Buckeye UltraFiber 500™ - The Revolutionary Superior Fiber
1. What is UltraFiber 500™?
UltraFiber 500™ is a premium concrete reinforcing fiber. It has many important performance advantages versus synthetic fibers. It is made from one of the strongest natural fibers known to man, and in concrete is approximately twice as strong as polypropylene fiber. A patented coating technology is utilized on UltraFiber 500™ making it alkali resistant.
2. What's so good about UltraFiber500™ compared to polypropylene fibers?
UltraFiber 500™, with all its benefits, offers a significant combined advantage versus polypropylene fibers - superior finishing, excellent crack reduction, improved hydration, better bonding with cement, higher fiber tensile strength, cost effective bulk dispensing, and more.
3. Why does UltraFiber 500™ finish better than polypropylene?
UltraFiber 500™ fibers are flexible, bond well with cement paste, disperse quickly and efficiently in concrete, and are not ionically attracted to one another. As a result, unlike polypropylene, UltraFiber 500™ fibers do not ball under the broom, do not stick to troweling tools, do not create surface blemishes, do not exhibit surface "fuzz," and do not slow down the finishing process. This makes it easier for the contractor/finisher to "sell the job" to the owner, to have significantly fewer complaints and call-backs, and to get more compliments and referrals. When a good-looking, efficient job is desired, specify UltraFiber 500™.
4. How good is UltraFiber 500™ at reducing cracks?
Based on all our research, UltraFiber 500™ excels at temperature and shrinkage crack reduction. In accordance with ICC Acceptance Criteria 217, UltraFiber 500™ reduced cracking by 85% when used at the recommended dosage rate. That's a huge advantage for UltraFiber 500™.
5. How does UltraFiber 500™ work in concrete to reduce cracks?
UltraFiber 500™ has over 1 billion crack-fighting fibers in a cubic yard of concrete when used at the recommended rate. That's over 20 times more fibers than typical polypropylene. Additionally, in contrast to polypropylene, UltraFiber 500™ easily disperses uniformly throughout concrete, has higher fiber tensile strength, has 28 times more surface area for interfacial bonding, and bonds better with cement. These properties allow UltraFiber 500™ to efficiently and effectively intersect micro-cracks, disperse the tensile stress, and greatly reduce macro-cracks.
6. Does UltraFiber 500™ stop all cracks?
Fibers are used as secondary reinforcement in concrete to control temperature and shrinkage cracks. Independent testing shows that UltraFiber 500™ excels at controlling plastic shrinkage cracking when used properly.
7. Should end-users use fiber, or wire mesh, or both?
Wire mesh does not prevent cracking but rather helps hold the pieces together after the concrete has cracked. UltraFiber 500™ attacks the problem before it starts! UltraFiber 500™ functions to help prevent the temperature and shrinkage cracks before they begin.
8. Is UltraFiber 500™ affected by cement's alkalinity?
UltraFiber 500™ is alkali resistant. It meets the requirements of ASTM D 6942 for alkaline stability in accordance with ICC Acceptance Criteria 217. Buckeye Technologies has been granted a U.S. patent for their pioneering excellence in this area of cellulose polymer technology for concrete.
9. Which has higher fiber tensile strength, UltraFiber 500™ or polypropylene fibers?
UltraFiber 500™ in concrete has higher fiber tensile strength than typical polypropylene. The fiber tensile strength of UltraFiber 500 is 90-130 KSI, and this compares to typical polypropylene with fiber tensile strength of 30-70 KSI.
10. How do fibers affect cement hydration? Why is this important?
UltraFiberUltraFiber 500™ provides a hydration enhancement not possible with polypropylene fibers. UltraFiber 500™ fibers are hydrophilic meaning they readily absorb up to their weight in moisture - polypropylene fibers repel moisture. As concrete hydrates and water eventually becomes scarce, UltraFiber 500™ fibers will gradually release the absorbed water to allow unhydrated cement to hydrate. This results in concrete containing less unhydrated cement. This phenomenon was observed through petrographic analysis conducted by an independent lab in accordance with ASTM C 856.
11. How can someone prove at the job site that UltraFiber 500™ is in the concrete being delivered?
Proving at the job site that UltraFiber 500™ is in the concrete is simple. In fact, you can do this one of two ways. (1) You can put equal amounts of fresh concrete and water in a bucket and rod (agitate) the concrete 25 times. Wait 5 seconds for the sand to settle from the water. Pour the liquid portion onto a #100 sieve. Rinse any remaining cement paste that is on top of the sieve and you will see thousands of UltraFiber 500™ fibers collected on the sieve. The residue on the sieve screen will be UltraFiber 500™. (2) You can break a thin piece of partially hardened concrete and tiny fibers will be visible in the breaking point. Because these fibers are so small, using a magnifying glass will help you see them better.
12. Can a contractor save money by using UltraFiber 500™?
Using UltraFiber 500™ in your concrete is a superior method to wire fabric for secondary reinforcement. Not only do you save time and labor, but your secondary reinforcement is never misplaced like wire fabric. Further, UltraFiber 500™ is a cost-effective way to prevent many defects in concrete including plastic, temperature, and shrinkage cracks as well as surface blemishes. This built-in quality control system saves you time, labor, callbacks, and MONEY!
13. Does UltraFiber 500™ increase Fiber Reinforced Concrete sales?
Ready-mix producers report a tremendous increase in sales of fiber reinforced concrete after they switch to UltraFiber 500™. This is due to the excellent performance and finishability of this product which makes it more broadly accepted in more applications where polypropylene has been left out.
14. Why is Fiber Reinforced Concrete sales growth important to ready mix producers?
Fiber Reinforced Concrete sales are accelerated by UltraFiber 500™ and are very important to ready mix producers. Concrete is a low margin product, and the operating costs of ready-mix plants are going up year after year. UltraFiber 500™, with its ability to grow FRC sales, can play an important role in increasing profitability for the ready mix producer and it also allows them to offer their customers higher quality products.
15. What applications are appropriate for UltraFiber 500™?
UltraFiber 500™ is an ideal system for secondary reinforcement in all residential, commercial, industrial, and specialized concrete applications. These include slab on grade, slab on deck, decorative and architectural, pre-cast, curb and gutter, slip form and many others! Contact your UltraFiber 500™ representative for a list of jobs.
16. Does UltraFiber 500™ meet industry standards and perform as advertised?
Yes. UltraFiber 500™ meets ICC Acceptance Criteria 217 as reported in ICC-ES
ESR-1032. It was tested successfully by certified independent labs in
the following tests: shrinkage crack tests (per ICC-ES ESR-1032), static
flexural strength (ASTM 1018), air content and unit weight (ASTM C 173),
flexural strength (ASTM C 78), hydration (ASTM C 856), freeze thaw (ASTM C
666(A)), compressive strength (ASTM C 39), bond strength (ASTM C 234),
alkaline stability (ASTM D 6942), average residual strength (ASTM C
1399), fire resistance (ISO 834), and impact resistance (AC 1544). Furthermore, after thousands of field pours, overwhelming positive feedback has been received from professional ready mix producers, contractors, and finishers. UltraFiber 500™ is lab-proven and field-proven and can be used with the highest confidence. |
