The cement sector stands at a pivotal crossroads as it faces a surge in scrutiny and cement industry regulations aimed at decarbonising the industry. Keeping on top of the rules and guidance is a big task. So we thought we’d round up some of the key changes in this handy article. But before we get into the nitty gritty, a quick word on the complexities of the UK-EU legal relationship.

UK and EU legislation

Since leaving the EU in 2016, the UK has a more complicated relationship with EU law than expected. While one of the main goals of Brexit was to give the UK more control over legislation, in reality, many EU laws remain in place. And, with the worldwide problem of climate change driving global, EU and UK solutions to decarbonise the cement industry, businesses will need to keep an eye on cement industry regulations and legislation, best practice and guidance.

Fit for 55

In April 2023, the EU introduced new, more stretching carbon-cutting goals in its Fit for 55 package. This means European countries will be targeting CO2 emission reductions of -62% from 2024 and beyond, which will impact two key pieces of cement industry legislation.

1 – emissions trading system allocations

In 2013, the EU gave the manufacturing sector – including cement producers – 80% of its carbon allowances for free, reducing to 30% by 2020. To help the EU hit its increasingly ambitious CO2 reduction goals, this emissions trading system (ETS) free allocation is being phased out over a nine-year period from 2026 to 2034.

The phase-out will start slowly before accelerating towards the end of the period. And it will correspond directly to the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) phase-in. During this transition period, CBAM will only apply to the emissions not included in the free allocation under the ETS.

EU and UK targets to reduce cement emissions will have a significant impact on the industry over the next 10 years and beyond. There will always be a lag between more and less regulated countries in reducing CO2 emissions. However, the CBAM regulations will reduce the likelihood of cheaper imports being brought into the EU and eventually the UK.

2 – carbon border adjustments mechanism (CBAM) reporting

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) aims to level the playing field for cement producers in Europe by imposing a carbon price on imports from non-EU countries. The plan is to ensure the sustainability of cement by making certain imported cement meets similar sustainability standards to those set by European countries.

The legislation relies on accurate reporting with the reporting rules implemented in multiple phases. However, there are some changes coming into force from 2024 to 2026 you need to be aware of:

• Until the end of 2024 – companies must collect fourth quarter data as of 1st October 2023 with the first report submitted by the end of January 2024. Companies can report in one of three ways:
  • Full reporting in line with the new EU method
  • Reporting based on an equivalent method
  • Reporting based on default reference values – until July 2024 only
• 1st January 2025 – only the EU method can be used. Estimated and default values can only be used for complex goods if the estimates are less than 20% of the total embedded emissions.
• 1st January 2026 onwards – the permanent system comes into effect. Importers will need to declare the quantity of goods imported into the EU in the previous year and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embedded in them. The company will then provide the appropriate number of CBAM certificates.

In an update to the original European Commission plans, indirect GHG emissions from electricity and heat will now be covered for cement.

Dedicated IT tools have been developed to help importers with these calculations and there’s also in-depth guidance and training to support businesses with these changes.

The UK

As in the EU, the UK has also reviewed its emissions trading and CBAM schemes.

1 – Emissions Trading Scheme

The UK government has also reviewed its carbon emissions trading plans and is reducing the total number of carbon allowances available for auction in 2024 to 69 million – a drop of 12.4% compared to 2023.

Each year, from 2024, the number of carbon allowances will continue to reduce, resulting in a 45% decrease by 2027. Then decreasing further to a total of around 24 million by 2030. With fewer available allowances to buy, the cement sector will need to take further steps to cut its emissions.

As with the EU’s legislation, certain sectors with high carbon leakage risk will be given allowances, however these are under review for the lime industry. So watch this space or find out more here.

2 – UK CBAM

The UK is set to implement a new import carbon pricing mechanism by 2027 to support the decarbonisation drive. Cement imports into the UK from overseas will face a comparable carbon price to goods produced in the UK by 2027. This will help avoid carbon leakage, ensuring overseas products have a comparable carbon price to those produced in the UK.

The charge applied will depend on the amount of carbon emitted during the production of the imported good. This scheme is a follow-on to the EU CBAM scheme and will significantly increase charges for the import of high-carbon producing industries like cement. Making it increasingly important to understand the end-to-end emissions for every cement product.

UK Concrete and Cement Industry – Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero

This roadmap from the UK Concrete trade association sets out a pathway to take the UK concrete and cement industry to beyond net zero by 2050. Hopefully helping to keep the sector on the front foot and ahead of government legislation.

The roadmap builds on and replaces the UK Cement Industry 2050 Greenhouse Gas Strategy published in 2013. It focuses on the application of five decarbonisation technologies associated with cement production and calculates the carbon-saving potential of each of these categories:

• Indirect emissions from decarbonised electricity 
• Decarbonised transport networks  
• Low-carbon concretes 
• Fuel switching  
• Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS)

This kind of best practice guidance is already setting the scene for companies around the sustainability of cement. So it’s a useful document that could help your business’ operations to become more environmentally friendly.

Cement industry regulations to watch

BSI recommends changes to the UK’s cement recipe

Although this isn’t a piece of legislation, new concrete manufacturing guidance from the British Standards Industry (BSI) could save one million tonnes of CO2 each year if adopted across all UK construction sites.

The proposed recipe blends finely ground limestone from UK quarries with other materials to reduce the amount of traditional cement used, creating a lower carbon concentrate. According to the BSI, for every 5% of limestone powder added, every tonne of concrete can achieve 5% lower CO2 emissions.

Ongoing research into low-carbon binders is continuing to gather pace globally, so keep one eye on this developing field.

The European Union’s Green Deal Industrial Plan

Published in February 2023, the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan aims to simplify, speed up and align incentives to maintain the EU as a competitive place for net zero investment. While it does not include specific measures for the cement manufacturing industry yet, it’s likely these will be developed to include some in future. So watch this space for more news on the journey to eco-friendly concrete.

Greenhouse gas protocol

Since 2013, all UK quoted companies have had to report their greenhouse gas emissions as part of their annual Directors’ Report. Non-listed companies and limited liability partnerships do not have to do this legally. However, as the sustainability of cement becomes a more pressing issue – and with the likelihood of more stringent reporting requirements in future – more cement firms are seeking to better understand their GHG emissions. Including scope one, two and three emissions which cover:

1. Direct emissions from company-owned machinery, facilities and vehicles.
2. Indirect emissions sources associated with the generation of electricity, heat, steam and/or cooling.
3. Indirect emissions resulting from all other activities and sources not covered above including business travel, supply chain, waste and deliveries.

With the sustainability of cement and cement containing products set to become an even bigger focus for the government and public, cement industry leaders need to think green. If you’re looking for support with reducing the carbon footprint of your cement containing products, contact Cemkem’s technical team.

Ensuring the competitiveness of your construction material product range relies on continual improvement in every area of your operations.

Additives play a key role in perfecting your products’ performance. But there are five other areas of support that could play a vital role in helping your business optimise its production. Read on to find out if there are any areas you could leverage for your business.

1. Technical commercial insight – right from the get-go

When you contact your raw material suppliers, it’s usually for a quote for additives you need – either for an existing formulation, something new or slightly different with varying degrees of development work.

The key here is to find an additive supplier with a technically trained commercial team that will help you get to the right solution as quickly as possible and save you time by:

• Understanding the products you manufacture, the raw materials you use and providing support for product challenges you’re experiencing.
• Applying the knowledge gained through rigorous technical training on the products they sell to your product and raw material challenges.
• Presenting a range of technical solutions along with the pricing so you can quickly see the cost implications.
• Rapidly bringing in the right technical team members if highly specialist technical support is needed.
• Ensuring open lines of communication that enable a collaborative working style built on trust.
• Always finishing what they start – be that providing a sample or price or carrying out technical work to give you what you need.

2. Technical and R&D support to formulate the perfect product at the right cost

Leading construction chemical suppliers discover and invest in some of the best people in the business. In particular, their technical people. Look out for potential new partners that have built a technical team with:

• Deep skill sets plus extensive experience covering a wide range of sectors and regulations.
• Access to a wide product range so they can effectively solve a range of product challenges, including sustainability.
• State-of-the-art labs and the latest technologies and methods to test cementitious products.
• Experience in identifying and filling gaps in their customers’ product ranges.
• The ability to solve a wide range of product challenges from performance and cost to sustainability.

The best suppliers are also able to provide technical support on a wide range of projects

3. Support to help your business become more sustainable

Your business will face more stringent environmental regulations, including the European Green Deal and the UK’s own drive to net zero, alongside increasingly eco-sensitive customers. There are three main ways the right construction chemical partner can help your business meet and exceed its business goals while contributing to a greener future.

1. A range of admixtures and additives that can be used to help meet the increasingly demanding sustainability goals required to drive towards net zero.
2. A technical support service that complements the in-house expertise in your business with additional technical experience and capabilities.
3. Sustainability advisory and compliance support to help you define and achieve your objectives and offer guidance on how to start and progress your sustainability journey.

With this kind of expertise, your business will accelerate its sustainability agenda.

4. Continuity of supply – supporting maximum manufacturing uptime

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chains were severely disrupted. This pushed manufacturers to seek additional suppliers to ensure a continuous supply of the right quality products when they needed them.

With extreme weather events, climate change and geopolitical unrest threatening supply chains, seeking second – or even third – suppliers is a great way to ensure the robustness of your construction manufacturing supply chain. Keeping your production lines up and running, and helping you maintain customer loyalty, profitability and your reputation in a competitive market.

To ensure you’re working with a high-quality supplier, look for the golden triangle of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45000. These certifications will ensure your provider is committed to quality and has the management systems in place to rigorously monitor, control and enhance its processes and outputs. As well as having clear customer and supplier communication channels to promote open dialogue that’s key to delivering on time, every time.

5. A great cultural fit with their suppliers

When your business relies on the high standards of every component in its supply chain, working with companies that share your same high standards is vital. Suppliers that have a clear vision, mission and values born out in the way they work gives your company the reassurance its supply chain is secure.

Finding a supplier that does all of this as part of their standard offer could help your business:

• Adapt its products to meet regulatory and consumer demands.
• Respond to changing regulations reducing legal risk and reputational damage.
• Reduce production downtime with security of supply.
• Enhance products without incurring additional costs.
• Tweak existing products helping you access new markets.
• Expand its product range to secure market share and boost profits.

It’s also nice to know you’ll be working with warm, friendly people who make business a pleasure.

Find out how we’ve helped our customers rapidly scale their business, grow their market share and extend their product range. Or, for a chat with a member of our commercial or technical teams, call us on 0161 762 0044 or email us at sales@cemkem.co.uk.

When you’re formulating a new cement-based product, or reformulating an existing one, you’re aiming to ensure it meets all internal and external standards. This isn’t always easy, especially if time and resources are limited.

The solution is having access to the most appropriate technology. As well as the technical expertise to use it to maximum effect.

This doesn’t have to mean buying the equipment yourself. Because some cement-based product manufacturers invest heavily in technology and resource expertise. This will help your customers remain compliant without slowing product development or taking up too much time.

What does this look like? Read on to find out.

Step 1 – your compliance end goals mark the starting point

Experienced construction chemical suppliers start with a clear understanding of the three sets of compliance requirements your cementitious products need to meet. For example:

1. Your internal product standards

Typically this means adhering to internal policies and procedures like ISO9001 to maintain quality throughout your change management process as well as meeting your performance, cost, sustainability, health and safety and environmental standards.

2. External standards and regulations

Ensuring any product formulation meets the requirements of whichever national or international standard it’s designed to meet.

3. Product liability insurance standards

Making sure your product meets the liability insurance standards so your new application is covered.

Step 2 – the right tests are established or new ones created

A detailed understanding of this backdrop sets the direction for the types of testing that need to be carried out and the equipment to do this. Even if specific testing methods don’t exist, a leading supplier will use their expertise to create robust new test methodologies that will provide peace of mind. As well as helping shape future product standards to ensure the products’ relevance to the industry.

Step 3 – high-quality testing is carried out giving you peace of mind

The equipment needed will vary depending on the cementitious product you’re developing and the regulations and standards governing its use. Here are two examples of the types of equipment that will not only ensure you remain compliant but bring the potential to enhance your formulation – or reduce its cost – too.

Scenario 1 – replacing the cement in a cement-based tile adhesive

A traditional fast-setting, cement-based tile adhesive can be reformulated to remove a significant percentage of the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) from the formulation. An OPC-free binder system can also be used.

It’s key to ensure these binder systems are still able to meet the relevant industry standard and work consistently in the market. Standard testing equipment – like auto vicats and adhesion strength testers – are essential in ensuring the end product is fit for purpose. But, the end formulation can be improved further by combining these methods with ultrasonic hydration monitoring. Giving increased confidence in the development pathway being followed.

This is highly relevant when creating a formulation that uses a lower-carbon-based binder system. Ensuring these types of binder systems provide early strength development, for example in a rapid-setting tile adhesive, is key to increasing sustainability while maintaining product performance.

Scenario 2 – ensuring a guaranteed 12-month shelf life for a product containing chromium-6

EU and UK law dictates any product containing Portland cement must have a chromium-6 content of below two parts per million for the duration of its stated shelf life. High-quality testing is vital to ensuring your product meets these specifications.

Ideally, you’ll test your formulation using accelerated storage techniques that synthesise storage to ensure shelf-life stability. To do this, look out for a company with a UV-based spectrophotometer, the relevant reagents and the expertise to use this specialist equipment.

With the right technical expertise, this piece of kit can help enhance the robustness of a product’s shelf-life. Giving confidence that the end product will meet the stated shelf-life requirements. The testing could also reveal the option to use lower doses without impacting its stability, potentially resulting in a more cost-effective product.

How can you apply these kinds of technologies without breaking the bank?

Buying all this kit can be expensive, particularly if you’re not going to use it too often. The alternative is to look out for an additive supplier that invests in a wide range of tech across multiple construction chemical industry product types. Providing you with advanced testing capability that can be trusted across screeds, self-levelling underlays, renders, technical mortars, tile adhesives and more.

Cutting-edge tech is key to helping you rapidly reformulate your products so they meet or beat your performance requirements as well as the relevant regulatory and compliance standards.

To find out if Cemkem could be your next construction chemical partner, get in touch with one of our talented technical team on 0161 762 0044 or at sales@cemkem.co.uk.

It’s a challenging time to be a cementitious or drymix mortar product manufacturer. Rising raw material and production costs are squeezing budgets. Plus the need to create more sustainable products is a pressing issue at the top of the product development must-do list. 

The good news is there’s a solution. One that will help you achieve performance and improve sustainability with the potential to save you some money. More on that in a moment. First, let’s explore the most common product development scenarios you’re likely to face.

Achieving the perfect cost-performance ratio

The key to achieving the right cost-performance balance isn’t always straightforward. As the following common product development, optimisation and sustainability opportunities demonstrate:

Formulation Optimisation

Making changes, like optimising binder content levels, can help you achieve your desired performance with the potential to also reduce cost. Particularly when you consider the introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Moving away from traditional CEM I

Using supplementary cementing materials can be a cost-effective way of reducing CEM I content, without detrimentally affecting current product performance.

Enhancing raw material use

Tailoring additive packages like thickener and polymer packages.

Consolidating raw materials

Buying fewer raw materials or combining them to create a synergistic effect can help you make more from less. For example, using one redispersible polymer powder across multiple formulation types can save on delivery, transport and storage costs.

Exploring raw materials with lower carbon footprints

Recycled aggregates and circular fillers reduce setting times while enhancing both early and final strengths in drymix mortars.

In each of these situations, thinking about cost in use is a key part of achieving the right cost-performance balance. But there are also other savings to consider.

Reduce your CO2 and save on carbon taxes

One of the most impactful changes you can make to your cementitious product is by incorporating specialist cements and additives, reducing the amount of Portland cement used.  This will make a major impact on the CO2 footprint of your products without impacting the strength and performance of the end product.

Under a carbon tax regime – like the ones in place in the UK, EU and around the world – governments charge manufacturers for each ton of greenhouse gas they emit. So by using hydraulic binders like CEM II and III and reducing the Portland cement in your products, you’ll reduce your product’s CO2 and your carbon tax bill. These savings can either be added to your bottom line, reinvested in your business or even passed on to customers.

It’s worth looking for a provider that’s done the work so they can supply you with the carbon footprint for all their additives. Helping you calculate the carbon footprint of your product to meet your scope three obligations.

With consumers and companies pushing for more sustainable options, being able to market your products as lower carbon is likely to help your products stand out in the marketplace. Potentially increasing market share and opening up new markets.

Even more cost savings associated with formulation adaptation

Many of the additional cost savings are related to sustainability as adapting the formulation, using more sustainable additives or including additives that can be used at lower doses means:

• Decreases in chemical production leading to a reduction in CO2 emissions.
• Less weight being shipped around the world across your supply chain.
• A lighter product being pushed through your manufacturing plant saving energy.
• The potential for less hazardous chemical use benefitting people and the environment.

These are all brilliant things to do for the planet. However, let’s be honest – some cementitious products only use small amounts of additives. Making the sustainability impact of each individual unit relatively small.

Yet, consider what a 1% reduction in energy, transport emissions or hazardous waste could mean over the course of one, three, five or even 10 years across for one product. Suddenly these small amounts add up to make a big difference. And, if you made similar low-dose additive changes across your entire portfolio, the savings could be bigger still.

What does all this mean for the strength of your product?

Does reducing cement content mean an overall reduction in strength or other performance metrics? Not at all. With the right technical advice, additives and dosing, you can demonstrate that the performance of your product remains unchanged even after altering the formulation.

Perfecting the types and doses of additives in your cementitious and drymix products is a great way to tackle rising material and production costs while advancing your sustainability goals.

If achieving the perfect balance feels like juggling chainsaws, give Cemkem a call on 0161 762 0044 or at sales@cemkem.co.uk. Our technical team has the experience to develop your products and help you tick all the boxes. Making your products more sustainable, while retaining performance and saving costs.

There’s always been a need to balance cost vs performance, with manufacturers on the lookout for the nirvana of superior performance and reduced costs. Today, however, that balance is even more complex, with demand increasing for products and ingredients that are sustainable, environmentally friendly, and build towards a truly circular economy.

In this guide, we’ll look at:

• Why cost, performance and sustainability are all key considerations in construction chemicals
• How to get the technical support you need to achieve a balance of factors
• What to consider when choosing a technical support partner for your business

It’s time for change

The construction chemical industry has evolved over the decades, with new ingredients, processes and technologies always becoming available to help companies drive and grow their businesses. Yet many manufacturers aren’t making the most of these opportunities, either through inertia (if your products are reliable and successful, why make changes?) or because of the risk to product performance – which could affect both sales and reputation.

But today’s market conditions are making change inevitable:

• Cost inflation. The cost of doing business generally has risen, but in manufacturing the cost of raw materials globally has risen dramatically – on average +4.1% in 2023, and a total of +25% since 2020. And with global supply chains, there’s also significant cost related to shipping from abroad.
• Changing customer expectations. New market opportunities, plus bespoke customer requests, are driving demand for new product formulations as competition increases. Customers are often willing to pay for new features, if you can deliver them.
• Rise of sustainability. Legislation and customer expectations around environmental and social sustainability are driving the need to improve the environmental impact of cement products, for example by reducing the use of raw materials with high embodied carbon, such as lithium carbonate, and the move towards low OPC or OPC-free binder systems.

It might feel risky to make changes to product formulations or manufacturing operations. But if you can get the right balance of cost, performance and sustainability, you’ll be in the best position to create a clear business advantage in a difficult marketplace.

For example:

• Moving to more locally manufactured raw materials can potentially reduce the cost and environmental impact of procuring and shipping raw materials from the rest of the world, for example lithium carbonate.
• The use of selected  additives can improve the performance of cement-based products, such as control over setting times, rheology, flow properties etc., enabling you to better meet your customers’ needs, and perform better in your marketplace.
• Choosing more sustainable or circular alternatives to core ingredients can enhance the sustainability profile of end products.

Get the technical support you need

The biggest success factor for product change is your technical team. With time and specialist resources, you can fully investigate your challenges, research the industry for solutions – or create your own – and thoroughly test new products and formulations before formally adopting them. You have full control over your priorities, making it easier to achieve the balance your business needs across cost, performance and sustainability.

However, these resources – people and technology – can be expensive to acquire and maintain. It’s why organisations that don’t have their own technical support – or whose teams have limited capacity – choose to work with a technical partner like Cemkem.

Finding the right partner

If you don’t have your own technical team, it’s important to choose the right organisation to partner with. Here are five of the things you should look for.

1.      Good scientists are talented and curious, but also good communicators

The best technical experts are inquisitive and want to know how things work. We’ve chosen people who are always keen to try new things and push the boundaries of current technology – it’s how we discover those disruptive innovations. We also understand the value of communication skills: results and outcomes have to be accessible to anyone in the business.

2.      A technical team needs a variety of skills and experience

You need your technical team to have skills that complement each other and cover a wide range of technologies. We have experts in different types of chemistry and with specific sector experience, including construction. But individual team members also have unique skills, for example in test method development and analysis – so we can devise testing for any customer request, and report on it.

3.      Company culture drives technical results

A technical team can only deliver innovation if innovation is a core company value. As well as employing the right people, we also create an environment designed for success. We provide leading-edge testing tools, and support requests for new equipment. We positively encourage testing and trying – and this relentless attitude has helped to deliver some of our best innovations.

4.      Look at other sectors for inspiration

There’s continual innovation in the construction and concrete sectors – but you’ll find even more if you look beyond these. What if a raw ingredient used in an industrial cleaner might also deliver a new feature to a cement-based tile adhesive? It’s just one reason why we recruit our technical experts from a variety of sectors

5.      Supporting sustainability

Environmental impact can’t be an afterthought – it needs to be at the heart of everything you do. We want to produce products that are as sustainable as possible, for ourselves and our customers, and this is a key consideration across all of our projects. We’re also extending this to include our suppliers, for greater sustainability across our ecosystem.

“You might have heard the saying ‘Quality means doing it right when no-one is looking.’ In Cemkem, we feel this way about innovation, too. We don’t just work on today’s customers’ projects – we’re always experimenting with leading-edge technologies to create new and improved products and solutions. It’s another reason why customers choose to work with us.”

Find out more

At Cemkem, our Technical Support Service has worked with businesses across the construction and industrial chemical industries for over 15 years[KM4] . We’re a team of highly skilled, experienced and curious scientists and technologists who work side-by-side with in-house teams to solve all your cost, performance and sustainability challenges.

For more information, contact Cemkem on +44 (0) 161 762 0044 or at sales@cemkem.co.uk.

Non-compliance can be costly. Not only in terms of the legal risks, fines and reputational damage when issues hit the headlines. But because a failure to meet regulatory standards can stop production and impact your bottom line.

However, this is a worst-case scenario, but it can happen. It’s vital to identify and relieve the vulnerabilities in established businesses that can result in non-compliance.

In this article, we will cover three of the main compliance pressure points and pressure relieving-solutions for cementitious product manufacturing businesses.

1. Technical and R&D Capacity

A key compliance component for any cementitious or drymix mortar product manufacturer is its technical and compliance team. Responsible for ensuring adherence to an extensive array of regulations, these teams should have one eye on the day-to-day and one eye scanning the horizon for changing regulations.

This ensures they can continually adapt your business’s chemical use, products, labelling, data sheets and record keeping. Helping your company remain compliant with the ever-changing array of laws and regulations that govern cementitious product manufacturing.

Adapting to change relies heavily on research and development (R&D). Including projects that explore how to optimise formulations and switch away from traditional OPC-rich binder systems to improve products’ sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint.

This classic R&D work can often be lost in the daily grind. This can result in the technical team becoming firefighters who deal with materials shortages and rising raw materials costs.

With escalating production costs, R&D is often impacted when businesses tighten their belts, leading to fewer or less experienced hires and a lack of capacity and expertise. Not only can this impact compliance, but it also affects innovation, which can place your business at risk of loosing it’s competitive advantage and falling behind the competition.

What is the Pressure Point Reliever?

Boost your technical team with confidential and external expertise to pick up R&D projects, deal with regulatory compliance issues or take on some of the day-to-day work. This allows you to expand your team’s capacity and capability to focus on other priorities.

2. Lack of Integrated Management Systems

This is the reason so many manufacturers have ISO certifications in place, like:

• ISO 9001 – quality
• ISO 1400 – environmental safety
• ISO 45001 – health and safety

If your business has these certifications, they’ll play a major role in helping you achieve and remain compliant. But if you haven’t got them all – and even if you have – there’s a chance your practices aren’t as watertight as you might like. This can cause major issues. This usually happens in the increasingly complex post-Brexit landscape.

There are many ways companies can fall foul of the constantly evolving regulatory landscape. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) must be continually updated to meet the latest regulatory frameworks. If an MSDS hasn’t been updated for a significant period of time, it could be non-compliant. This can lead to issues with supply of the associated end product until the MSDS is updated and compliant.

It can be all too easy to miss a change in regulation or lose track of your data safety sheet updates. Particularly when your technical team is under pressure or under-resourced.

What is the Pressure Point Reliever?

Integrated management systems are a great starting point. But they still rely on human expertise. This makes it vital to have a trusted technical partner in your corner, someone who can sort out technical compliance issues swiftly and effectively while protecting your intellectual property or help you spot and deal with problems before the authorities do.

3. Old or Lack of Lab Equipment

Most cementitious product manufacturing labs have an array of important, industry-specific testing equipment. However, when it comes to investing in other tech, budgets don’t always stretch. A lot of the time there are workarounds that can be used, but these alternative workarounds may not provide the most accurate and reliable data, which can potentially lead to product issues.

For example, take flowing screed/levelling compound testing equipment. The typical method is to use the traditional three-gang shrinkage prism moulds to assess drying shrinkage. This is a great tool for initial development work and screening a high number of formulations. However, once a development formulation is decided upon, using more specialised expansion or shrinkage measuring equipment is key to understanding the following aspects of the development formulation:

• The initial expansion phase and ettringite formation period
• The period of time and end of the initial expansion phase.
• The start of the drying shrinkage phase.
• The length and severity of the drying shrinkage.

This level of understanding requires the use of specialist equipment. The tools aren’t always prohibitively expensive, but they’re not regularly in use, so it often doesn’t make sense for every company to invest in such equipment. However, this creates the potential for product issues further down the line.

What is the Pressure Point Reliever?

Partner with a distributor that invests heavily in its labs and already has the cutting-edge equipment to carry out the testing on your behalf. Ensuring your product formulation meets or beats your performance specifications and relevant regulations.

At Cemkem, our deeply experienced in-house technical team regularly partners with cementitious product manufacturers, helping to solve their product development and compliance issues. Find out how we’ve helped a range of construction product manufacturers stay on the front foot with regulatory compliance.