for BAM Contractors.

These success stories of our customers using one of CEMEX’s latest innovative building solutions, Promptis®, highlights CEMEX’s passion for its customers.