Van den berg beton bv

The challenge

Van den Berg Beton faces challenges in the precast cellar walls market due to increasing costs of raw materials, energy, and labor. The labor-intensive processes of working with rebar, mesh, and individual formwork pose profitability hurdles. To overcome these challenges, Van den Berg Beton seeks an alternative reinforcement solution that reduces labor requirements. 

The solution

Bekaert’s engineers conducted tests and calculated the optimum dosage of steel fibers required for Van den Berg Beton’s precast cellar walls. After the success of these tests, Van den Berg Beton installed automatic steel fiber dosing equipment in their plant in Raalte. This ensures the automatic and accurate dosage of steel fibers for each concrete mix. No rebar or steel mesh has to be placed, tied, cut and bent. The whole process can now be operated with fewer employees, freeing other 

employees to perform other tasks in the plant. Van den Berg Beton is currently using 15 tonnes per year of Dramix® 5G 65/60 GG to make its smaller precast cellar walls, but has plans to increase this to 50 tons per year to reinforce its larger cellar walls with steel fibers. Van den Berg only uses galvanized Dramix® steel fibers to ensure optimal external appearance of its cellar walls, as galvanized steel fibers do not rust, nor discolor.