Alpha ProTM – Materials you can trust.
Alpha Pro Polymer is a new, dry powder, all acrylic polymer for GFRC, ECC and UHPC. It is highly effective at low doses and fully compatible with Portland cement and CSA cement based mixes.
Polymer’s Function in Concrete
Polymer’s primary purpose is to reduce the porosity of the concrete and hold the internal moisture within the concrete. This allows the pieces to be air cured and still achieve a 7-day strength equivalent to the same concrete wet-cured for 7 days. This is essential, since most concrete manufacturers cannot and do not leave their pieces wet curing in the molds for 7 days.
Polymer also has many other functions in concrete:
Polymer improves casting and workability.
- Improves workability
- Aids in pigment suspension, which improves color dispersion and intensity
- When sprayed, helps the mist coat cling to the forms
Polymer improves the concrete after it has hardened.
- Helps reduce drying shrinkage cracks, surface crazing and curling
- Improves the ductility
- Provides freeze-thaw resistance
- Increases flexural strength and helps it tolerate more bending (strain) before failure
For a more technical explanation of how polymer works, please see this article.
With all of these benefits, why wouldn’t you use polymer? If you don’t use polymer and are not wet curing for 7 days, then you are not getting the strength or physical properties that you expect.
The only drawbacks of polymer are related to liquid polymers:
- The cost of shipping water
- The risk of freezing during shipping
- Can become moldy if stored for a long time
- Some tend to make the concrete foamy and require extra defoamer
- Some make the concrete sticky and difficult to work with
Dry polymers have no such drawbacks, other than some dry polymers having a fishy smell. Alpha Pro Polymer does not have any objectionable smell.
Alpha Pro Polymer eliminates the problems of liquid polymers and other dry polymer blends and has the following benefits:
Benefits of Alpha Pro Polymer
- Easy to dose and mix
- Eliminates the need for a 7-day wet cure
- Increases flexural strength
- Well suited for use in the production of GFRC, ECC and UHPC
- Well suited for many casting and finishing techniques, such as spraying, wet casting and troweling
- Can be added to blended mixes that lack polymer, to eliminate the need for long curing times in the mold and to improve concrete properties
- Contains a powerful defoamer that helps significantly reduce pinholes and eliminate foaming
- Can be stored indefinitely with no mold issues
- Reduces shipping cost because you are not paying to ship water
- Eliminates the exorbitant overnight shipping costs during winter of liquid polymers
- Unaffected by freezing temperatures during shipping or storage
- Suitable for all interior and exterior applications in all climates because it is UV stable and provides freeze/thaw resistance
- Improves color dispersion and intensity
- Helps reduce drying shrinkage cracks, surface crazing and curling
- Not sticky like liquid polymers
- No unpleasant smell
Dosage
- Dose: 3.5% by weight of cementitious materials
- Important: In the CCI GFRC Mix Calculator set Polymer Solids to 100% (Forton is 51%).
- Use ice to chill the mix to 60°F to 65°F for best results.
- 4 lbs (1.8 kg) of Alpha Pro Polymer, using the CCI GFRC Mix Calculator, makes about 33.3 sq ft (3.1 sq m) of backer at 3/4” (19 mm) thick
- 40 lbs (18.1 kg) of Alpha Pro Polymer, using the CCI GFRC Mix Calculator, makes about 333 sq ft (30.9 sq m) of backer at 3/4” (19 mm) thick
Mixing Instructions
Alpha Pro Polymer is most effective when pre-dissolved into your mix water ahead of time. It dissolves quickly in room temperature water when continuously stirred. After the Polymer is pre-dissolved in your room temperature mix water, use ice to chill the mix water to 60°F to 65°F. This will give the best results because dry ingredients dissolve better in warmer water than in cold water.
Alternatively, you can dry blend Polymer into a portion of your sand or your mix. The instructions below specify the portion of sand or mix to dry blend Polymer into.
From-scratch mixes:
- Dry blend together all your sand and dry admixtures (other than Alpha Pro Polymer).
- Pre-dissolve Alpha Pro Polymer in mix water ahead of time, or dry blend all of it into roughly 1/3 of the sand/admixtures.
- Add all the mix water plus ice (if used) to the 1/3 sand/admixtures. Mix until all dry material is wetted out.
- Gradually add all the cementitious material (cement and pozzolans) and blend until fully mixed.
- Add remaining 2/3 of sand/admix and blend until fully mixed.
- Add fibers last.
Bagged / pre-blended mixes (including Cement All):
- Dry blend together all of your blended mix and any dry admixtures (other than Alpha Pro Polymer).
- Pre-dissolve in mix water ahead of time, or dry blend all of it into roughly 1/2 of the blended mix/admixtures.
- Add all the mix water plus ice (if used) to the 1/2 blended mix/admix. Mix until all dry material is wetted out.
- Gradually add remaining 1/2 of blended mix/admix and blend until fully mixed.
- Add fibers last.
