Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Many congratulations are due to one of Petrolab’s Project mineralogists for their recent achievement. Mariola Zajac, after 6 years of varied project experience at Petrolab, has deservedly been accredited by The Geological Society as a Chartered Geologist (CGeol)....
IOM3 – 42nd Annual Cement and Concrete Conference

IOM3 – 42nd Annual Cement and Concrete Conference

Next week Bradley Staniforth will be attending the 42nd Annual Cement and Concrete conference in London presenting two pieces of work. The first is the culmination of some accelerated weathering tests of phyllite concrete. Concrete made from phyllite has been associated with serious degradation within the County of Donegal affecting thousands for properties. However, there are some outstanding questions related to degradation mechanisms. The completion of these tests and petrographic examination of the final cores (see e.g. below) presents a very important clarification on the long-term stability of the cores, showing as it does that these would not be classed as mortgageable concrete block by the RICS standard.   More can be read about this work here The second piece of work is a poster on regulation, risk and conveyancing in Irish defective concrete. This covers the primary risk window (see below) for when properties were built containing deleterious concrete, how that defective concrete relates to the key EN12620 guidelines on total sulphur values in different contexts, and then implications for conveyancing. More can be read about this work here If...
Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated concrete (RAAC) – Basic composition & petrography

Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated concrete (RAAC) – Basic composition & petrography

From Bradley E. Staniforth, CEng The recent publishing of the “Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete: guidance for responsible bodies and education settings with confirmed RAAC” document [1] by the Department for Education is resulting in the potential closure of around 150 schools across England due to potential structural safety concerns. This document in particular has been prompted by heightened concerns following an in situ failure of particular RAAC elements previously thought to be at low risk of deterioration.  Additional research by an NHS commissioned research project through Loughborough university (To which Petrolab contributed some petrographic findings) and risk factor guidance from the IStructE’s RAAC study group [2] have also acted to provide up-to-date guidance and understanding of the associated risks. However failures related to RAAC materials have been identified and investigated as early as the 1990’s in the UK. Production of RAAC materials was halted in the 1990’s following a series of high profile structural failures prompting earlier research and investigation by the BRE [3] and later SCOSS [4]. What is the composition of RAAC ?  Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was...
Deep Digital Cornwall – Exciting Primary Results

Deep Digital Cornwall – Exciting Primary Results

Our project with Deep Digital Cornwall (DDC) on Digitisation & Automation of Optical Petrography reaches the end of ERDF funding this month, and we would like to share its main outcomes. The first has been setup of an automated ZEISS AxioImager optical microscope and integrating its large area scanning capability into our standard petrographic workflows. All in-house concrete sections are now scanned in three light paths (PPL – plane polarised light, XPL – cross polarised light and EPO – episcopic flourescence). The images, although incredible to view, really make their positive impact on company productivity because of the development of a bespoke Java based image viewing tool, created by our DDC project lead, Laura Carter-Greaves. The Petrolab View (PLV) tool allows images to be loaded and viewed on any laptop or desktop in the office or even remotely. This allows for more flexible working opportunities and also breaks the bottleneck of requiring additional petrographic microscopes and all their ancillary parts as our petrography team builds. Remote access also allows for greater collaboration among colleagues, clients and, potentially, external consultants. PLV’s...
Axio Imager – Deep Digital Cornwall

Axio Imager – Deep Digital Cornwall

Petrolab is excited to receive this Axio Imager as part of a research grant with Deep Digital Cornwall* (https://deepdigitalcornwall.org/). This research grant will facilitate high quality analysis of thin sections in three correlatable light sources (PPL, XPL and Fluorescence). The AI quantification and measurements will be applicable to numerous petrographic applications from mineral exploration to concrete. The project will be an industry first for Cornwall and likely to increase productivity by ~50%, whilst improving the quality of the data and reports. Proof of concept may also allow for additional capacity to be utilised by other partners to digitise archival thin section collections. *Deep Digital Cornwall (DDC) is a £4.4 million project launched in early 2021, that gives SMEs based in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly access to research skills, knowledge, innovation expertise, new datasets and access to state-of-the-art immersive technology facilities for 3D and 4D data visualisation. The project team is led by the University of Exeter (Camborne School of Mines and the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence) with delivery partners Cornish Lithium, Cornwall Resources and the South West Centre of Excellence in...
Petrolab welcomes Daria Bondarenko

Petrolab welcomes Daria Bondarenko

Petrolab are delighted to welcome Daria Bondarenko. Daria Bondarenko is a recent graduate from the National Mining University of Ukraine where she completed a bachelors degree in geology, covering mineral identification, petrography and gemology. Since graduating she has worked most recently as a stock controller responsible for arranging shipments, controlling stock and overall...