The Boral Technical Services Laboratory at Baulkham Hills in NSW ensures Boral’s products and those of external clients from across the country and even internationally, meet required specifications and industry standards. The lab is home to a team of concrete experts called upon to undertake some of our most specialised testing.
So, what are these tests? And who are the people conducting them?
Meet Tony Song Snr, Valentin Mukhin and Tony Song Jnr.
Tony Snr started with Boral in 2008 and is in charge of our specialised testing.
Valentin has been working with Boral for 23 years and carries out these highly specialised tests on the properties of materials.
Tony Jnr has only been at Boral for a comparatively short six years, spending the first three years at the Marrickville precast concrete plant working on the tunnel project, before working as a technician and now Senior Technical officer.
The lab conducts 450 different types of tests. Some of these tests are so specialised, they are only undertaken by a few labs globally. This has seen Boral’s lab become internationally recognised with a strong reputation and brand presence.
Much of the work is conducted on end-product development, work that can lead to significant discoveries, changing the very nature of the construction materials industry.
Some examples include developing a method to use recycled glass in concrete and replacing a portion of Portland cement with limestone.
One of the most unique tests the lab conducts is called the Barchair test, which assesses the integrity of products that hold reinforcing mesh in place. Our Technical Services Laboratory is the only lab in Australia offering the test. Internationally, the test is only conducted by five other labs in New Zealand, Germany, and three in Asia.
It’s not just the uniqueness of the tests that makes Boral’s Technical Services Laboratory special, but also the projects they support. For example, the team undertook constructability and creep testing of the concrete used in the 828 metre, 160 story high Burj Khxalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
The lab is also the only commercial lab in Australia to conduct creep testing, and the only lab with National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accreditation. Creep is the inelastic (permanent) deformation under load. Structures with long design lives (50 years +) should have limited creep. The team conducts this test to ensure our high-strength products, such as those in the ENVISIA® and Aspire® ranges, satisfy the design requirements for creep deformation.
Boral is very fortunate to have three such talented people in the business. Keep up the great work team!
