Research & Development
Providing innovating solutions to the industry
The field of Research, Development and Innovation is an essential driver for PACADAR since it was set up in 1944, year of the establishment of the company manufacturing prestressed concrete beams under a licence acquired from Eugene Freyssinet. Since then, our passion for improvement has been a constant in our company. Thus, we have achieved major breakthroughs in Civil Works and Prefabricated Building, being one of the benchmark companies in the precast concrete sector.
PACADAR's R&D strategy focuses on two main aspects:
- Innovations in materials, which help to improve performances of the applications we traditionally develop. Improvements in compressive strength, fibre-reinforced concrete, fire resistance, heavy concrete, lightweight prestressed concrete.
- Some new products that can benefit from the application of this improvement in our materials are: wind towers, radioactive retaining walls, bunkers, pipe racks, cooling towers.
Programmes
In the last years, our main efforts have been focused on the design of concrete resistant to fatigue and to highly aggressive environments. In our quest for new applications, we have developed new solutions for building:
- Wind towers with heights over 100 m.
- Precast railway viaducts with spans over 55 m.
- Precast curved road viaducts with 65 m span.
- Reinforced elements with a high resistance to fire in aggressive environments.
- Reinforced concrete with a high resistance to chloride attack.
Our skills and experience allow us to offer innovative solutions while we work hand in hand in the challenges our customers face when executing unique projects throughout the world.
R&D Department
Our structure is led by experts who are present in both national and European standardization committees, and who also take part in the expert committees of the main sectoral associations at international level, where major developments and trends in the sector are discussed and examined.
Specifically, our specialized technical staff are part of the Working Groups of the European Committee for Standardization and those of the International Federation for Structural Concrete. These are the main bodies researching and working on the drafting of new standards, as well as examining the advances in the field of concrete precast elements.