As summer approaches us here at Kryton in Canada, we know that many of you will be planning your hot weather concreting. While the weather can be a joy to experience for yourself, it can also make concreting more challenging.
For one, high temperatures will accelerate the early-age strength gain of your concrete. This sounds like a great way to naturally expedite your schedule. But it’s hard to take advantage of that when you aren’t sure of how fast your concrete is developing.
Moreover, once high temperatures get excessively high, your concrete can develop a number of durability concerns. For instance, it can end up with delayed ettringite formation (DEF). And DEF can be quite a destructive force in moist environments as it can cause your concrete to prematurely deteriorate.
Outside of DEF, your concrete can also experience drying shrinkage. This happens when the concrete has suffered moisture loss after hardening. It increases the concrete’s tensile stress, raising the likelihood that the concrete will crack or warp.
All of which is terrible for constructing a solid, reliable structure. However, you can reduce the risk of this happening during hot weather concreting with our Maturix® Smart Concrete® Sensors.
So, How Do Maturix Sensors Help?
They give you an easy way to stay on top of your concrete’s thermal control plan. Once connected to type K thermocouple wires, which are positioned and attached to reinforcing rebar, the Maturix Sensors wirelessly transmit temperature data to a cloud-based platform every 10 minutes. Then, the platform takes that data and calculates the maturity based on the readings and a specific concrete calibration curve. In return, you get a result that accurately determines your concrete’s current strength. All of which allows you to tell exactly what temperature and strength your concrete has every day. And because this information is transmitted wirelessly, you can access it through any connected device, keeping you up-to-date on the situation, no matter where you are. Additionally, you can easily set up alarms to receive notifications via SMS or email when a certain temperature, strength, or maturity has been reached.
That in turn allows you to stick to the recommended temperatures for hot weather concreting and operate proactively as specified in ACI 305R: Guide to Hot Weather Concreting.
Of course, that’s just the start. There are a couple other advantages that come with Maturix. Let’s take a look at them.
They Enable You to Leverage Early Concrete Strength in Hot Temperatures
To start, with the insight they provide on strength development, you’ll notice right away when your concrete starts reacting to hotter temperatures. After all, you’ll see exactly when the concrete’s strength accelerates. So you’ll be able to plan your schedule to work with this expedited strength development. In turn, you’ll find yourself stripping forms at a faster rate, letting you keep up with any tight deadlines you have.
And Their Real-Time Alert System Makes It Easy to Avoid Potential Temperature Concerns
You can set up this alert system to notify you and your team when the concrete meets, exceeds, or goes below critical thresholds. So long as you have a connected device, you’ll immediately know when your concrete is doing well and when it needs adjustments. That way, if your concrete ever exceeds recommended temperatures, you and your team can take the required actions to cool it down.
In short, Maturix empowers you to fix temperature concerns before they ever become a problem.
Why Choose Them Over Other Available Sensors for Hot Weather Concreting?
Still, there are other sensors out there. What makes Maturix worthy of more consideration?
Well, Maturix comes with a number of unique features you aren’t likely to find elsewhere. Some of which include the following.
You Get Local Weather Data as Well as Temperature and Strength Data
To further bolster your understanding of your concrete’s development, Maturix Sensors gather data about the local weather. That way, you don’t just know how your concrete is doing. You also get a sense for what conditions your concrete faces throughout your construction project. Whether you have to deal with hot weather and rain or any other weather combination, you get the weather data integrated in your reporting.
You’ll Even Be Able to Reuse Maturix Sensors for Multiple Projects
One of the best cost-effective measures of these devices is that they don’t work like single-use sensors. These aren’t disposable devices that remain within the concrete. Instead, they are connected to disposable thermocouple wires. As a result, once you complete a project, you are free to take the sensors with you and use them for other projects for as many times as you like. This allows you to take advantage of all the features Maturix offers at a low cost. After all, you don’t need to spend a big chunk of your budget on new sensors with Maturix.
In the end, Maturix is a worthwhile investment that cuts down on your costs and makes hot weather concreting much less risky.
So Why Not Give Them a Try for Your Next Hot Weather Concreting Project?
If you’re expecting to deal with such a project soon, then it might be time for you to find out how advantageous it can be to have Maturix with you. You’ll soon wonder how you could have gone so long without it! But don’t just take our word for it. Check out our Maturix page to see for yourself.