Fair-faced concrete is as popular as ever and remains in high demand for interior finishing and facade design. Visually attractive surfaces require superior concrete quality. This is where Master Builders Solutions concrete admixtures come in: They ensure void-free, smooth and sharp-edged concrete surfaces that meet the highest requirements on esthetics and design and, at the same time, increase the profitability and ecology of precast-element production. The broad portfolio offers solutions across the entire production process, from plasticizers and hardening accelerators to release agents to formwork cleaners. The experts from Master Builders Solutions will assist in selecting the right combination of products to find the ideal solution for every challenge.

Customer references from across the world bear testimony to the success: German-based precast manufacturer IDEAL Beton, for instance, places the utmost emphasis on esthetics and sustainability. The company is part of the HUF Group and exclusive supplier for the popular range of prefabricated HUF houses.

“With regard to concrete elements, it is important to have flawless surfaces,” Managing Director Sascha Stroeder said. "Customer requirements are high, and the fair-faced concrete has to be particularly smooth and of superior esthetics. For their release agent, too, IDEAL Beton has opted for an eco-friendly product.

“In the combination of a MasterFinish release agent and a MasterFinish cleaner we have found a solution that is exempt from hazardous labeling and that meets our high demands in terms of fair-faced-concrete quality,” Stroeder added. “Furthermore, cleaning costs have been reduced by approximately 30 percent and formwork service life has increased by 50 percent."

Reduced cleaning costs and increased formwork service life
The MasterFinish portfolio supports a wide variety of specific applications. 

“In the case of IDEAL Beton, we tested a wide range of products locally for a week to select the right combination of products," said Cengizhan Zor, marketing auxiliaries DACH at Master Builders Solutions.

The MasterFinish products selected are made using 98% renewable raw materials and are readily biodegradable. While the release-agent emulsion provides perfect formwork removal after each concreting cycle, the cleaner is used once a week.

“This makes formwork cleaning significantly more straightforward. All rust, foamed-polystyrene and cement residue present on the tables can be removed, and perfect void-free surfaces are the result,” Zor said. "And since the release agent is no longer applied manually but using a spray-bar system, dosage quantities could be reduced as well, resulting in further cost reductions."

MasterEase for optimized rheological properties
Austria-based precast manufacturer Systembau Eder, too, places great emphasis on immaculate concrete surfaces.

“Using MasterEase, quality is consistent throughout, with sharp edges and without any air voids. This is what our customers expect,” said Franz Josef Eder, engineer and managing director, Systembau Eder. “And realizing even very specific customer requirements isn’t a problem either.”

A new plasticizer, MasterEase substantially improves the rheology properties of concrete. The novel technology enables resource-saving concrete optimization and concrete surfaces of outstanding quality – properties that are of enormous benefit to Systembau Eder, particularly in the production of complex precast elements. Viscosity is reduced and the concrete is less sticky.

“As a result, concrete surfaces often are smooth as glass,” said Wolfgang Marisch, technical consultant, Master Builders Solutions.

MasterEase supports the casting of very complex precast elements, thus facilitating the realization of unusual, nonstandard customer requirements.

“Increasingly, our customers are demanding colored concrete,” Eder said. “Or surface treatments such as sand-blasting. In all of this, MasterEase truly is the perfect solution for us.

“Due to the improvement in early strength, we can even have two concreting cycles per day if required, and wastage has been reduced to the per-mil range.”

Thanks to its improvement of concrete rheology properties, MasterEase also reduces abrasion and wear during mixing, making the process more energy-efficient. For Systembau Eder, this resulted in a reduction in energy consumption of 20 percent.

The above success stories are part of the Master Builders Solutions “Quantified Sustainable Benefits” campaign, launched across Europe in 2017.

The campaign focuses on projects where customers were able to increase their productivity while, at the same time, reducing costs and emissions thanks to the advanced chemistry provided by Master Builders Solutions.

The campaign was awarded the German digital-communication award (Deutscher Preis für Onlinekommunikation) for “best microsite” in 2018, and in 2019 it received the German Brand Award in the “storytelling and content marketing” category. It has also been nominated for the 2020 German Design Award.