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Launch of a new interface: measurement, evaluation and characterization of vibration

It’s widely agreed that the perfromance of the concrete, particularly in terms o f mechanical resistance and sustainability, comes from the quality of the vibration during the mfanufacture of the fresh concrete. Quality vibration ensures a concrete with uniform composition and guarantees a global homogeneity of the material overall. The current challenge in manufacturing concrete products is reducing the manufacturing cycle time while improving the quality of the product, enhancing the sustainability of the materials and assuring consistency of production. Controlling vibration and its effects on product quality and speed of production are crutical in the concrete industry today.

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Fully customized and automated cubing of concrete products

The manufacturer Basalite provides complete product lines including structural block, interlocking paving stones, wall systems, ornamental and garden products with customized shapes, sizes, colors and finishes, and are renowned for their durability, sustainability and beauty.

This focus on customization and quality led Basalite to the Equipment manufacturer Quadra. Having opened its US subsidiary in 2016, Quadra Usa Inc commited to study and understand the products and manufacturing processes for concrete products in the US. Now Quadra Usa Inc has full time dedicated technical staff and sales team as well as local spare parts inventory.

After a visit to France to see Quadra’s headquarters and several Quadra block plants in operation, the Basalite team were impressed by the technical solutions provided by Quadra un terms of block machine, handling solutions and robotic cubing systems. One of the brand leaders in France for more than 20 years, Quadra supplies fully automated production plants, typically supervised by only one operator, without any manual operations. These were exactly the kind of solutions Basalite was looking for.

For the new cubing line in Dupont, Quadra designed something completely different than any other solution available or currently being used in the US plants today. In order to create a fully automatic solution, with only one person on the line for quality control, Quadra designed a line with 3 robots avant several product conveyor and pushers.

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The manufacture of wet-ast gravel boards : high performance, state-of-the-art production plant

With a large range of colours, formats, structures and finishes, the gravel boards market is growing in the modern landscading industry. Maes Betonfabriek, based in Dessel, Belgium, is one of the main manufacturers of concrete fencing in the country. Founded in 1949 by Karel Maes, this family-owned company is currently managed by his sones, Lund and Dirk Maes, and the upcoming generation is already active in the company. With more than 50 years of experience, Maes Betonfabriek manufactures and markets a large range of concrete products.

The strong suit of the company is the sustainability, variety and contemporary design of its products. With a daily production of about 200 tons of concrete, Maes Betonfabriek is equipped with 4 wet-cast production lines supplied by Quadra, the Equipment manufacturer. The partnership between both companies began with the delivery of the first DIFAL machine in 2006. Faced with the technical and aesthetic requirements of the products and the growth of the business, Maes Betonfabriek quickly became interested in a modern, automated and efficient industrial solution, designed and manufactured by Quadra.

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Fully automatic wetcast stone

A family-owned company based in the South of France, Fabemi has been combining know-how and innovation since 1961, making it one of the most important players within the French market. With 14 plants spread throughout France, the Fabemi Group has been expanding its production thanks to innovative technology. Initially, Fabemi was known for the manufacturing of concrete blocks. Since then, the group has widened its production. Under the brand names Bradstone and Carré d’Arc, Fabemi currently produces and delivers a large range of wetcast products designed for the landscaping market: slabs, pavers, copingstones and garden products, retaining walls, and wall coverings.

In order to boost its competitiveness, enhance the quality of its products and avoid repetitive and painful tasks for its operators, Fabemi has invested in the full automation of the production line based in Donzere and exclusively dedicated to the manufacture of wetcast products. To achieve this technological leap Fabemi has established a partnership with the French equipment manufacturer Quadra. Currently, only 4 operators manage the complete production process, from the mould cleaning, oil application and concrete filling through to the curing, demoulding and palletizing of the finished product. Equipped with a modern handling system, the plant is fully automated and achieves high versatility. All the items of equipment provided have the ability to adapt their system to the multiple product formats. This is the main innovation. To do so, an RFID chip is integrated in every pallet and identifies the type of the product. Accordingly, this RFID chip controls the oiling settings, the concrete dosing, the automatic introduction of balls on the back of the products, the product reference printing, and the demoulding and palletizing conditions with high precision.

This innovative system was developed and implemented by the supplier Quadra. This is a unique process, since up to now no device has been able to adapt to successive and changing mould formats in real time. More than 4000 manufacturing recipes are recorded, handled and automatically incremented. The production line and all stations permanently and automatically switch into all recipes .

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