Not only is Roodepoort in Gauteng home to the AfriSam state-of-the-art clinker grinding plant, it is also a hotspot of construction materials expertise.
AfriSam’s Centre of Product Excellence is a major driver of innovative cement, aggregate and
readymixproducts and has become a critical point of technical support to South Africa’s construction industry.
Consulting engineers, architects and contractors have all relied on the Centre of Product
Excellence for advice on the use and application of AfriSam’s building materials.
The Centre of Product Excellence is home to 15 technical personnel with almost 200 years of combined experience and a SANAS ISO 17025-accredited laboratory which tests raw materials to optimise concrete mix designs and tests products to help customers build better. This is also used for AfriSam’s own product development programmes.
Mike McDonald, manager of the Centre, says that the facility has recorded many milestones since it started in 2012. One of the most important of these is the valuable role it has played in assisting precast concretemanufacturing start-ups.
Equally important is the Centre’s role in ensuring quality of concrete works. Last year alone, the Centre of Product Excellence tested 859 external concrete samples, undertook 86 durability tests and crushed more than 13 000 cubes for strength testing, while testing 150
concrete mixes to monitor the performance of other company’s products.
The Centre is spearheading ongoing product development into “greener” concrete mixes and construction practices and continues its work in reducing the CO2 footprint and embodied energy of AfriSam’s products.
