Precasters around the globe face a number of obstacles; an overall costs increase, higher productivity, durability and sustainability needs, a lack of skilled labor... all while meeting higher safety standards. This is why precasters increasingly choose the type of reinforcement that optimizes their concrete elements in each of these regards: Dramix® steel fiber concrete reinforcement.
Working with Dramix® steel fiber reinforcement (SFR) lowers the cost of your precast projects in a number of ways. SFR enables efficient design, using less reinforcement material, and sometimes thinner concrete structures.
Further, no expensive machinery is needed because the production process is much simpler.
Working with mesh/rebar is extremely timeconsuming and labor-intensive (e.g. placing, tying, cutting, bending it...). In contrast, steel fibers are added directly to the concrete, eliminating all those obstacles. Packed condensely, it takes less space on-site.
More importantly, SFRC is a much more controlled and thus safer process. Avoiding strenuous manual labour means avoiding a high risk of hand injuries, leading to serious delays.
Lowering the carbon footprint increasingly pushes precasters towards steel fiber reinforcement. This is (mainly) due to the fact that steel fiber reinforcement saves both concrete and steel in comparison with traditional reinforcement. Read more about the how here.
As an example, we've compared a traditional reinforcement solution (double mesh) with a solution that combines both Dramix® steel fibers and a single layer mesh for a utility vault.
A Dramix® solution for the same precast element resulted in an 18% decrease in tonnes CO2 emitted (i.e. Global Warming Potential, GWP).
The biggest factor here, is the fact that Dramix® steel fiber reinforcement allows thinner concrete elements that have the same technical performance. In this example, 1,089 kg CO2 from concrete was saved.
Source: One Click LCA, leading authority in calculating life cycle assessments.
Steel fibers prevent and control cracks more easily and more efficiently. They reinforce every part of the concrete structure, because unlike steel mesh, the fibers are distributed in every part of the concrete.
As a result, steel fibers detect small cracks much faster than traditional reinforcement. Dramix® steel fibers also provide electromagnetic shielding for buildings such as data centers.
Steel fibers allows more design freedom of precast concrete elements, enabling the design and manufacture of unusual and/or complex shapes.
