By Marjiya Baktyer Ahmed
You may have noticed construction sites where workers are laboriously shoveling cement into a concrete mixer, determining the amount of water, stone, sand, and cement going in by sight alone. Maintaining a rule of thumb for the number of baskets of sand and stone pouring down for a particular number of cement bags renders this manual process of mixing an entirely assumption based ordeal. Large-scale operations require precise measurements and need accurate mixing to produce concrete of the desired strength. Yes, strength is the obvious concern that might have popped up into your mind; is this assumption based mixing going to provide my property the significant strength? Then, how can we forgo this assumption basis and have a precise one?
To unravel the probe in an effective and efficient way, Shah Cement’s Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) has come up with a Smart Concrete Solution. It takes away the unreliability of guesstimated measurements and employs a scientific methodology to measure the materials comprised in a batch with mathematical accuracy.
A holistic approach to concrete production and making the customer a part of the solution – this is the notion Shah Cement RMC retains and employs.
With plants in Gabtoli and Tongi, Shah Cement RMC plants have been running since 2010, churning out millions of tons of smart concrete solution for their customers. They are well equipped with an adequate number of concrete pumps and transit mixer trucks with various capabilities (5, 7 and 8 cubic meters) for particular operations.
Shah Cement’s RMC has been used in buildings like Bangladesh Eye Hospital, Norman Tower, BTMC Bhaban and Moghbazar Flyover. As of now, work is ongoing for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. One can imagine, commercial buildings, residential buildings, hospitals, and nuclear power plants are supposed to have different compositions of concrete. Shah Cement’s RMC is available in a range of 3000 – 8000 PSI (a unit that measures the strength of concrete). It also facilitates with higher strengths being made upon customized order. With such an intimidating line up of customers, it’s no wonder why Shah Cement has been ruling the industry for the last 15 years.
The smart concrete solution is not just the quality of the product, but also the quality of the service they provide, such as the timeliness of reaching the designated worksite. In their plants, concrete mixing has been engineered with perfect precision leaving no room for error while being time-efficient, cost-effective and smart. The smart concrete solution works aptly and navigates through the logistical layers offering such tools as:
Customized Solution
On-site manual mixing does not always ensure the quality of the concrete produced. Measuring out the materials like sand, stone, water, and cement manually relies heavily on assumption, often creating an inaccurate batch. Customization is possible as per the requisition of the client with Shah Cement RMC. The casting for ceilings, roofs, and columns differ in the strength required and thereby scientifically proven technologies are needed to properly weigh out the mixing materials. With the smart concrete solution, concretes with PSI ranging from 3000-8000 PSI are offered, and produced with the help of Programmable Logic Controller based computer regulation system, making sure that the raw materials are always measured out in the precise quantities maintaining strict quality standards.
Concrete Mix Solution
A specific amount of components are required to produce concrete with a specific PSI, e.g. a batch of 3000 PSI concrete requires 345 kg cement, 170-liter water, 640 kg Sylhet sand along with 690kg 20mm stones and 472kg 12mm stones. Automated technology introduces the high-tech method of mixing concrete called Mix Design. It takes away the labor-intensive process of manual mixing and ensures that every batch which leaves the plant is comprised of its desired measurement of components. There are experts who monitor the Mix Design process. Before a batch is carried to the site, a small sample of the concrete is tested to gauge its behavior once it will reach the field. And thus, RMC smart solution mix ensures that every batch of concrete produced maintains its quality across the board.
Quality Assured Raw Materials
Ready-mix concrete batching plant adopts stable raw materials. The quality and source of the raw materials determine the final strength of the concrete mixture. Concrete requires 60-70% differently sized stones. Even the source and size of the sand play a key role in the strength of the concrete. But it is not possible in manual mixing to ensure the quality of materials used to compose the concrete mixture. The stone they use is 100% boulder crushed imported mainly from a foreign source. The sand for the concrete mixture comes from Sylhet and the water springs from deep tube wells established in each plant, while the cement is their very own Shah Cement.
Quality end product
RMC comes with consistency in quality through accurate & computerized control of aggregates and water as per mix designs. The various parameters like workability, compressive strength, water-cement ratio, proportioning of ingredients, a slump can be controlled. Scientific methods are used to examine a small sample of each batch. Slump check observes the consistency of the batch. When workability is satisfactory then the other properties of the concrete is also likely to be correct. The concrete is then cured in cylinders for 28 days, and a batch is sent to BUET’s authorized lab where the rate of stiffening is measured. This cylinder test result is very important to the acceptance of on-site concrete work since it demonstrates the strength of the design mix.
Ready to use concrete product
The convenience of RMC is that it removes the hassle of procuring raw materials from unverified sources. Manual mixing is time-consuming, labor intensive and unreliable. It ensures no unprecedented delays take place since the product is already premixed at RMC plants. Additionally, it limits the time compared to manually mix concrete and also saves money on materials since Shah Cement RMC ensures that every batch leaving their plant is composed of their selectively sourced materials. After the components are mixed, they are stored in storage bins till they are funneled into transit mixers and delivered to the worksite.
Shah Cement RMC is the next generation of concrete mixing. Their Smart Concrete Solution is a step towards a new and superior direction for the construction industry. They use state-of-the-art technology in all areas of its production – starting from reliably sourcing materials, to precisely employing mix design – Shah Cement RMC loads each transit mixer of concrete with not just the finest product, but with the promise to work towards building a stronger and smarter Bangladesh.
