What can air bubbles effect in concrete? A lot, if you have a look at Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC): This concrete is characterized by low density achieved by the formation of a homogenous macroscopic bubble structure. Aerated Autoclaved Concrete brings a lot of benefits: It is eco-friendly, lightweight, fire and moisture resistant, easy to install and has excellent insulation capacities.
The experts from Master Builders Solutions developed a portfolio of chemical products to enhance the entire AAC production process:
MasterCast is a family of new generation plasticizers that permit a faster and more efficient production, the customer obtaining benefit from a shorter pre-curing time. In the pre-curing phase of production, the concrete is expanding and at the same time setting. The water content reduction of the concrete is resulting in a shorter setting time. “Concrete additives from the MasterCast series disperse the binder particles efficiently, allowing the water content of the fresh concrete to be significantly reduced,” says Nicoletta Zeminian, Segment Manager Manufactured Concrete at Master Builders Solutions.
In addition, MasterCast improves the rheology without impairing the pore formation process. This leads to a significant reduction in the setting time with considerable time savings. By shortening the duration of the pre-curing phase, it is possible to achieve a faster turnover of the molds, leading to an overall acceleration of the manufacturing process, and an increase in the productivity of the plant.
Reduced costs and maximum efficiency
Another benefit to the customer is cost saving, resulting from being able to change raw materials to less expensive ones. At many plants, the individual process steps have been harmonized with each other to achieve maximum efficiency, therefore the target is not always accelerated production. In this case, the main advantage of MasterCast is the possible reduction of up to 15 percent in the cement and lime content, without compromising the pre-curing time – resulting in significant material cost savings.
Other products from Master Builders Solutions reinforce this effect and offer additional benefits to AAC producers.
The MasterFinish range of release agents allow easier formwork removal and more efficient cleaning and maintenance of formwork in the long term. MasterPel gives the AAC a hydrophobic effect; as a result, it absorbs significantly less water but remains open to the diffusion of air and water vapor, preventing moisture accumulations in the material. Master X-Seed acts as a hardening accelerator, allowing superior efficiency of the production and optimized early strength.
In conclusion, the Master Builders Solutions portfolio offers benefits for the whole production process of AAC – from the curing to the handling.
For more in-depth information on AAC, we recommend checking out Nicoletta's previous article on the subject. You can access the article by clicking here.
