On the picture: Dirk Van Loo, Thierry Beirens, Toby Verdin
10 years of BENOR certification for hydraulically bound mixtures
On 26 October 2019, it was exactly 10 years ago that the very first BENOR certificate for hydraulically bound mixtures under TRA 21 was awarded by COPRO to concrete plant Van Akelyen in Zele. Then business manager Thierry Beirens is currently responsible for day-to-day management. On the occasion of this tenth anniversary, our CEO Dirk Van Loo and Inspector Toby Verdin visited the concrete plant for a nostalgic look back and a confident look to the future.
The start
Under the leadership of Johny De Nutte, the first TRA 21 application regulation was drawn up at that time by Sofie Van Hasselt. Also included within the framework of this ‘full product certification’ was the preliminary study, production control and inspection of the end products, Shortly after the launch of this application regulation in February 2008, five requests were received by COPRO, including from the Van Akelyen production unit in Zele for the start-up of BENOR certification of hydraulically bound mixtures according to NBN EN 14227-x. Of these five requests, four production units are still certified today.
The growth
In addition to conformity to this European standard, conformity to standard specifications can also be checked and included on the technical datasheets. SB 250 applies to Flanders. In the year of the launch of TRA 21, SB 250 version 2.1 was applicable. The following version of SB 250 (version 2.2) included certification by an independent body for a number of applications (sand cement, rubble foundation, lean concrete, etc.). After SB 250 version 2.2 was released, ten times more applications were received by COPRO in the following years. For Van Akelyen, as one of the first companies, initiating voluntary BENOR certification was not evident. Now 10 years later, tonnages in Flanders have increased from 30,000 tonnes to 2,750,000 tonnes of BENOR-certified hydraulically bound mixtures under TRA 21, by nearly 100 production units.
Constantly on the move
Van Akelyen has undergone several changes to the reference documents in recent years. In 2014 SB 250 version 3.1 was published allowing the use of ground blast furnace slag for a number of applications. In addition, a new application was created in version 3.1: granulate cement. SB 250 version 4.1 was published this year, whereby for the application of 12MPa lean concrete, the compressive strength requirement (within the framework of the preliminary study and internal FPC) was increased from 12.0 MPa to 15.0 MPa.
These changes to reference documents are linked to application regulation TRA 21. The further developments of the application regulation are managed by a Sectoral Committee, in which different parties (public institutions, producers, users and experts) are represented. Thierry Beirens has been a member since 2019 of the Sectoral Committee for Hydraulically Bound Mixtures TRA 21, in which he acts as a representative for FEDBETON.
COPRO is convinced that the long journey taken has led to higher quality products, and hopes to be able to maintain that confidence in the future, together with all stakeholders.
