ADFIL FIRST IN BELGIUM TO OBTAIN ATG CERTIFICATION FOR SYNTHETIC REINFORCEMENT FIBRES FOR CONCRETE
Zele, 5 March 2018 – Adfil, the high performance synthetic fibres brand of Low & Bonar is the first in the industry to obtain the Belgian ATG certificate for macro synthetic fibres. This certificate approves the addition of polymer fibres to Benor qualified concrete to replace steel reinforcement mesh.
For more than 30 years, the Company has been supplying their high performance polymer fibres to concrete construction sites around the world. In many cases, they can eliminate the need for steel mesh. “Our macro fibres are made of polypropylene and provide a number of advantages over steel reinforcement. They are much more simple to handle and apply, safer and of course rust-free. However; especially with larger projects in Belgium, contractors still had no choice but to use steel mesh. Adding polymer fibres to their concrete would have made them lose their Benor quality label. Now that our products are ATG certified this is no longer the case”, says Technical Sales Manager Wim Ronsse.
To obtain the certificate, the manufacturer had to undertake a number of test projects over the past 24 months. Product Manager Jeroen Smet explains: “With each trial we added five kilograms of fibres to three truck mixers of six cubic metres of concrete. To measure whether the fibres were homogeneously distributed throughout the full concrete volume, samples were taken during pouring.” The ATG certification procedure requests that EE2 and EE4 concrete is tested. Smet: “This concrete is more difficult to process than other concrete mixture classes. And yet, our macro fibres reached every part of the concrete. The result of this is a reliable three-dimensional reinforcement.”
The ATG certificate applies to product types: Durus EasyFinish, Durus S500/48mm and Durus S500/55mm. It is valid for five years. The Company, which recently opened a new concrete laboratory near Ghent, says it considers successful completion of the certification process a major step forward in the Belgian construction market. “We are very pleased with the ATG certificate and already received positive feedback from concrete producers who can now offer Benor qualified concrete which is fibre reinforced. Also, contractors and design engineers have expressed that they are satisfied to see our fibres certified. They can now achieve significant cost savings by applying Durus macro fibres to replace steel reinforcement in many more projects than before. The certificate will help us underpin our value proposition in the Belgian market even better”, concludes Ronsse.