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Owner of data set Tobermore Concrete Products Ltd |
Technical purpose Tobermore concrete paving, walling and kerb products are made with sands, cements and pigments specially selected for their aesthetic and functional performance. They are manufactured in accordance with BS EN 1338 and BS EN 1339: Concrete Paving Blocks and Flags - Requirements and Test Methods. BS EN 771:3:2011 Aggregate concrete masonry units (Dense and lightweight aggregates) BS EN 1340:2003 Concrete kerb units. Requirements and test methods.
Products are manufactured in two parts - a facing mix, that is mixed seperately, and is then placed on top of a base mix. The facing mix is some 8mm thick, and this is placed on top of the base mix, which is of varying thickness, (depending on loading). The facing mix comprises special sands and pigments for appearance. The base mix comprises standard sands and cement, and does not have any pigments. The declared unit of this type of product is one m².
Specialist sands are coloured white, grey, black, red and/or other as defined. Cements are either CEM II (general use), CEM I (for high strength) or CEM I white for appearance. The mean density of the hardened products is 2350 kg/m³. Most of the sands and aggregates are sourced from Tobermore’s own quarries in the locality. Cements are locally sourced from within Northern Ireland. Some specialist sands come from quarries outside of Northern Ireland, within the EU.
The finished products are then supplied to customers in bales, shrink-wrapped in polythene comprising 30% recycled plastic. Pallets are not included in the calculation. A1 Raw materials supply: The raw materials, sands, pigments, admixtures and cements are sourced from within the represntative geographic area. This module takes into account extraction and processing (including energies) of raw materials before delivery to Tobermore.
A2 Transport: This module covers the impacts of the transport of the raw materials to the production site.
A3 Manufacturing: The paving products are manufactured from specially selected sands, cement, water and a variety of admixtures. The ingredients are batch-weighed and mixed in a concrete pan mixer and dropped through a weigh hopper into moulds for setting. The wet mixes are placed in a curing chamber where the the paving products harden and set. After leaving the curing oven, the paving products are finished according to intended market. The finishing processes are: (a) tumbling in a rotating drum, (b) texturing by shot-blasting the facing surface, and (c) grinding of the facing surface with a carbide tipped grinding head. A proportion of the products do not go through any of the finishing processes. Some products are both textured and ground. After finishing, the paving products are shrink-wrapped and then stored onsite for onward delivery to the customers. |
