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CONCRETE is consisted of cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and water. It is generally
believed that there is no great difference in quality of precast concrete products produced by
diffrent methods. Moreover the perfomance of precast concrete products is particulaly placed
value on its solidity.

In fact, precast concrete products are required various specifications and facilities by government
and municipal offices as follows.

There are major concrete manufacturing methods like Centrifugal Method, Wetcast and Drycast
in Japan.
Drycast method named "VICON" is a manufacturing method of precast concrete products which
compacts extremely stiff consistency concrete with grain refining rigidly by vibration and
compression and the mold can be stripped as soon as concrete has been consolidated. VICON is
the name formed from the initial letters of "VIvration", "Compression" and "CONcrete"

This is a picture in the process of manufacturing precast concrete

products by VICON Method. This process is to fill and form
powdery concrete through vivration by inner vivrating machine.
After applying compression to them from the top by pressure plate,
the mold is pulled out upward and downward.

Compared with products produced by other concrete manufacturing methods, ones

produced by VICON Method with lower W/C(Water-to-Concrete) ratio is superior to
perform resistance and durability to carbonation, freeze-thawing, chemicals and abrasion
 Carbonation of concrete causes reinforcement corrosion has an adverse effect on the
degree of concrete alkalinity.

Accelerated carbonation tests for concrete

Testing machine on condition that carbon dioxide concentration is 10% accelerates carbonation.

The moisture in concrete is freezed, which causes minute cracks by ice pressure. Severe
damage for concrete is occurred by cycle of freezing and thawing of concrete. This
phenomenon is called "freeze-thawing" and is serious problem for precast concrete
products in a cold district.

Comparsion of freeze-thawing - VICON products vs Casting products

Accelarated freeze-thawing test for concrete

Accelarated freeze-thawing test for concrete evaluates resistance to frost damage of concrete.
The test provides the cycle of temperature >18-5 degrees Celsius to accelarate the degradation of
concrete and shows precast concrete products produced by VICON with lower W/C(Water-to-
Cement) ratio has high durability from the testing results.

This test conforms Japan Society Civil Engineers(JSCE) standard JSCE-G501 "freeze-thawing
test method".
(REF : National association for VICON products)

Precast concrete products are also required chemical resistance under the environmet of
sewer systems.
 The production of cement as a raw material of concrete emits carbon dioxide mostly.
Compared with precast concrete products produced by other concrete manufacturing
methods, ones produced by VICON Method has low quantity of cement and emission of
carbon dioxicide.
There are some cases to reduce approx 30% amount of carbon dioxicide of
manufacturing cement in case of pipe products.

VICON Method can strip the mold quickly and have no use for steam curing, which have more
effect on reduction of carbon dioxide emission than above result.

Precast concrete products with lower W/C(Water-to-Cement) ratio are superior to density
and high intensity on condition that amount of cement is same. VICON Method compacts
concrete by vivration and compression, and strip the mold quickly with minimum amount
of water for the hydration and quality assuarance, which enhances strength of precast
concerte products.
W/C(Water-to-Cement) Ratio is the ratio of the weight of water to the weight of cement
used in a concrete, which has a big impact on the quality of precast concrete products.