NRMCA Releases Three New Topics in the Technology in Practice Series

As part of a broader quality initiative, NRMCA’s Research Engineering and Standards (RES) Committee has been developing brief technical information topics packaged as ‘Technology In Practice’ (TIP) sheets. The NRMCA TIPs are modeled on their popular NRMCA counterpart, the Concrete in Practice (CIP) series. While the CIP series was developed as basic technical topics for the ready mixed industry to use with customers or others involved in concrete construction, the TIP series is written for ready mixed concrete industry personnel to support internal education on general quality control/quality assurance and technical topics.

The TIPs cover topics on standards and testing and are written in simple format with numerical examples when appropriate. The following eight topics are available for the TIP series:

• TIP 1 — Quantifying Concrete Quality – provides ideas on identifying items to measure and quantify the impact of a quality goal that positively impacts the company’s bottom line;

• TIP 2 — Establishing the Required Average Strength of Concrete – summarizes the general process of establishing the required strength for concrete based on the strength specified in project specifications in accordance with ACI standards;

• TIP 3 — Aggregate Sampling for Laboratory Tests – discusses procedures to ensure that samples obtained for quality control tests are representative of the stockpiles or other storage locations from where they are obtained;

• TIP 4 — Aggregate Sample Reduction for Laboratory Tests – addresses procedures to properly reduce the size of a larger field sample to a smaller size that is required for laboratory tests; and

• TIP 5 — Capping Cylindrical Concrete Specimens with Sulfur Mortars and Unbonded Caps – summarizes the key points in the applicable standards for capping strength specimens and the reasons for these requirements.

• (NEW) TIP 6 — Aggregate Moisture and Making Adjustments to Concrete Mixtures – outlines concepts on aggregate moisture for mixture proportioning and production of concrete;

• (NEW) TIP 7 — Creating and Using Three Point Curves for Laboratory Trial Batches – outlines the process of developing lab trial batch information for mixture submittals; and

• (NEW) TIP 8 — Concrete Yield – outlines process for determining yield of concrete and evaluating problems with yield.