Taiheiyo Cement develops cementitious product with record strength

Taiheiyo Cement Corporation has announced the development of a new cementitious material with record compressive strength. The company has been developing the product since FY14 and has successfully achieved a compressive strength of 464 N/mm² – a world record – using normal pour and form techniques.

The material properties and manufacturing method associated with the newly developed cementitious material are distinguished by two technological characteristics:

• The material is designed so that multiple types of particles can be packed as closely together as possible based on the principles of micromeritics, the science and technology of small particles. To achieve this design, Taiheiyo Cement used new material microparticles that have not been used in the cement and concrete industry to date.
• After the new cement is poured into forms using the normal method, the forms are removed after one or two days, and the material is subject to a water-absorbing process that lasts tens of minutes. During this process, the stoichiometric amount of water that the material lacks in absolute terms, due to the extremely small amount of water with which it is mixed initially, is supplied from the surface to the internal portion of the material by means of a reaction between the water and the cement. That water then reacts actively with the cement during a two-stage heat-curing process to yield an extremely dense, hardened material.

Taiheyo Cement has further confirmed that greater increases in compressive strength are possible by modifying the cement itself to further increase the powder’s filling ability.

This new product is unique. Although there have been reports from overseas of the development of reactive powder concrete with compressive strength of 673 N/mm², those products require the use of fine ceramic forming at high temperature and pressure.

Going forward, Taiheiyo Cement will continue to conduct research and development into new cementitious materials in order to set new strength records while meeting customers’ multifunctional needs in a variety of fields such as construction and civil engineering.

Adapted from press release by Katherine Guenioui

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/asia-pacific-rim/10072015/taiheiyo-cement-develops-cementitious-product-with-record-strength-139/