Blockaid at work
APRIL 2010
Future for new masonry block bracket cemented by OneSteel Reinforcing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
One Steel Reinforcing has signed the distribution rights for “Blockaid”
Blockaid is a plastic bracket that is fitted into the top of the masonry block to securely locate the horizontal and vertical reinforcing steel within the masonry block wall. Currently the method used to locate the reinforcing steel is time consuming and does not provide any assurance of the correct location of the steel within the wall.
Blockaid significantly reduces construction time, by as much as 20% when compared to fully tying the steel in place, according to an independent assessment by Newcastle Innovation, Industry Development Centre at Newcastle University.
The potential time and cost savings are enormous says Russell Hancock of Hancock and Owen Services, Newcastle – “We used Blockaid in a fuel terminal block wall to locate the horizontal and vertical reinforcing steel, which ensured the wall was built in accordance with the Engineering Specification. The wall was constructed in considerably less time, eliminated lapping the vertical steel and a steel fixer was not required on the job to fix the steel because Blockaid captured the steel in the correct location and held it in place during the core-fill.”
The invention of Blockaid started when block layer, Oliver Kohl, realised that a simple bracket could be used to align Control Joint dowels to ensure they function correctly, and that progressed to designing a bracket to align all the horizontal and vertical reinforcing steel in masonry block wall constructions.
Reinforced masonry block walls account for an estimated 40 million masonry blocks in Australia per annum, and the introduction of Blockaid is expected to result in improvements in the quality of wall construction as well as significant construction time savings. The launch of Blockaid in the Australian market will be a stepping stone to target significant opportunities across international markets, in particular North America and Asia where factors such as extreme weather conditions and geological activity make the structural integrity of reinforced block walls critical.
ENDS
For more information:
www.blockaid.com.au
Chris Rafferty
Email: chris.rafferty@
Mobile: 0407 002 669
Jamie Curran
Email: jamie.curran@
Distributed by:
OneSteel Reinforcing
www.reinforcing.com
www.reinforcing.tv
Armando Gonzales
Email: gonzalesa@reinforcing.com
Mobile: 0408 504 287
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
