There is no place for cheaters in the construction industry. Each product introduced in the market must be subjected to strict quality tests. Such tests are carried out using specialised control and measuring equipment. This company manufacturing such equipment is now entering the Arabic market. Local entrepreneurs and construction laboratories should note this fact - along with the new partner there is a chance for further innovations.

What are the control and measurement tests for?

Quality tests are a standard in modern construction. The basic reason for carrying out such tests is the guarantee of safe use. Each manufacturer of building materials or developer must be sure that his product meets all necessary standards and is not hazardous to life and health of future users.

The passengers of the train, which set off from Edinburgh to Dundee, Scotland on the 28th of December 1879, were unlucky to live in a time when such regulations were not as restrictive and suffered terrible consequences. None of the people who bought the ticket for this unlucky route reached their destination. The route ended on a bridge connecting the two banks of the River Tay. The structure collapsed when a train entered the track. The whole train together with all the passengers fell into the water from which not a single living man was rescued. The total number of victims amounted to 75.

Although there was a terrible storm on the day, it was not the bad weather that caused the disaster. The man was at fault. The commission investigating the causes of the disaster showed that the columns of the bridge were cracking at 20 tons of load, while the engineer responsible for its construction assured that they were able to bear three times the load. In addition, the cast iron used in production was of poor quality, and the castings were made imprecisely. All of the above led to a disaster that could have been avoided if the building materials used for the construction of the bridge, as well as the structure itself had been properly tested.

There is no innovation without research

The control and measurement tests are necessary wherever the focus is on seeking innovation. In order to make the offer stand out from the competition, it is essential to offer the clients something non-standard, which is hard to find in the competitors’ portfolios. In the construction industry, it usually comes down to: 

a)     products that accelerate the construction site works,

b)     or enable the implementation of exceptionally ambitious projects that require the specialised technical solutions.

The ideas for further improvements, however, are not born in a vacuum. Many hours of specialised research are required. This is why many global leaders in the construction industry have their own research and development laboratories, where, together with experts in the field of chemistry, chemical engineering or construction, they work on further products.

What is in the R&D laboratories?

The equipment in R&D laboratories is designed to stimulate the extreme conditions to which the individual building materials may be subjected. Therefore, in the case of the elements of the said bridge, it would be a high load, high humidity and gusty wind. In addition, a number of other potentially hazardous factors can be tested. Let's follow them on the example of the Lab-Trade offer.

The tests that can be carried out owing to the measuring devices supplied by Lab-Trade are divided into five main categories:

·       Strength tests. The flagship product in this category is the line of TS strength test stations. These devices, produced since 2004, have gone a long way in structural modifications and functional extensions. Today it is the universal and fully functional testing machine for most manufacturers in the construction industry.

·       Climatic tests. A full range of tests in changing climatic conditions and in the impact on adverse factors such as salinity of paving slabs. The necessary measurements can be performed both in small climatic chambers for testing bituminous roofing tiles, as well as in larger devices, where the entire walls and insulation systems fit in.

·       Fire tests. Fire safety is one of the basic requirements that structures must meet. The Lab-Trade devices check the reaction to fire using various standardized methods (SBI, radiating plate method, etc.).

·       Heat transfer. Most materials (e.g. polystyrene, foams, sandwich panels, windows, pipe insulation) are tested in this respect. The Lab-Trade devices are adapted to measure products in various shapes (lambda metres for testing flat samples, tubular lambda metres.

·       Geometrical tests. In this case, the flatness, thickness and rectangularity of building materials are tested to ensure that their dimensions are standardised.

The company also manufactures the tailor made machines to meet the customers’ needs. They were delivered, among others, to Concrete Laboratory of Atlas company – the highly-recognised Polish manufacturer of construction chemicals which wins industry awards for its product every year. The largest testing machine for testing the entire sandwich panels so far (station weight 8 tonnes, sample length up to 9 metres) is installed in the laboratory of Gór-Stal company - a Polish manufacturer of sandwich panels.

The Lab-Trade test stations are also installed in numerous laboratories and research centres in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. Since this year, the company's territorial range has been expanded by additional areas. United Arab Emirates is one of them.