Reinforcement fibers
Builder’s ideal is concrete mixtures having high flowability, slow stiffening and quickly acquired durability, long transportation time, easy casting and universal application. At that one should remember that the main task is to ensure the required durability and service life of a concrete construction, i.e. the ability to resist mechanical stresses, environmental chemical and physical impacts for a long time. All this can be ensured with reinforcement fiber. The alternative for a traditional reinforcement consists in adding high-strength fiber into concrete composition. It allows compensating main disadvantages of foam concrete – shrinkage and crack formation, low endurance under tension and brittle failure. Fiber foam concrete has resistance to different impacts several times higher than that of ordinary foam concrete. There are two main types of fibers for concrete reinforcement: made of polymers (usually polypropylene fiber) and metal (steel). Polypropylene fiber resolves early cracking problems, prevents shrinkage fracture, enhances the resistance to static and dynamic stresses. Steel fiber improves concrete properties after it becomes strong enough – thus, it performs forcing functions.

Polypropylene fiber applications:

• industrial floors;
• concrete floor slabs, pipes, blocks etc.;
• plaster works;
• various bracing wires;
• gunite;
• poling making;
• concrete pavement;
• marine protective constructions;
• building mixtures;
• decorative concrete;
• stamped concrete;

Steel fiber applications:

Cast-in-place constructions: industrial floors, gunite lining for metro and tunnels, airport runways, car parks and highways, bridges, reservoirs and swimming pools, port works, bank vaults and safes, explosion-proof fortification objects etc. Built-up structures: wall panel elements, floor slabs, pavement plates, railroad ties, metro tubing, rings, pipes, three-dimensional constructions, hard landscaping etc. Steel fiber gunite: repair and reinforcement of ferroconcrete and stone constructions, thin-walled constructions, mountain slopes protection, jamb stability.