Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) is an advanced assembly plant that manufactures Elantra sedans, Santa Fe and Tucson SUVs, and the Santa Cruz Sport Adventure Vehicle. In 2018, HMMA constructed a new plant to manufacture engine heads and enhance existing operations to support production of existing models. Bekaert played a key role in its construction.
Hyundai Engineering America was responsible for overseeing the engineering, commissioning, maintenance and operation of the new plant. They had very high quality construction standards for the plant. The initial design incorporated rebar, but one of their engineers had previous experience with steel fiber reinforcement solutions so they contacted Bekaert. The Bekaert team worked closely with Hyundai Engineering to drive a technology change to steel fiber specification.
As well as providing the solution based around Dramix®3D 65/60 steel fibers, Bekaert put in place a quality control procedure to ensure homogeneous steel fiber distribution, quality of the steel fibers section, and an optimum concrete mix to maximize workability.
Bekaert also provided advice to support the optimum polishing of the concrete floor, in order to protect the concrete from staining, reduce dusting, and ultimately for esthetics purposes in some of the showroom areas.
Benefits include increased productivity, a cleaner environment, and decreased equipment repair costs. By eliminating rebar, the project was completed five days ahead of schedule. This was a significant advantage as it enabled production to start sooner than anticipated.
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