Jointing concrete is expected to avoid cracking
The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Italian regions of Modena, Parma and Bologna on 29 May took out more than 3,500 Italian companies who had facilities in the region, including demolition attachment ball mill manufacturer Mantovanibenne, whose Mirandola HQ and manufacturing centre was so heavily damaged that it has had to be demolished. Expansion joints must be cut in large slabs. A jointer held against a straight edge produces a nice, straight-line groove.
Even when an installer has followed all the proper guidelines and procedures, cracking can occur. While proper jointing procedures will control cracking in the vast majority of cases, even properly jointed concrete can crack in places other than the joints. No one can guarantee that concrete will not crack, however. You must understand that cracks are usually not an indication of a serious problem in most cases. Most of these cracks are simply unplanned joints (in many cases unstable substrate under the slab is the cause) - they are no more a threat to longterm appearance and maintenance than the joints that were intentionally applied.
Despite losing its major production facility, Paulo
Mantovani told D&Rithat the company has returned to full production capacity
as of the middle of June, just five weeks after the quake. This has been
achieved by switching production to two other manufacturing plants - a factory
in Bulgaria and its joint venture facility in China. The former will now produce
the company's range of crushers and pulverisers, with the latter producing the
'Basic' range of tools that were originally intended for the Asian market but
which now will also be offered to the European market.
One of the world's
largest manufacturers of building materials including aggregates, cement, cone crusher, concrete, and
associated downstream activities, HeidelbergCement supports operations in more
than 40 countries through this critical global network of data centers.
Heidelberg Cement chose the Rackwise(R) DCiM X(TM) solution for its ability to
centralize tracking, management, and reporting of the physical asset inventory
from a single solution and location. After evaluating other available DCIM
solutions, HeidelbergCement found the Rackwise(R) offering to deliver the most
comprehensive solution set including the capability to manage worldwide networks
of data centers from a single console. D&Ri was told that, mercifully, none
of Mantovanibenne's employees was injured during the two major shocks that hit
on the 28th and 29th, nor by the more than 2,000 subsequent aftershocks that
continue to hit the region. Mantovanibenne has also been greatly assisted during
this period of major upheaval by Italian demolition contractors Baraldi and
Despe, who freely supplied cone crusher equipment and personnel to aid the
company in its time of trouble.