The Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) has named the first six start-ups to be backed by its member companies as part of the first-ever InnovandiOpen Challenge to produce carbon free concrete by 2050, in line with the Net Zero target to combat global warming.
The first six, chosen from more than 100 entrants to the Open Challenge, are based in the USA, Canada, the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands. UK-based Coomtech and MOF Technologies are among them. More are expected to be announced over the coming weeks.
The six have now joined forces with world-leading cement companies to form part of formal consortia to test, develop, and deploy ground-breaking technologies. And they intend to work quickly, with the technologies being developed to a point at which they can be demonstrated later this year.
Because it is not clear how carbon-free cement could be made, one of the key focuses of the cement industry is on the development and implementation of technology for carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS).
Coomtech, for example, has developed a low-energy, low-cost drying technology using kinetic energy created by managed, turbulent air, to remove moisture, giving a new slant to a 100-year-old process. A single Coomtech-enabled plant is said to be able to cut CO2 emissions in a year by as much as it would take 600,000 mature trees to remove from the air.
MOF, meanwhile, has developed a system that overcomes the traditional adoption barriers of energy use and cost with its Nuada carbon capture technology by using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to deliver energy-efficient CO2 removal at about a quarter of the cost of conventional amines (which are ammonia-based compounds for removing CO2).
GCCA members have committed to moving from the dozens of pilot carbon capture projects already announced or under way to having 10 industrial-scale carbon capture plants by 2030 as part of the Net Zero Roadmap announced by the organisation in October last year.
GCCA chief executive Thomas Guillot says: "It’s a proud moment to see the industry coming together to support such innovative start-ups on their journey. Our member companies were greatly impressed by their ambition to be a key part of the climate solution. The programme is another big step forward towards unlocking innovation to help us achieve our net-zero goal.
"As the need for resilient and sustainable communities to support a growing global population becomes more pressing, cement and concrete will be essential to providing the infrastructure and buildings that society needs. Achieving net-zero concrete relies on several different groups playing their part, and as an industry we’re looking outwards as well as inwards, to see how start-ups like these can support our goals.
Davide Zampini, head of research & development at cement company CEMEX, says: "The GCCA’s Innovandi Open Challenge is a stimulating initiative that has united experts from GCCA’s various members. It has brought the industry together to achieve a common goal – to identify and accelerate the development of the most promising and innovative ideas to reduce our carbon footprint.
"It's more evident than ever that only through collaboration and innovation will the industries represented by the GCCA be able to reach their 2050 goal of producing carbon-neutral concrete. We cannot wait to discover the opportunities and support the start-ups."
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a safety alert regarding masks with ear loops.
It says new HSE research has shown that respirators/masks that rely on ear loops to hold them in place do not protect adequately when used as tight-fitting respiratory protective equipment (RPE).
This includes masks that use clips, ‘snuggers’ or other means of tightening ear loops, even if they carry CE or UKCA marks.
It asks dutyholders to revisit their Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (Coshh) Regulations 2002 (as amended) risk assessment and consider their RPE provision to ensure it is adequate, suitable for the user and the activity to be undertaken.
People working for stone companies and fabricators using high silica content products such as most engineered quartz, granite, sandstone, quartzite and slate are in danger of suffering from silicosis, which can be debilitating and lead to premature death. But masks are advisable in any dusty environment that cannot be avoided.
Tight-fitting RPE relies on having a good seal with the wearer’s face and those using it should have passed a ‘face fit test’ to ensure the RPE they are wearing provides the level of protection required.
For more on suitable forms of RPE, visit the HSE RPE website here.
For more information, the following publications can be downloaded free:
HSE will be presenting a report on its research on ear loop respirators and masks at the International Society for Respiratory Protection (ISRP) online conference on 9-12 May. If you want to take part, you can register here.
The Lettering Arts Centre at Snape Maltings, in Snape, Suffolk, is currently showing an exhibition entitled ‘Will Carter: Man of Letters’, a restrospective that became a casualty of Covid in 2021 but is now in full swing.
Carved and gilded memorial plaque in Welsh slate.
Will Carter, who died at the age of 88 in 2001, was a master craftsman letter designer, typographer, calligrapher, letter carver, printer and private press studio publisher.
The exhibition is on until 15 May, and the night before it closes (Saturday 14 May) there is a fund-raising charity dinner in The Lettering Arts Centre gallery. The menu will be taken from one carved in wood by Will Carter, although with foie gras substituted with a gourmet alternative because of the cruelty involved in the production of foie gras.
The menu cut in wood by Will Carter.
Places at the dinner are £50 per person, including wines and a talk by the exhibition’s curators. Proceeds will contribute towards a Lettering Arts Trust journeyman placement.
The Lettering Arts Trust journeymen receive two-to-three-months training with a Master letter cutter, focussing exclusively on design and carving skills to enhance their career as a letter cutter.
The Will Carter retrospective is curated by Master letter carver Eric Marland, a great admirer of Will’s work, with significant contributions from Will’s son, Sebastian Carter.
Will Carter became interested in type and letter forms at a young age. He founded the Rampant Lions Press in 1949.
The company undertook numerous commissions ranging from the jobbing printer’s domestic stationery to the now much sought-after, carefully considered editions for Clover Hill, such as The Book of Jonah that cemented the Rampant Lions Press reputation for fine and elegant compositing and printing.
Will was also an accomplished calligrapher and letter designer. He designed type for Monotype, a designer and supplier of type founts. Most famously he created the ‘Klang’ Series 593, introduced in 1955, which reveals the influence on Will of Rudolfe Koch’s blackletter calligraphy.
He collaborated with David Kindersley (who taught will how to cut letters in stone) to design ‘Octavian’, another fount sold by Monotype. His letter carving – in wood and stone – augmented his income from the printing press.
Once the exhibition comes to a close at the Lettering Arts Centre at Snape Maltings, it might go on tour, with plans in development for that.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue designed by Webb and Webb that chart’s Will’s career. It includes essays by some of those who admire his work, including Barley Roscoe, John Nash, and his son, Sebastian.
Click here to buy the catalogue online now for £12.
If you can’t get along to the Will Carter exhibition, others that might interest lovers of letter carving include ‘The Nereids’ at the Fermoy Gallery in King’s Lynn as part of the King’s Lynn Festival from 15 to 30 July.
Pherusa by Lisi Ashbridge, one of the works that will be on show at the Fermoy Gallery as part of the King's Lynn Festival in July.
The Lettering Arts Trust will be participating at the Becket Pageant for London in the City of London by kind invitation of the Worshipful Company of Masons on 17 & 18 June, where it hopes to give demonstrations of letter cutting.
On 12 May, Louise Tiplady will be demonstrating letter cutting in an event called ‘The Human Being as Maker’ in the tap room of brewers Fabal as part of London Craft Week. Louise was a recipient of a Lettering Arts Trust apprenticeship.
The Lettering Arts Trust is expanding its online offer and enhancing the range of work available to view and to purchase on its website. To shop, click here.
Machinery, tools and equipment supplier Intermac opened its Tech Centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire, for two days in April and invited stone companies to come and see how they could increase efficiency and the quality of their processing.
Through acquisitions and strategic partnerships, Intermac not only offers its own CNC machines and waterjets, it also sells Donatoni bridge saws, Montresor edge polishers, Diamut diamond tools (distributed by Stonegate), and a range of accessories and technical solutions that stone processors can benefit from.
Intermac is part of the Biesse Group, based in Italy, and Biesse has made the decision to establish tech centres, like the one in Daventry, and use them to demonstrate their machines and equipment. This year they decided to invite companies to the tech centres rather than exhibiting at the 50 exhibitions around the world parts of the Biesse group have previously attended. This year, Biesse is exhibiting at just five exhibitions, two of which are for the stone industry. One was earlier in the year in America and the other is Marmo+Mac in Verona 27-30 September. Roberto Vienello, Intermac’s Stone Division Sales Director, said during the tech centre open days that the shows Intermac will be at next year will include a booth at the Natural Stone Show in London.
During the open days on 26 and 27 April there were live demonstrations of:
a 5-Axis CNC showing cutouts, drainer flutes and polishing
a 5-Axis waterjet demonstrating mitred cutouts
a 5-Axis bridge saw performing lift and shift operations and simulations of sawing
edge polishing including chamfers and variable thickness processing.
One of Intermac's most popular CNCs is the Master 33.3, although when Intermac added a second tier tool holder it added more than half a metre to the width of the machine, which some stone companies found made it too deep to fit into the same space as a previous model when they were replacing their 33s. However, Intermac does also offer the 33 with a single deck tool rack with a 3.9m depth and with a carousel tool rack so the machine is 3.5m deep, although they hold fewer tools.
For some, the Master One is proving popular now it has been fitted with a 15kW spindle for the stone industry. Previously it had a 9.6kW spindle.
The Intermac Master One with a 15kW spindle for working stone.
Intermac said 20 companies had registered to attend the tech centre open days. One of them was Belgravia Stone in York, and Stone Specialist spoke to Sam Tree and Phil Widdowfield from Belgravia Stone when they visited. Belgravia has just bought a second Donatoni Jet bridge saw, has a Master 38.3 workcentre and a Primus 402 waterjet. Sam and Phil said they had come along particularly to take a close look at the Montresor edge polisher.
Sam and Phil are pictured below talking to Chris Pateman from the Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF), which had been invited along to the Intermac open days to talk to visitors about the benefits of WFF membership. Sam and Phil said they were previously aware of the WFF and are considering joining the organisation.
Chris Pateman talks to Phil Widdowfield (left) and Sam Tree (right) from Belgravia Stone about the benefits of belonging to the Worktop Fabricators Federation during the open days at the Intermac tech centre.
The CITB has just announced the tender winners for the delivery of the CITB Specialist Applied-Skills Programmes (SAPs). The three SAP courses that are most attractive to the natural stone sector are the programmes for:
Level 3 Heritage Stonemason
Level 2 Stonemasonry Stone Fixing
Level 2 Façade Preservation
These programmes are popular as they are minimally disruptive to the contractor’s workload. The programmes combine three elements:
Employer mentoring of the learner
Off-site training, which averages about 20 days over a year
NVQ assessment
The programmes are 18 months long with the off-site training in the first 12 months. During the remaining six months the learner is assessed against the relevant NVQ.
Two winners were awarded the Heritage Stonemasonry SAP, they operate separately and under separate contracts to the CITB, but likely there will be some collaboration. Then one winner secured both the Stone Fixing and Façade Preservation SAPs.
And Priestman Associates LLP Nationally portable 0115 975 1880 0787 668 7212 Contact: Mark Priestman office@priestmanweb.com
The CITB, through its National Specialist Accredited Centre (NSAC) and its Specialist Applied-Skills Programme team do much good for this sector in providing access to what is essentially a fee-neutral offering. Mark Priestman says: "I shudder to envisage how the workforce in the specialisms would fare without the keen focus and appetite for qualifying the workforce that the CITB’s SAP and NSAC team provide."
Financial support provided by CITB not only covers the cost of the training but also travel and accommodation cost.
Ian Thomas, the founding director of the National Stone Centre (NSC) in Derbyshire is to receive this year's Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society of London, the world’s oldest national geological society, for his outstanding contribution to promoting the profession and science of geology.
The official announcement has been carried in the Society’s journal, Geoscientist, and the Award will be presented at a ceremony on 8 June at the Geological Society’s headquarters at Burlington House, The Strand, London.
Founded in 1807, the Geological Society of London, more commonly referred to simply as the Geological Society, is one of the world’s premier professional geological organisations. The Society will make Ian Thomas, the now retired founder and director of the National Stone Centre, its 26th recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.
When the news went public Ian said: “Naturally, I am personally absolutely delighted to learn of the Society’s decision to honour me, but in a broader sense, I see it as an endorsement of all we have achieved and are planning to do at the National Stone Centre, by enhancing geological interests nationally."
Ian's award follows previous recognition of the Stone Centre's work in industrial history and sits comfortably with the Centre's recent engagement with the Institute of Quarrying (IQ), which is in the process of moving on to the National Stone Centre's 40-acres site. IQ and National Stone Centre aim jointly to deliver ‘The Story of Stone’ – its origins, operations and its contribution to civilisation and society.
The Geological Society's Distinguished Service Award was introduced in 1998 and is presented annually in recognition of a member who has made an outstanding contribution to advancing the profession and science of geology.
Ian Thomas initiated the concept of the National Stone Centre in 1980. It is a registered charity based near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, from which it runs a Discovery Centre for visitors, various courses and a wide range of services. This year it merged with the Institute of Quarrying, the international professional body with more than 5,000 members (read more about that here). The Peak District Mining Museum also plans to move on to the site, which is being re-designed by local architects of Babenko Associates (read more about that here).
Ruth Allington, IQ and NSC Trustee and President-designate of the Geological Society, says: “It’s wonderful that Ian has been recognised for his lifelong dedication to the science of geology by his peers through this award. His passion for the subject is inspiring and without it we wouldn’t have the facilities at the National Stone Centre there to spark that passion in the next generation.”
