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drymix.info Newsletter 229/2019; ISSN Number 1613-0111; 19. November 2019

1. Absurd: The Grenfell Tower Enquiry Blames Fire Fighters for 72 Casualties
2. The Fourth MEDMA Workshop on Jobsite Automation, 24.11.19, Sharjah, UAE: over 100 Registrations
3 a. Hội nghị SEADMA thường niên lần thứ 14, 28.11.19 Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Việt Nam: Đăng ký ngay!
3 b. The 14th Annual SEADMA Conference, 28.11.19 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Get Your Passes Now!
4. Russian Mortar Days 2020, 30. and 31. January 2020, Moscow: Program
5. Drymix Mortar Yearbook 2020: Call for Entries, it makes sense + distribution + relevance
6. Get it by Mail order: Drymix Mortar Yearbook 3D Special
7. Synthomer Acquires Omnova
8. Sika Opens New Drymix Mortar Plant in Ethiopia

1. Absurd: The Grenfell Tower Enquiry Blames Fire Fighters for 72 Casualties

A Commentary by Ferdinand Leopolder

In a final report, the commission established to analyze responsibilities for the Grenfell Fire (Grenfell Tower Enquiry, led by former appeal court judge Martin Moore-Bick) has blamed the fire fighters of Chelsea Burough not to have been prepared properly for the fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017. Citing Moore-Bick: the firefighting was an "outright failure", because "the firefighters were not prepared to extinguish a highly flammable facade". Dany Cotton, head of London's firefighters was personally attacked by the commission, because she had said she "does not know what her men could have done better" at the Grenfell Tower Fire.

This is a grotesque example of distorted truth that I can't resist on commenting:

The cause of the fire is irrelevant, because under normal circumstances this fire could not have spread and developed so fast and all inhabitants could have escaped safely. But a series of incompetencies led to a splendid idea: why not cutting the cost on the thermal insulation material? Conventional technology is so expensive (such as External Insulation Composite Systems EIFS with mineral wool as insulation media)! What was then used was a sandwich of fire accelerators, let us name the culprits: Celotex RS 5000 as combustible insulation (polyisocyanurate, also caused poisoning gases which hurt the survivors), Reynobond PE Aluminum (from Alcoa, Arconic), not rated non-combustible, containing a flammable polyethylene core and Kingspan phenolic foam "Kooltherm", also not rated non-combustible.

More Names, more lobbyists for a good outcome of the enquiry? Here we go: Developer: KCMTO (Kensington and Chelsea burough's not-for-profit public tenant management firm); General Contractor: Rydon (the lowest bidder!); Max Fordham: Consultant for the facade; Artelia: Project Manager; Studio E: on-site Architects.

No matter what led to what, the entire composition of the facade may have been cheap, but was badly designed. It created a chimney (stack) effect that accelerated the fire. Composite aluminum cladding may look good and still be "cost-effective", but it is dangerous for developers and tenants, see also the CCTV Hotel fire 2009 (Beijing Mandarin Oriental, TCVV) or the fires at The Torch (sic!) at Dubai Marina in 2015 and 2017. About 400 highrises in Great Britain alone still have similarly dangerous facades today, only some of them have been evacuated in 2017.

So what caused the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in June 2017? An evil mix of shrewdly disguised greed, combined with ignorance and incompetence in design, execution and final inspection. Certainly not the firefighters that risked their lives extinguishing it!

The author thanks Süddeutsche Zeitung and The Guardian for background information.

2. The Fourth MEDMA Workshop on Jobsite Automation, 24.11.19, Sharjah, UAE: over 100 Registrations

A big crowd will gather in Sharjah to listen to the lectures in The Middle East Drymix Mortar Association MEDMA e.V.'s Fourth MEDMA Workshop on Jobsite Automation, Industrial Mortar Mixing and Pumping. The workshop takes place on and during The International Concrete Conference & Exhibition, ICCX Middle East 2019 and is being supported by the organizers of ICCX. Confirmed support comes from Arkan Drymix, CCC Drymix, Conmix, Haver&Boecker Middle East, JK Cement, m-tec and Wacker Chemie. Prof. Dr. Mufid Samarai of Sharjah Research Academy will greet the assembly with a short speech, Ferdinand Leopolder, President of MEDMA will moderate the sessions.

The workshop is free of charge, however advance registration is mandatory. Please send us an e-mail to info@drymix.info.

3 a. Hội nghị SEADMA thường niên lần thứ 14, 28.11.19 Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Việt Nam: Đăng ký ngay!

Trong 10 ngày kể từ bây giờ, Hiệp hội súng cối Drymix Đông Nam Á SEADMA, Ltd. mời các chuyên gia súng cối Drymix từ toàn khu vực ASEAN đến hội nghị thường niên lần thứ 14 tại Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (28. 11. 2019). Ngoài nhiều đại biểu đến từ Việt Nam, các đại biểu đến từ Campuchia, Trung Quốc, Indonesia, Lào, Malaysia, Singapore, Đài Loan, Thái Lan, Philippines, Nga, Hàn Quốc và châu Âu đã đăng ký. Hội nghị SEADMA thường niên lần thứ 14 là cơ hội kết nối quan trọng nhất cho ngành công nghiệp của chúng tôi trong khu vực. Chúng tôi có một chương trình tuyệt vời cho bạn và hy vọng sớm gặp lại bạn tại Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Các bài giảng bằng tiếng Việt và tiếng Anh, tất cả các đại biểu sẽ có quyền truy cập vào bản dịch đồng thời của chúng tôi.

Giá tiêu chuẩn của chúng tôi áp dụng cho Hội nghị SEADMA thường niên lần thứ 14: giá nhập học là VND 10 mio, giảm xuống còn VND 7,5 mio o đối với các thành viên của Drymix.info, các nhà sản xuất vữa Drymix chỉ phải trả VND 5 mio. Nếu bạn đang đăng ký nhập học trực tuyến, tiền thưởng VND 0,75 mio o sẽ được khấu trừ vào giá trên.

3 b. The 14th Annual SEADMA Conference, 28.11.19 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Register Now!

In 10 days from now, The South East Asia Drymix Mortar Association SEADMA, Ltd. invites drymix mortar experts from the entire ASEAN region to its 14th Annual conference in Ho Chi Minh City (28. 11. 2019). Apart from many delegates from Vietnam, delegates from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, The Philippines, Russia, South Korea and Europe have already registered. The 14th Annual SEADMA Conference is the single most important networking opportunity for our industry in the area. We have a great program for you and hope to see you soon in Ho Chi Minh City. Lectures are in Vietnamese and English, all delegates will have access to our simultaneous translation.

Our standard pricing applies for the 14th Annual SEADMA Conference: admission is 390 Euro, reduced to 290 Euro for members of drymix.info, drymix mortar producers pay only 190 Euro. If you are booking your admission online, a 30 Euro bonus gets deducted from the prices above.

4. Russian Mortar Days 2020, 30. and 31. January 2020, Moscow: Program

The Russian Mortar Days 2020 take place on 30. and 31. January 2020, hosted again by Moscow State Technical University MCU (also called MGSU). Our Technical Chairman is Prof. Dr. Andrej Pustovgar of MCU, the event is co-organized by Quintet, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Like in 2018, our event will stretch over two days, with Technical Lectures and a lab workshop on Friday, 31. January 2020. We are currently also planning an excursion we will inform you in our next Newsletter about it. Here is our preliminary list of topics (subject to change without notice, in alphabetical order by company, the exact program will be available soon on the drymix.info website):

AML GmbH, Matthias Leeke: (wt) Large Scale Drymix Mortar Plants
Association "ANFAS", Michael Alexandria: Standardization - SFTK, Status and Prospects
Cedrus, (A. Shein?): (wt) Drymix Mortars for Industrial and Renovation Applications
Imerys Aluminates, Andreas Eisenreich: Calcium Aluminate Cement Technology in a Self Levelling Overlayment with High Portland Cement Content
Lafarge Holcim, tbd.: Ductal Drymix for Ultra High Strength Concrete - Civil Engineering Experience
Lahti Precision, Jarmo Sopanen: (wt) Industrial and Automated Storage, Weighing, Dosing, Mixing and Packaging of Drymix Mortars
LB Technology, (tbd.): LB Technology for Drymix Mortars
MGSU, Anastasia Abramova: Tile adhesives - innovative approaches to improve adhesion
MGSU, Prof. Dr. Andrey Pustovgar: National projects of the Russian Federation and Prospects for the Development of the Drymix Mortar Industry
MGSU, Sergey Nefedov: Drymix Mortars for 3 D Construction. The Experience of Building a House Included in the Guinness Book of Records
Nouryon, Dr. Roger Zurbriggen et al.: The Effect of the Properties of Polymers' Glass Transition Temperature (Tg) and the Minimum Film Formation Temperature (MFFT) on the Deformation Properties of Mortars
ODAS Skolkovo LLC, Sergey Volkov: Building Information Modeling (BIM), Prospects for the Use of Drymix Mortars
Polyplast, Artem Agashin: (wt) Powdered Plasticizers and Polymers for the Use in Drymix Mortars
Russian Plaster Association, Alexander Buryanov: topic tbd.
System Products for Construction SPC LLC, Prof. Dr. A. Shilina: Modern Regulatory Documentation for the Repair of Reinforced Concrete Structures. Features of the Use of Materials for Repair. Work Experience (31.1.19)
Stroitel'naya informatsiya, Evgeniy Botka: The Drymix Mortar Market in Russia: Preliminary Results 2019, Prospects for its Development in 2020
TD Rex LLC; SPS, Y.V. Zhikharev; S.A. Nemcov (cand. sc.): REX Materials on a Mineral Basis for the Repair and Protection of Building Structures. Demonstration of Application (31.1.19)
Testing, Bluhm & Feuerherdt, Denis Libert: Automatic Dosing of Sand and Water in Lab Mixers - a Decisive Advantage in Precision Testing of Mortars
Triada Drymix Mortars, (topic and speaker tbd.)
Union of Dry Mortar Manufacturers SPSSS, Roman Borisov: Conformity Assessment, First Year Experience and Prospects 2020
VZSM LLC, Dr. N.N. Shubin: Organic-based Materials for Injection Work in the Repair and Protection of Structures and Strengthening the Foundations (31.1.19)

Our standard pricing applies for the Russian Mortar Days: admission is 390 Euro, reduced to 290 Euro for members of drymix.info, drymix mortar producers pay only 190 Euro. When booking your admission online, a 30 Euro bonus gets deducted from the prices above.

There might be extra charges for our excursion on 31.1.20, we will inform you accordingly.

5. Drymix Mortar Yearbook 2020: Call for Entries, it makes sense + distribution + relevance

Contributors to our events in Moscow (30. and 31.1.2020), Sydney, NSW, Australia (5.3.2020), Manila, The Philippines (17.3.2020), Toronto, ON, Canada May 7, 2020) and México City (16. June 2020) are asked to consider to submit their wonderful proposed topics as articles into our Drymix Mortar Yearbook 2020.

Deadline for submissions is 31. December 2019, the book will come out in Toronto in May.

6. Get it by Mail order: Drymix Mortar Yearbook 3D Special

Get your copy by sending us an e-mail or order online in our shop. The new Drymix Mortar Yearbook 3D Special features contributions by BauMinator / 3 D Druck Baumit GmbH, Cobod International A/S, GDCh Fachgruppe Bauchemie/Division of the Chemistry of Construction Materials of the German Chemical Society, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH, m-tec mathis technik GmbH, Laticrete International, National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST, PrintStones GmbH, Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Technische Universität Braunschweig, UltraTest GmbH and Wacker Chemie AG.

The Drymix Mortar Yearbook 3D Special is available for purchase on our website (Visa, Mastercard) for 20 Euro incl. 7% German VAT and shipping and handling) or by e-mail to us (25 Euro PLUS 7% German VAT +costs for shipping and handling).

7. Synthomer Acquires Omnova

Synthomer plc, London, United Kingdom, announced back in July 2019, that it has reached an agreement with the management of Omnova Solutions Inc., Beachwood, Ohio, USA to take over all Omnova shares. This month, the Omnova shareholders have approved the transaction by accepting 9,15 Euro (USD 10,15) per share (the amount of shares was not disclosed). Omnova is a polymer dispersion and specialty chemicals manufacturer with 10 production sites (including pilot plants). Apart from aqueous polymers, Omnova is also active downstream in the laminate, fabric and paper coating and polymer film production. The company has about 1900 employees and operates thirteen sites across the US, Europe and Asia. The transaction is expected to complete in late 2019 / early 2020, regulatory approvals from the European Community and Turkey are still pending.

8. Sika Opens New Drymix Mortar Plant in Ethiopia

Sika AG of Baar, Switzerland has recently commissioned a new drymix mortar plant in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. The production unit is located at Sika's existing installation, where a plant for concrete admixtures was built back in 2016. According to Ivo Schädler, Head of EMEA of Sika, the new plant "...will manufacture technical mortars as well as our entire tile adhesive portfolio... (and thus) shorten delivery times." According to Sika, state subsidies into infrastructure projects support the dynamic development in Ethiopia. The construction industry is said to have grown by 12% in 2019 and continue to grow 8 to 9% over the next 10 year period.

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Editor-in-Chief: Ferdinand Leopolder.

All information © 2003 - 2019 by Micro-Conference Pte. Ltd., Ferdinand Leopolder, 80 South Bridge Road, #03-01, Singapore, 058710, ACRA Reg. Nr. 201202876N.

Sincerely Yours, Ferdinand Leopolder