An individual, planning to build a house for his own dwelling or a construction project, goes to the market to buy cement for his construction work. Now-a-days varieties of cement are available in the market, each catering to specific requirement of construction. Many a time the consumer does not have full knowledge about the specific uses and the basis on which he should make proper selection of the variety and grade of cement. Some of the technical aspects about cement, which every consumer may like to know,can be referred under product section for the general benefit of the cement consumer.
Some common types of cement normally available in the market and the general applications of these varieties of cement can be referred under product section
Strength, setting time, soundness, fineness, chloride content, to add w/c ratio,minimum cement content, alkali percentage, loss on ignition and insoluble residue in cement are the properties that affect the durability of structures. All these properties are specified in the Test certificate for respective cement being provided on demand by the cement manufacturers. The consumer should look for relevant properties before choosing cement.
Indian Standard Specification issued by the statutory organisation Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) stipulates physical and chemical tests to be carried out on cement. Some of the important tests are soundness test for free lime and magnesia content, setting time, compressive strength (3,7 and 28 days), loss on ignition, insoluble residue, Chloride content and alkali content for Pre-stressed Concrete.
In fact, there is no single ideal colour for cement. It depends on the chemical composition of cement and additive materials which are blended with cement during the process of manufacturing. Good quality cement may have greenish grey or brown or black colour. However, the colour of cement does not affect its physical and chemical properties.
The High Grade Cement helps in producing high strength concrete at lower cement content though the criteria of minimum cement content for that grade of concrete has to be fulfilled. The use of high grade cement helps the designer to save steel or concrete by reducing the size of structural members and hence offers saving in form work or in earlier removal of shuttering.
Cement is mostly packed in 50Kgs.Woven plastic (HDPE/PP) or paper bags. In the process of handling, storage and transportation at cement plant, godown, retailer outlet, construction site, some quantity of cement is lost on account of seepage, pilferage and bag bursting.
ISO-9000 series are "processes" standards which define and standardise the processes of design, manufacture, quality control, purchase, packaging, servicing and marketing. ISO-9002 ensures manufacture of "quality product" on "consistent" basis and a cement company possessing ISO-9002 certification definitely gives better assurance to consumers for a consistent quality product.
