CIA Precast & Steel – another flagship project for MCT Italy in Australia

CIA Precast & Steel is a leading manufacturer of high-quality, tailored precast concrete and steel fabrication. With more than 25 years’ experience, we pride ourselves on consistently exceeding customer expectations and providing value-add solutions.

The two state-of-the-art facilities enable CIA to deliver the complete service offering for commercial and industrial building needs. With capabilities in product design and development, CIA offers modular systems, design and construction of pre-engineered proprietary products, CAD drawing facilities, structural steel detailing and fabrication.

Pride in seeing MCT products in the environment around

CIA sister company founded few years ago is Advanciv: passion in creating quality precast concrete elements for the customers and taking pride in seeing the products in the environment around.

Advanciv is a manufacturer of quality precast concrete products to the local council, government, building and construction and civil infrastructure industries. Advanciv works with customers to design and manufacture solutions that provide added value to projects.

Advanciv has the capacity to design, manufacture and supply customized:

Stormwater pits,

Headwalls,

Lintels,

Box culverts,

Wheel stops,

Kerb entry inlets,

Custom products.

Latest added product for Advanciv are concrete pipes: this helps to establish strong relationships with civil contractors, local government, builders, developers and plumbers by providing high-quality products, delivered on time.

Advanciv has the ability to service not only Newcastle and the Hunter but also Sydney, Central Coast, Mid-North Coast, Blue Mountains and even the Central West markets.

Advanciv concrete pipe: automated and software-controlled batching plant

During Covid in Summer 2021 Advanciv decided to invest in a new turnkey factory, specially dedicated to the production of concrete pipes with very tight quality controls, highly controlled environments under rigid production standards and testing specifications.

Excellent quality concrete pipes produced nowadays is a direct result of the following operations:

Computer aided design and analysis,

Advanced concrete mix designs,

Automated and software-controlled batching,

Precision fabricated wire reinforcement,

Quality driven manufacturing techniques,

Improved water tight joints,

New installation standards.

The new factory is composed of a latest generation BFS – Hawkeye Pedershaab machine and MCT Italy Batch Plant. The batching plant, as key component of this new factory to feed the entire operation, was studied in depth throughout the development process within ADVANCIV, selecting MCT Italy as the best partner for this important step for the group, meant also to strengthen their presence in the NSW construction business by starting a proprietary asset for the precast products manufacturing.

The plant itself comprises of a of 30 m³ drive-over receiving hopper where the trucks discharge their materials and these are then taken via a feeding belt to the aggregate storage hoppers. The materials are then distributed into the correct compartment through a reversible shuttle belt, and all of these functions are controlled by the MCT aggregate feeding system, which runs independently from the main control system.

4 aggregate hoppers with a capacity of 40m³ each, 160m³ in total, then receive the materials, and these are monitored via laser probes to ensure the precise volumes are both checked for materials used and materials being properly discharged when filled from the aggregate feeding system.

When a mix is called, the materials are collected by MCT’s aggregate weigh batcher and discharged into the skip hoist.

The ‘skip hoist’ then takes the materials to the 1500/1000 planetary mixer, which provide the factory with the concrete through an inclined belt. Upon the mixer platform are the normal components such as Cement Weighing, Water distribution, Admix & dust extraction.

The mixer has 3 doors allowing further expansion to second feeding belt line if required in the future. Cement is fed from 2 silos of 100 t each (80m³) to the mixer.

The mixer is washed via MCT’s own designed washing heads and all the washing water and materials are gathered below the plant where they are separated and this water is recycled back into the plant, the waste material can also be recycled.

All of the dosing, mixing and concrete distribution is controlled via MCT’s very own Compumat system, which is intuitive.

Total control by MCT Italy

Since 1967, MCT Italy has been managing the complexity of the production cycle, transport and distribution of concrete, developing for our customers integrated and customized technological systems in relation to specific concrete elements.

MCT Italy S.r.l. turnkey solutions include all the components of the system starting from the detailed design of the functional areas of the site, going through to the manufacturing of the plant and completed with the automation of the processes which performances we measure and check.

Years of experience in five continents and top-notch connection technologies are what CompuNet, the MCT Italy software for management and control of both batching plant and concrete delivery system, is made of. Batching plants and factories dedicated to concrete pipe production have recently been installed in Canada, Australia, USA, Middle East and Europe. MCT added value includes research in safety, risk prevention and knowledge that translates into total compliance with specific national regulations regarding plants, emissions and environmental impact.

Together with hollow core and block & pavers productions, the concrete used to produce precast concrete pipes has a low water-cement ratio because most manufacturing processes utilize relatively dry mixes.

CompuNet automatically:

detects the moisture content of the aggregates through dedicated sensors mounted on the aggregates extractions gates (or belts),

checks the power absorption of mixer motors,

manages the batching water by determining the amounts to be deducted from the value set in the mix design according to the water content that has been monitored by the sensing probes,

provides final fine water correction through extremely precise flowmeter.

MCT Windows running software automation is totally developed and realized in-house, allowing the customer a full control on the plant, giving access to the analysis of the working parameters and the production reports, and plan the management of the production, including all the auxiliary platforms of the concrete batching plant.

With the remote technical support, we provide a 24/7 assistance to help in case of required support, to check or assist the operations of the batching plant: it is possible to modify parameters or processes on-line, while it is running, just by an internet connection.

Why Advanciv invested in concrete pipe

Allan Morton, Advanciv Managing Director, highlights the main advantages of concrete pipes:

Strength: Precast concrete pipe is the strongest pipe available; it can be designed and plant tested to resist any load required. Unlike flexible pipe, it has minimal reliance on installation to support loads; it relies primarily on its inherent brute strength manufactured into the pipe. Compressive strengths for concrete pipe normally range from 4,000 psi to 8,000 psi.

Resilience: Durable is defined as, “able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration.” With concrete pipe, durability deals with the life expectancy and enduring characteristics of its materials.

The capability of concrete pipe to perform as expected for the design life of a project is a fundamental engineering consideration, especially in today’s economic environment, where requirements have been set in place to ensure a sustainable buried infrastructure.

Environmental considerations: with its long life, use of natural/recycled products and local availability, concrete pipe is extremely environmentally friendly. Comprised of the world’s most commonly used building materials, precast concrete infrastructure is quickly integrated into ecosystems. This is clearly demonstrated by the use of three-sided precast boxes used to accommodate the natural channels of streams at road crossings, and precast concrete pipe for storm sewers and outfalls in valleys and shorelines.

Design/Construction flexibility: some projects have design elements that are a little more complex or intricate than others. Precast concrete pipe provides solutions for these projects, whether they are open-cut, deep burials, tunnels, trenchless, shallow burials, or with vertical structures or complex alignment changes. Concrete pipe design is simple to do; the math is sound and easily definable.

Another flagship project for MCT in Australia

Mr. Gabriele Falchetti, VP Business Development for MCT Italy, pointed out: “Advanciv‘s highly specified concrete is being supplied to meet the project‘s stringent requirements via a purpose-built precast batching plant at Tomagi. MCT Italy is honored to have been selected to build a lasting legacy that will support NSW development, creating economic opportunities and greatly improving the daily lives of many people”.

“Our flexible designs of batching plants and concrete distribution systems ensures the optimal solution for every process with the best utilization of space and the great performances with regard to safety and concrete delivery to the precast machines. Our long-term experience with almost all the precast machinery suppliers facilitates the project development through our technical departments for the best design of the whole precast factory. We will infuse and adopt new technology and integrated traceability system into this old industry, in order to make it relevant for the future,” he concluded.

Advanciv‘s Project Manager Stephen Reed continued: “The precast plant was sourced from MCT and erected by local contractors under MCT representatives’ supervision. Advanciv selected MCT to supply the batching plant due to the positive experiences with similar MCT precast plants on comparable projects in Perth and Sydney.”