THE USE OF PLASTIC MOULDING COMPOUNDS IN THE PRECAST CONCRETE INDUSTRY

THE PLASTICS INSTITUTE

North Eastern Section

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

Northern Counties Association

Paper 22

Symposium RESINS AND CONCRETE

17 and 18 April 1973 University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Existing casting techniques within the industry have been founded upon years of experience and occasionally it is beneficial to carefully examine time honoured methods and techniques, as in many case line-management is too near thewood to see the trees.

In this particular case we tend to have a mindless addiction to time honoured rules of thought, for example, designing timber moulds with a draft tolerance of 1/16" per foot and accepting this fact without question. The existence of blow holes, mould oil stains and unsatisfactorily, generally rough appearance is all too often accepted as the price to pay for ex-mould concrete products. The acceptance of these unsatisfactory finishes is always an expensive business which is further aggravated by the use of additional hand-finishing processes to provide an accepted surface appearance for the client.