Composite rebars - description and properties
Presently reinforced concrete technology is used in all areas of infrastructural building. Reinforced concrete structures combine steel and concrete. It is difficult to imagine cotemporary building structures without the material, especially that combination of steel and concrete makes it possible to use the best advantages of both materials. However, is this for sure? Concrete may carry compressive stress and reinforced steel may carry strong tensile stress, but steel is a weak point of the structures, as it is subject to corrosion under the influence of harmful contamination or carbonization. Corrosion of steel in nearly an inevitable process. Resulting corrosion points lead to appearance of stress, cracks and concrete covering chips, exposing metal reinforcement entirely. Corrosion of steel reinforcement causes decrease of strength of a structure and, consequently, destruction of the same.
Glass fibre reinforced bars constitute an alternative to classic steel and ideal substitute with a wide application in reinforcement technology as well as other related building sectors. There is no need to apply anticorrosive coats or epoxy film on steel reinforced bars, which is a very expensive operation resulting in investment losses. One only needs to use composite bars for reinforcement. The costs of such reinforcement will be lower.
Composite bars for concrete reinforcement constitute an alternative to traditional steel bars for concrete reinforcement. It is a new innovative and more economical technology, as it does not require expensive maintenance and repairs after a long time of use as in the case of reinforced concrete structures.
Properties of our composite reinforced bars allow for:
- reduction of the weight of a structure by use of a smaller diameter of reinforced bars, which are characterised by 2.5 times greater tensile strength than regular or stainless steel
- considerable decrease of thickness of concrete, which reduces costs of embedding, transport and stocking of bars at a construction site
- considerable savings as compared to steel reinforcement, owing to larger distances between bars
- reduction of costs owing to easy machining and possible use in cut and drilled elements
- resistance of difficult atmospheric conditions and increased durability owing to high chemical and corrosive resistance
- simplification of the construction process owing to electrostatic, electrical and magnetic neutrality
TROKOTEX composite bars are manufactured with the use of pultrusion, which involves pulling of continuous chemical fibre strands (rowing) through devices, which saturates a fibre strand with thermosetting resin and gives the shape of cross-section and hardens the binder. The process results in a composite composed of a very large number of single fibres in a parallel system, which are embedded in a polymer matrix based on epoxy resin. The over-wrap increases adhesion of bars to concrete (analogically to the system of ribs in reinforced steel bars).
TROKOTEX composite reinforced bars have a spiral system of ribs on side surfaces, which is delivered as a result of wrapping of fibres over the bar core during forming. All our bars are manufactured in the production plant in Toruń. We manufacture bars with the following diameters: 4.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 14.0, 16.0, 18.0, 20.0, 22.0 mm. Bars are delivered in sections – beams (for all diameters) or in coils (for diameters of 4.0-10.0 mm).
