Background
Australian supermarket giant – Woolworths recently discovered that the demand for product by their customers soon outgrew their capacity. In order to combat this, Woolworths chose to consider upgrading their existing distribution centers.
Woolworths determined that the best choice out of this was to replace their distribution centers in Minchinbury, Yennora & Mulgrave with two new centers: a regional center & a national center. These two new centers would operate in the general vicinity of Moorebank & use state of the art technology to construct pallets which are specifically designed for particular aisles at particular locations. This would benefit Woolworths as it would require less manual work, makes the workspace safer for employees & most importantly meant that Woolworths would be able to restock shelves faster & reduce store crowding.
Not to forget, Woolworth Group were also adamant on considering sustainability in the design process & had a goal of building both centers to a 5 star Green Star Design along with achieving an AS Built Certification.
Solution
The first concern during the construction of the regional facility was the concrete hardening. To combat this concern, Kryton Hard-Cem integral hardening admixture was specified for this project. Due to Hard-Cem being an integral hardening admixture, it was easier to apply, did not come with any toxic silica dust & its easy application meant that it only needed to be added to the desired concrete mix.
Once added to the concrete mix, Hard-Cem strengthens the concrete’s cement paste & therefore the concrete itself. The admixture does this by bracing the chemical microstructures in the cement paste & makes it easier for the concrete to resist deformation.
Hard-Cem is even able to strengthen the concrete’s resistance against abrasion & erosion which in turn doubles the concrete’s wear life under extreme conditions. This was proven after a test by Boral Construction Materials, who found that Hard-Cem treated concrete excelled the AR 0.5 Abrasion class which is the highest level of abrasion resistance required by the Australian standards. This in turn resulted in Hard-Cem being the perfect product to enhance the wear resistance in the distribution centers’ high bays & high load areas.
In conclusion the use of Kryton Hard-Cem resulted in more durable concrete within two major sections of the two distribution centers which assures that the structures are left standing for coming years/years in the future despite in spite of ongoing heavy work in the area.
What KRYFIX Provided
KRYFIX was involved during Hard-Cem stage 1 & stage 2 in which KRYFIX provided a combined total of 120 pallets of product for a total of 9 thousand cubic meters.