Concrete materials company AfriSam has responded to customer demand for increased convenience with the launch last month of its new Dry Mortar automated plant.

AfriSam’s Dry Mortar product is a preblended mortar mix solution that can be used for mortar and plaster purposes.

“Manually blending mortar or plaster requires careful attention to ensure that the correct ratios of sand and cement are used. Incorrect blending or mixing will affect the quality of the final product and might result in the plaster cracking. Our Dry Mortar solution alleviates human error and goes a long way towards ensuring quality workmanship,” ‘AfriSam Gauteng region sales manager Amit Dawneerangen said at the launch last month.

He notes that the product adds to the company’s range of concrete solutions and it ensures that contractors have a one-stop solution for all their wet trades, ranging from the readymix concrete of varying strengths and specifications to cement, aggregates and now Dry Mortar.

Further, the product enables contractors to save time and costs as it can meet the minimum-strength requirement of 5 MPa in 28 days. It also requires minimal water and it facilitates a crack-free surface.

The product is supplied in 10 t or 20 t silos, which ‘AfriSam believes is space-saving advantage at a construction or building site.

“This effectively eliminates the need to accommodate large stockpiles of sand and makes the area normally used to store bagged cement available,” explains Dawneerangen.

Instead of sand and cement having to be delivered separately, fewer vehicles on the road deliver raw materials simultaneously to site, providing environmental advantages and convenience for contractors. Also, procurement is simplified because the number of suppliers is reduced, as is the amount of raw materials on site.

The automated plant, currently producing about 100 t/d, will be able to produce 400 t/d at full capacity, which Dawneerangen believes will be achieved by the end of this year.

The product has been introduced to customers in Gauteng and will be introduced to customers in other provinces within the next month.