“Innovative case-studies on concrete paving” at the heart of EUPAVE/FEBELCEM workshop at Matexpo 2023

14/09/2023

The Federation of the Belgian Cement Industry, FEBELCEM, and the European Concrete Paving Association, EUPAVE organised on 7 September 2023 a joint workshop on “Innovative case-studies on concrete paving” at MATEXPO 2023, Kortrijk.

MATEXPO is a biennial international trade fair for building equipment at Kortrijk Xpo. As the third largest trade fair of its type in Europe, it has an established reputation and receives more than 40,000 visitors.

Mr. Luc Rens, Managing Director of EUPAVE opened the workshop with a short introduction.

Then, representatives of four manufacturers of concrete paving machines – POWER CURBERS, GOMACO, WIRTGEN and SOMERO, all members of EUPAVE, introduced their innovations.

The first presentation was given by Juan-Luis Fumadó, International Sales at POWER CURBERS Company, LLC. Mr. Fumadó presented different case studies that POWER CURBERS have been working on. He started with a tsunami retention wall in Japan, the NASA airport at Cape Canaveral (USA), race track kerbs in France and others.

You can find his presentation here.

Mr. Patrick Zanen, Global Director of Business Development at GOMACO introduced the multifunctional concrete finishers, allowing the construction of roads and channels in high slopes. He also showed some new developments, amongst which an electrically driven slipform paver for kerbs.

Mr. Martin Datzert, Product Manager at WIRTGEN GROUP, described the innovative developments by Wirtgen in slipform paving, e.g. the new concrete spreading machines preceding the slipform paver and the advanced steering and control tools for machine operators. Emphasis was placed on the many training and assistance options that are offered.

Mr. Glenn Stobart, Territory Manager at SOMERO Enterprises, Ltd gave a presentation of “3D Concrete Paving for Commercial and Industrial Areas: the Future is Now”. He started his presentation exposing the advantages of concrete pavements such as its strength, life cycle, durability and less maintenance. He then presented the concrete paving applications using laser screeds and explained the functioning of 3D integration. He ended his presentation showing the areas of operation where SOMERO is present: external pavements, pervious concrete, tunnel construction, etc.

You can find his presentation here.

A Q&A followed the presentations.

Participants were invited by Patric Zanen to the exhibition stand of DE BRUYCKER-KEMP to take a look at the GOMACO battery-powered slipform paver.

We wish to thank the 50+ participants for their interest as well as the speakers for their great contribution and also the MATEXPO team for the opportunity of organising this event and their great support.