“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet, {...} Be curious.
And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”
Stephan Hawking (1942-2018)
Research and Innovation
LOMGroup embarks on the path of open innovation for products which can ease the life of users, through multiple partnerships with the players in its ecosystem – young entrepreneurs in particular. proposing new services for users of infrastructure, optimising the performance of business activities and worksites, or integrating new technology bricks into its business solutions – many challenges await the Group and its entities as they speed up their transformation through unique products - much of them are novum on the market, developed in cooperation with reputable Universities in Germany and USA.
Our Completed Product Development Highlights 2017-2018
Intelligent concrete ?
We developed ultrafast concrete lasting for millennia
Nano-scale structural analyzes point the way to more stable building materials
Nanostructure in the concrete
20 billion tons of concrete are installed worldwide each year in skyscrapers, bridges and streets with ascending trend. But despite all stability, the structures do not last forever and must be repaired or demolished after a few decades. Now latest materials researches have proved a way that concrete could survive even millennia. We have togather with University Kassel analyzed how, over time, the structures of the calcium-silicate hydrates contained in the concrete can change and lead to cracks. Our scientists presented their results and at the same time a solution to the dissipation of concrete structures:
"The thinner a structure, the more sensitive it is to stretch," says Franz-Josef Ulm of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Cambridge, who was a leading member of the research team.. As a result, the strength of concrete decreases over time. A central reason for this, the researcher and his colleague Matthieu Vandamme of the Université Paris-Est found in the behavior of nanometer-sized particles of calcium silicate hydrate. If these do not sit close enough together, they can slide past each other, leading to the formation of tiny voids in the concrete.
One solution to this problem lies in a denser arrangement of the silicate hydrates at the nanoscale. Both the formation of cavities can be prevented as well as slow the fluid movement between the particles. Theoretical estimates showed that silicate waste from aluminum production could increase the density in concrete by up to 87 percent. This ultra-dense material would be stable not only for a few decades but up to 16,000 years.
"With this new understanding of concrete we could build filigree, elegant and at the same time stable structures with less material," says Ulm. Although the ultra-dense concrete would probably be more expensive than the building material available today, the use could be expected because of the significantly reduced repair costs.
And our future will be changed by communicating roads, walls, even our furniture we daily use and much more.. Here some samples of our applications.
Communicative
Thin and steel-hard
Translucent
In every colour
White-paper - excerpts
Composite of cement and nanotubes is sensitive to pressure - our field tests were successful
Today speedster be exposed with radar cameras or induction loops in the lane. But in the future, the road surface itself could provide data on the speed, weight and number of vehicles. This is possible, according to tests made by LOMGroup scientists working togather with Kassler University researchers with multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Stirred in conventional concrete, they turn the road into a large and sensitive pressure sensor.
"We tested the sensitivity of the concrete nanotube mixture in the laboratory and on test roads," report Baoguo Han and his colleagues from the University of Minnesota in Duluth working in the team.
To do this, the scientists placed two electrode cables across their entire width in their pressure-sensitive concrete. With them they could directly measure the electrical resistance of the road surface. This changed by a few hundred ohms as soon as a car pressed its weight on the concrete. Immediately thereafter, the pavement relaxed again and shows the original electrical resistance.
In further experiments Han and colleagues want to check the long-term stability of their intelligent concrete and its behavior in wet conditions. If the composite material continues to deliver reliable results, researchers can imagine many applications. Not only for a speed control, but also as an accurate scale for trucks and as a traffic jam the concrete would be suitable. In addition, sudden changes in resistance could indicate initial damage to the pavement. These data could facilitate the planning of construction and repair work.
Read more here
Structural analysis on the nanoscale provides a path to even firmer and more durable building materials..
Permeable Concrete ?
More very soon here !
Permeable Concrete application see a sample video
LOMGroup waves the flag for collaborative innovation
LOGroup has been promoting collaborative innovation for several years already, resulting in numerous initiatives. "RD for consequential merit", a circle created by the Group, coordinates forward-looking thinking about urban transitions, while the "Eco-Design of Construction and Mining" Chair, founded in partnership with Kassler University and Fraunhofer Institute, develops new concepts and tools that are then trialled on certain worksites or integrated into the Group's business solutions.
These initiatives all have a shared goal: to speed up innovation over the whole value-creation chain by capitalising, in a wide range of domains, on outside expertise and in some cases trialling innovations with users under real-life conditions.
Many Group entities are keen to participate in the deveopments of our innovations and support the pertaining projects, in different ways.
Focus
In RD cooperations, the goal is to develop new services and products aimed at enhancing users' live quality, resource saving, cost reducing in an environment friendly manner.
Many projects are therefore supported, including:
- LiveSORT®, which rewards indepen- dent, mobile ore and mineral enrich- ment systems by matching them with commercial advantages (Usage on mining sites mainly ).
- Business in Concrete, which responds everydays live by maching the need for applications, inter alia; thinner walls, elastic components, all type of construction, even furniture production and interieurs as well as transparent surroundings.
Facts and Figures
From 2005 on the Group companies were involved in about 35 research programmes and 7 competitiveness clusters, notably the Advancity cluster specialising in the sustainable city and mobility products. It patented 17 new inventions between 2012 and 2017, bringing its worldwide active patent portfolio to 151. The companies of
LOMGroup invested in total since 2005 in RD 64 m€ and working 159 people in companies for RD (2017)..
A substantial numbers of projects having been brought into life have already recorded Group's product portfolio by excellent results. Read more about our innovative products and prizes at Awards.
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