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Less concrete + less steel = less CO2
Compared to traditional (mesh and rebar) reinforcement, Dramix® steel fibers can reduce the thickness of concrete floors by 10 to 25%, while maintaining or even improving the floor’s performance and durability. Moreover, with Dramix® you can reduce the amount of steel by 30 to 50% compared to traditional reinforcement solutions. By using less concrete and less steel, you significantly reduce the carbon footprint of your constructions.
Longer lasting concrete elements
Dramix® enables you to build concrete floorings with longer lifetimes. A concrete floor reinforced with steel fibers is more durable and resistant to wear and tear than traditionally reinforced floors. This is particularly important in industrial flooring given the increased warehouse automation. Automated warehouse vehicles follow identical routes, creating more localized usage-patterns.
No micro-plastic pollution
Dramix® steel fibers deliver a micro-plastic pollution-free solution, as is increasingly required by government regulations in shotcrete applications for sub-sea tunnels.
Calculate your Dramix® sustainability savingsSustainable transportation
Dramix® steel fibers enable densely packed reinforcement material. In layman’s terms, this means that we do not transport air, as opposed to transporting steel mesh. Therefore, the fuel consumption for transport per unit weight is substantially lower. Less mechanical handling with lifting material, adds to the reduction of greenhouse gasses.
We are committed to sustainability
Bekaert has an ambitious sustainability agenda. In line with the Science Based Targets initiative, we aim to reduce Green House Gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and become Carbon Net Zero by 2050. We collaborate with our suppliers and customers to deliver upon this ambition and develop processes and applications that help drive sustainability improvements across the supply chain.
Recycled steel fibers
The Bekaert R&D team together with universities continues to investigate recyclability. Different techniques are under evaluation to optimize the recyclability of steel fiber concrete. The aim is to obtain clean fractions of aggregates, sand and steel. Even the reuse of “binder material” is under investigation. This means that the recycled steel could either be re-melted or re-used as steel, without any quality loss and certain fractions could be directly reused as steel fibers.
EPD Certification for Bekaert Dramix® production plants
Bekaert wants to help customers improve the sustainability of their construction/building assets and has therefore worked with partner ITB to obtain EPD certifications for its Dramix® portfolio, manufactured in Petrovice (Czech Republic), our largest manufacturing plant, as well as in Lonand (India) and Karawang (Indonesia).
Frequently Asked Questions about Steel Fibers and Sustainability
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered report that communicates transparent and comparable information about the lifecycle environmental impact of products in a credible way. An EPD is compliant with the ISO 14025 standard.
Bekaert wants to help customers improve the sustainability of their construction/building assets and has therefore worked with ITB to obtain EPD certifications for its Dramix® portfolio, manufactured in Petrovice (Czech Republic), our largest manufacturing plant, as well as in Lonand (India) and Karawang (Indonesia).
Other plants will follow the same process in the near future, with our goal to have our full portfolio covered by end of 2022.
In addition, we are working with One Click LCA to enable customers to efficiently compare Dramix® based solutions for the sustainability advantages they bring on construction/building assets and processes. It gives a base for comparison with alternative (mainly traditional) reinforcement solutions and it reinforces our commitment to incorporate lifecycle assessment into our sustainability ambition.
Did this help you?Yes, this EPD certificate follows the EN15804, followed by most other national certification agencies.
In those countries where regulations differ from EPD standards, we will involve the relevant parties to assess the differences and decide whether additional certification is required.
Did this help you?We currently have an EPD for Dramix® manufactured in Petrovice (Czech Republic), Lonand (India) and Karawang (Indonesia). This means that today, 80% of Dramix® steel fibers are manufactured at an EPD certified plant. We also have obtained an EPD for Mesh Track®.
Next up are our plants in Wilkes Barre (Pennsylvania, US), Izmit (Turkey) and Shanghai (China), after which all of our Dramix® plants will be fully EPD certified.
If you would like to be informed of our EPD releases and receive these documents as soon as they are available please let your Bekaert sales manager know.
Did this help you?Given the similarities in the manufacturing process, this EPD certification is a good proxy for all types of Dramix® produced at EPD certified plants.
However to be precise, we are developing a multiplier and formula together with the ITB that allows you to calculate an adjusted GWP (global warming potential, the parameter measuring CO2 emission equivalents) score for each of our fiber types. This multiplier will uploaded on this website as soon as it is available.
Did this help you?The pandemic led to (partial) shutdowns of plants, which does not accurately portray what a normal production is usually like. As such, EPD calculations based on lifecycle data from that year would have been inaccurate. Further, some of the product lifecycle data is calculated by external agencies which only base their calculations on an entire calendar year. Therefore, the EPD's we kicked off mid 2021 or prior are based on data from 2019, and recent ones are based on data from 2021.
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