Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.
Issue link: http://concrete.epubxp.com/i/114208
INNOVATIONS REPORT adopter, Scott's Concrete has incorporated the troweling aid as a value-added product, loading 5-gal. pails on slab pourbound mixers. The World of Concrete demonstration was an extension of Lythic-sponsored testing by the MTSU CIM Department, in conjunction with the Tennessee Concrete Association. Pre-show and Gold Lot testing served as the first steps toward developing performance measurements and standards for concrete slab troweling aids. The Las Vegas testing saw CIM student teams and volunteer flatwork professionals handle three pours on each of the first three days of the show. Slabs treated with Lythic Day1 and Curing Agent were finished alongside slabs finished conventionally using extra water, and control slabs finished 'dry.' The results demonstrated a significant, measurable effect of the troweling aid at increasing the work window, with finishers commenting that the spraying of Day1 compound on test slabs made their jobs easier and improved end results. "The [dry] first slab 'went' real quick, got hard 'way too fast' and it wouldn't fill in any of the rock pockets of any of the holes," says Miles City, Mont., finisher Curtis Kountz. "The second slab with water, it went real smooth, but you could tell the water was just filling in the holes that were there but it wasn't actually putting any cement into the holes. [The third slab] with the Lythic, it brought the cream back up, filled in all the holes and made it nice and easy to power trowel. It was hard underneath, but the top 1/8th inch was really workable. I had plenty of time to work with it." Test methods for measuring troweling aid performance will enable contractors to select effective materials that will not compromise the concrete. MTSU CIM Director Dr. Heather Brown, who is overseeing the Lythic program, notes that evolution of an ASTM or similar standard could take 12–18 months or more. Day1's long-term benefits, Lythic officials note, include strengthening the concrete surface; increasing its water-repellence; slowing evaporation to foster continuing slab curing; and, reducing the potential for ASR-driven popouts. The product has been third-party laboratory tested to meet water-retention requirements of a liquid membrane-forming curing compound per ASTM C156 Standard Test Method for Water Loss WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM (from a Mortar Specimen) Through Liquid Membrane-Forming Curing Compounds for Concrete, even though Day1 forms no membrane. Other properties that may be tested in the future include freeze-thaw resistance, chloride penetration, curling resistance, and the effects of perpetual curing. Day1 is packaged as a concentrate to minimize freight costs and environmental impacts. It is available from Lythic distributors and direct from the manufacturer, and will soon be available from Solomon Colors (note companion sidebar). — Lythic Solutions, 360/772-2065; www.lythic.net. SOLOMON COLORS, LYTHIC SOLUTIONS INK DISTRIBUTION DEAL Solomon Colors Inc. has added a line of slab polishing and finishing agents to its namesake brands. Following a distribution deal announced at the World of Concrete, the company will begin stocking Lythic Solutions products at strategic locations across the U.S. and Canada, which in turn supply more than 1,000 distributors or ready mixed producers. Each of Solomon's 24-member sales team will represent the flagship and Lythic lines, along with the slab restoration Contrazzo brand. The distribution plan includes the Day1 Troweling Aid, which like the rest of the Lythic product line is based on colloidal silica, a highly pure form of silica that is more chemically efficient than the silicates used in conventional densifiers, and virtually eliminates the addition of discoloring metallic salts to the concrete. Colloidal silica's unique bonding properties, including bonding to itself, build strength cumulatively and make it highly effective for densifying and protection—becoming what Lythic Solutions contends is a perfect complement to integrally colored concrete and other decorative treatments. Colloidal silica products are less caustic than their silicate counterparts, therefore safer to handle and more environmentally friendly. A slab finished using Day1 Troweling Aid is smooth and well-sealed. The colloidal silica compound adds water-repellence to the surface, as can be seen by the beaded water that refuses to soak in. The performance is repeated on the right side of a smaller, pattern-stamped sample—in contrast to an untreated opposite side. Lythic Solutions is packaging the concentrated agent in 5-gal. containers, easily delivered with a ready mixed order. MARCH 2013 | 39