foamed concrete celullar foam Propump Engineering Ltd

Foam concrete
Foamed Concrete is a lightweight, free flowing material that is made by adding special foam to cement mortar slurry. This foam is made from Foaming Agent, a highly concentrated, highly efficient, low dosage liquid which is fed with water into a Foam Generator.

Inside the generator, the agent is diluted with water to make a pre-foaming solution which is then forced at high pressure through the foaming lance. This produces uniform, stable foam that has a volume of about 20 to 25 times that of the pre-foaming solution.

It can be placed easily, by pumping if necessary and does not require compaction or levelling. It has excellent water and frost resistance and provides a high level of both sound and thermal insulation. The foamed concrete formed is very stable and lightweight, and will not sink into soft ground or impose undue loading on roofs and other structures.

It is very versatile and since it has a huge range of dry densities and strengths, it can be tailored for optimum performance and minimum cost by choice of a suitable mix design.

Application: Tunnel repair and construction
Foamed Concrete is an ideal material for tunnel construction and repair. It is used both for the filling of voids created and exposed during tunnelling, and for grouting the finished work, including gaps behind the tunnel lining. Foamed Concrete provides very good material for floor construction. It is ideal for building sub-floors quickly and cheaply and can be used for levelling terrain and raising floor levels as well as for insulation purposes. The traditional method of making lightweight precast blocks involves the addition of aluminium powder to a wet mortar mix, followed by autoclaving. This is not popular due to the pollution it causes. Foamed Concrete is an environmentally friendly alternative as there are no waste products in its production and all the ingredients are non-hazardous.

Application: Better Bridge Abutments because no lateral loads
Foamed Concrete is particularly suitable for bridge abutments because it does not impose the large lateral loads, which can be a problem when using traditional granular materials. Using Foamed Concrete, the lateral load is practically eliminated, so the bridge walls do not have to be as thick. This in turn means that the wall foundations can be made less massive. Huge cost savings can be achieved by reducing the thickness of the walls, and the size of the foundations.

Application: Roofs are lighter and stronger
Roofing is probably the most widespread application of foamed concrete. It provides a high degree of thermal insulation and it can be used to lay a flat roof to falls, i.e. to provide a slope for drainage. In countries where roofs are flat and where roof surfaces are used as part of everyday life, foamed concrete is strong enough to support foot or even vehicular traffic on the roof. Foamed concrete is also much lighter than slopes made from mortar screeds. This means that a roof with a slope made of foamed concrete imposes a lower loading on the structure of the building.

Application: No settlement of road structures
Foamed Concrete can be used to make road structures less heavy. This helps solve the problem where the traditionally heavy road structures cause severe settlement of the road, particularly in areas of soft ground. By constructing the road sub-base from a lightweight material, the overall weight of the structure can be greatly reduced. As Foamed Concrete is very versatile, with a wide range of densities, it has proved to be an ideal, cost effective material for solving this problem.

Application: Quicker, cheaper walls
Cellular Concrete can be used for cast in situ walls. These can be made either by using traditional shuttering or hollow polystyrene moulds. This provides a quick and cheap method of building, with the added advantage of excellent thermal insulation. A wall made from 1200kg/m³ density foamed concrete provides the same level of thermal insulation as would a wall made from dense concrete that was 5 times as thick and made from 10 times the quantity of materials as the foamed concrete wall.

Application: Better at any ground structure
Foamed Concrete can be used in various types of ground projects, including stabilising embankments after landslides, highway widening schemes, land reclamation and filling in of harbours. As it does not sink into soft subsoil, redevelopment can begin much sooner after application than can using traditional methods. For similar reasons, it is also ideal for road foundations. The excellent fire resistant properties of Foamed Concrete makes it an ideal material for fire breaks in buildings where there are large undivided spaces. It is used to prevent flame penetration through the services void between floor and ceiling in modern construction, and also to protect timber floors in old houses. Foamed Concrete reduces the passage of sound, both from background noise and due to impact. It is, therefore, an ideal material for internal walls and suspended floors in multi-storey buildings, especially ones with communal use.

Application: Trench Reinstatement
Foam Concrete is an ideal material for trench reinstatement because he traditional methods of filling trenches in the roads, i.e. the use of granular fill materials, result in settlement and damage to the road and potentially, to the pipes. With foamed concrete there is no settlement; and because the foamed concrete is very fluid, it will fill any voids and cavities in the trench sides.