Micro-fine materials Alccofine 1101 and Alccofine 1203 offer numerous advantages, states YATIN JOSHI, General Manager-Marketing, Ambuja Cements.

The use of micro-fine materials in the construction field has been in vogue during the last few years. Generally micro-fine materials are those with an average particle size of about 4 to 5 microns. While cements and supplementary cementations materials (slag, fly-ash, silica, etc) are being used, materials like limestone, glass, etc, can also be produced in the micro-fine form.

Microfine materials
Alccofine are microfine products produced by CMPPL. It is available in two varieties û Alccofine 1101 and Alccofine 1203 - and has been used in globally since five years. Alccofine 1101: A micro-fine cement, this product is suitable for grouting soils, cracks in rocks and concrete. This cement can be used to prepare grouts with water and superplasticisers for grouting applications.

Alccofine 1203: This is a micro-fine mineral additive with latent hydraulicity. It has been used in concrete with many advantages such as improvement in rheology of concrete through particle packing, and lowering of water demand. A large number of particles of Alccofine 1203 result in ´seeding effect´ as sites (or particles) start hydrating resulting in higher strengths at early ages, as also improved 28 day strengths.

Additionally, the micro-structure of the cement paste is refined with the C-S-H gel getting finer and the voids smaller in size.

All these results in improved impermeability and consequent durability.

Applications
Alccofine 1101 is useful in soil stabilisation jobs and Alccofine 1203 in concrete applications for high early strength, cold weather concreting and other applications wherein normal concretes have severe limitations. The material offers advantages such as easy pumpability of concrete for super tall structures,self-compacting concrete, shotcrete, plasters, etc.

(Communication by the management of the company)