iCrete optimises concrete design

As 1 World Trade Centre (previously known as The Freedom Tower) in New York, US, rises upwards, a relatively new company in concrete construction, in the shape of iCrete, is at the heart of the construction.

iCrete, founded by Dr Perry Anderson in 2006, is a licensed method of micro-structural design that looks at the specific aggregates, cement components and add mixtures to create optimal particle packing, and thus achieves self compacting concrete (SCC) qualities while reducing cement content.

"Through the integration of moisture probes into the batch control system we constantly optimise the mix based on the real-time moisture coming in from both the fine and course aggregates," said Tom Schneider, senior vice president of sales, marketing and operations.

With every batch made by an iCrete licensee, iCrete looks at 20 different variables to quantify the target versus the actual for those variables. "We work with customers to ‘fingerprint' each individual facility so that we can define the key variables for that facility," Mr Schneider told iC.

"We then monitor those from our network centres and flag alert the moment anything falls outside the set variables."