Unicon visit

“MEMORANDUM”

Lima, 13/ 11 / 2013

To: Andres Sotil Chavez

From: Alessandra Betancourt

Renato Caballero

Kevin Dávila

Noelia Miranda

Topic: Unicon visit

Introduction

Concrete knowledge is one of the most important parts in our carrier as Civil engineers; and it’s one of the most selling components in a construction. It's important to say that the demand of concrete is rising, and that’s the reason why nowadays there are so many job opportunities based in concrete production.

Following the above mentioned, Technology of Concrete class had an expedition to see and give students the opportunity to see the process of concrete production by being in a concrete plant. This time, our class was invited to see UNICON concrete plant.

In the following memorandum, you would read about a summary of the visit, including the safety talk we received and the visit itself wrote in properly ways.

Visit to Unicon

Last Friday we visited the concrete plant of UNICON. It is located in Atocongo. For this visit we had to go with all the personal equip protection (P.E.P). They were steel toe boots, protection glasses, a helmet and a security vest. We took the bus of USIL University in campus 1 and arrived in thirty minutes to that company.

When we arrived we had to wait outside UNICON Company until they gave the order to enter. Inside it, two engineers were waiting for us. One specialist in security stuff, who gave us a brief of security in that place and the other one, was an engineer of UNICON. They also talked about ISO 9001, which means “International Standards Organization”. Now, they are trying to get OHSAS 18001 which means “Certification for Occupational Health & Safety”. They are really concerned about having the best conditions to be number one in the market.

After the talk we had with the specialist in civil defense and safety of UNICON, we went to the concrete floor. While we were doing the tour, we saw the trucks with cement. (Picture 1)

UNICON buy the cement by weight and they use “Cementos Sol”. In this plant the hard work never stops and trucks are active during all working hours.

Picture 1: Truck that transport cement

Then, we went to an area where the aggregates are mixed to make concrete. It was interesting because we have never seen how a concrete plant works. There was a big amount of aggregates separated for their size. For example the coarse aggregate of ½´´ was in a different location that ¾´´, and the fine aggregate was in two different sites, it was separated in coarse sand and fine sand, all this aggregates are transporting to the area where they mixing by only one front loader (Picture 2).

The engineer explained that there was an area where they washed the "mixers". They add water with a hose to the mixers and the good thing is that this water is recycled and thus helping the environment and reduce costs.

Picture 2: Types of aggregate

Finally to complete the visit, we went to a little room which has a lot of computers that control all the mixes (Picture 3). For example, if a client wants a concrete with f’c = 210, the technician will put this data in the computer. Then, it releases automatically the exactly amount of coarse and fine aggregate, the exactly liters of water and the amount of cement and additives. All of this goes to the mixes truck and mixed in it (Picture 4), when all the product is in there, the truck goes to the destination project, unless they had to take a samples or testing.

Picture 3: Area where everything is controlled

Picture 4: Containers where the concrete is stored

When concrete is ready, after the technician receives the indications of the orders that require concrete, concrete is placed in the mixers after being washed and in this way turn to the work or construction. (Picture 5)

Picture 5: Mixed is doing in the truck

First Concrete Pour

We had the opportunity to go to a construction site located at San Ignacio de Loyola University. This construction is for the expansion and modernization of it, this new building at campus “Almirante Grau” is being built in order to make more classrooms for students.

We could attend to a concrete pour for plates and one inverted column. Below, we will explain the procedure of concrete pour we could see.

Procedure:

First, the company asks to UNICON a concrete with a specific compressive resistance and slump, then the technician of UNICON put the data into the computer and automatically the concrete is sent to the mixer.

Second, the concrete pump arrives to the construction and the driver has to park it according to the company’s safety standards (picture 1).

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