Fibre Reinforced Concrete

Fibre Reinforced Concrete

We are able to offer our customers a full range of fibre reinforced concrete within the majority of our Readymix mix designs.  The fibres help to enhance the performance of the concrete in both the strength developing stage and the service cured stage.  All our fibres are added within the batching plant to ensure that they are uniformly distributed throughout the given concrete batch.

The most common type of Fibres we offer within this range of concrete are:

Polypropylene Fibre – which is typically used to enhance the concrete’s resistance to plastic shrinkage during the curing stage, as well as giving the hardened concrete increased fire resistance.  These fibres will also increase cohesion and reduce segregation while reducing settlement and bleeding of the concrete, as well as reinforcing against abrasion and reducing effects of freeze/thaw damage of the concrete.  Note Polypropylene fibres should never be considered for replacing structural reinforcement!

Typical applications of this type of fibre are:

-Structural Composite Topping Concrete screed,

– Included in Sand & Cement screeding,

– Mortar mixes,

Steel Fibre – these fibres are compliant to EN 14889-1: 2006, they are used to enhance the concretes structural performance, by increasing the concretes tensile strength, as well as increasing the materials crack resistance, ductility and energy absorption of the concrete.  Another key advantage of this Fibre is cost-effectiveness when compared to traditional mesh reinforcement.  Steel fibres can be designed to eliminate structural reinforcement.

Typical applications of this type of fibre are:

– Sprayed concrete,

– Precast concrete,

– Large Structural commercial flooring,

McGraths can offer their customers a fibre design service for any given project, where Fibre; type, shape, length and dosage rates are established for the specific project requirements.  

Benefits of using McGraths FRC

Polypropylene Fibres are primarily used to reduce the potential for plastic shrinkage and increasing fire resistance. These fibres should never be intended to replace structural reinforcement.

Polypropylene Fibre
Polypropylene Fibre