FoundOcean has been awarded ‘Licensed Applicator’ status by BASF for its cement-based Exagrout Masterflow® 9500, which has been specifically designed and validated for use in the installation of offshore wind farms.
“We’re proud to be appointed as Licensed Applicator for this material. We believe that this ultra-high strength grout demonstrates pioneering properties and will be a welcome addition to the range of specialised grouts that we currently mix and pump for our clients,” commented Jim Bell, Managing Director for FoundOcean . “The confidence shown by BASF to award FoundOcean Licensed Applicator status recognises the high quality of personnel, plant and services we offer.”
Masterflow® 9500 has been tested and validated by licensing bodies for use in grouted connections of offshore foundations, and is the only product that comes with a detailed and grout specific ‘Statement of Compliance’ by DNV.
“Marrying BASF’s world leading chemical manufacturing capabilities and FoundOcean’s extensive offshore experience means that foundation installers and wind farm developers can be confident in the integrity of the grouted connection,” assured Luc Westhof, Key Account Manager for Wind Power at BASF.
Charles Elins, Regional Projects Manager UK and Ireland for BASF added, “We have been developing performance grouts for over 100 years and our wind turbine grouting experience, from which we have formulated our offshore solution, is well established.
This ‘fit for purpose’ grout demonstrates impressive properties such as low heat of hydration thus eliminating the risk of thermal cracking, rapid strength build-up even at low temperatures to support increased installation rates and 28 day compressive strengths of 140MPa. In addition, Masterflow® 9500 can be pumped at temperatures as low as 0ºC which means the available installation season can be extended and offshore wind farms can be operational sooner. Finally, and arguably the most important attribute, Masterflow® 9500 exhibits zero autogenous shrinkage, a factor which when significant enough is proven to cause cracking in high-strength concrete structures.
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Offshore WIND staff, January 05, 2012; Image: FoundOcean