The concrete industry’s Strategic Development Council (SDC) has announced its upcoming meeting, Technology Forum #34, this fall to continue work on several issues and initiatives facing the concrete industry.

The one-and-a-half-day meeting will be held at The Omni Severin Hotel, in Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 5-6, 2013.

SDC Technology Forum #34 will examine issues/technologies in the infrastructure and building communities.  It sometimes appears that concrete used for infrastructure is quite distinct from that used for buildings: that the infrastructure and building communities are “parallel universes,” never intersecting in codes, design, or practices. However, each uses the common material – concrete – and similar issues affect concrete regardless of the “universe” in which it is used.  Is there a benefit to occasionally understand what is occurring in another “universe?”

This SDC meeting will also feature well-known representatives from FHWA, the FAA, State DOTs, and research centers who will highlight technologies and advances in their community, and together we can examine the potential for coordination to eliminate duplicate efforts in research, education, and possibly certification.

Additionally, SDC will be hosting a workshop on “Establishing Standards of Care for Prepackaged Powdered Materials for Use in Construction” at the same location on Sept. 4 – the day before the Technology Forum.  Packaged powder materials used for repair products, grouts, and other uses are commonly used for construction. These products may contain binders such as Portland cement, fillers, fine and coarse aggregates, admixtures, and polymers. Recently, users of these products are finding a number of quality issues impacting the projects where they are being used. These issues include: unwanted chlorides inadvertently added to the cement, contamination of product from previous use of blending equipment, large bag weight variations affecting binder to liquid ratios and cured properties, tested mechanical properties falling below specifications, segregation of product components after mixing and placement, and other issues.

This workshop will bring understanding of the issues of product variability and quality, impacts to the industry, and what might be done to improve quality.

In addition, SDC is seeking “Technology Showcases” to highlight during future forums.  These presentations have become a hallmark of SDC’s annual spring and fall Forums, allowing companies and/or individuals the opportunity to showcase their new, interesting, innovative technologies that have the potential to improve and advance the concrete industry.  Each new technology introduced at SDC gains exposure and, potentially, assistance to address barriers and obstacles that are preventing or slowing acceptance of the technology within the concrete industry.

What options are pursued within SDC is primarily driven by the technology owner acting as champion and is subject to the interest in the topic by the overall SDC membership.  As technologies work through the SDC process, they attain various status levels within the organization: Early Technologies, Emerging Technologies, Industry Critical Technologies, and Focused Technologies.

For more information and to submit your technology for consideration, please visit www.concreteSDC.organd click “Introduce your Technology.”

SDC membership consists of concrete industry leaders and exists to identify industry critical technologies and issues that affect the concrete community.  The organization creates and implements various strategies that facilitate an efficient and effective transition into these progressive concrete technologies.

More information about the upcoming SDC meeting can be found at www.concreteSDC.org.