#concrete chipping

[excaliburlandclearing]

What Safety Precautions Should Be Followed When Removing Concrete?

Man has been building houses and monuments for centuries. However, the Romans were the first to use concrete in construction processes. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Romans knew how to make and use concrete. They used to make a form of concrete from a kind of cement known as ‘Pozzolana’. 

You will be surprised to know that the first concrete road in the United States was built by George Bartholomew in 1891. What is even more interesting about this road is that it is still in use. The strength of the concrete used to build this road is almost twice the strength of the concrete that we are using nowadays.

Why Is Concrete So Popular?

Have you ever wondered what is so good about concrete and why is it such a popular construction material? Well, characteristics like strength, durability, and versatility make it one of the widely used building materials.

While using concrete to build something has many advantages, there are also some drawbacks. For example, if for some reason you want to dismantle a structure made of concrete, it can be really difficult. In this article, we will discuss what safety precautions should be taken to break up and remove an old concrete structure; whether it is an old concrete road or a concrete wall. So, let’s get started.

How To Break Up And Remove Concrete Safely?

Wear proper safety gear

Concrete removal may seem like an easy task, but in reality, it's one of those backbreaking works. In addition, working with concrete is also dangerous. According to an article published in the National Library of Medicine, "In the United States of America (USA) Out of 4,251 worker fatalities in private industry in the calendar year 2014, 874 or 20.5% of them were in construction―that is, one in five worker deaths were in construction.”

Now, you can imagine how risky it is to deal with concrete. Therefore, if you have to dismantle and remove concrete for any reason, take appropriate precautionary measures. You should wear appropriate protective equipment to protect the sensitive parts of your body.

Use appropriate tools and equipment

While a sledgehammer is a must-have tool- as far as demolition and removal of a concrete structure is concerned, you need some of the other tools and equipment. We have rounded up some of the must-have tools and equipment for safe demolition and removal of concrete; chipping hammer, demolition hammer, hydraulic concrete crusher, hydraulic splitter, pavement breaker, rotary hammer, hydraulic hammer, pneumatic hammer etc. You can also take the help of certain chemicals to safely demolish and remove a concrete structure.

Take the help of a professional

Seek help from a professional if you need it. Dismantling a concrete structure and removing the debris requires great effort, let alone the risks associated with it. You have to deal with heavy and big concrete blocks. You have to use different tools and equipment to dismantle and remove concrete.

And, trust us, it's not as easy as it might seem. That’s why you should not do it alone. You must take the help of a professional. Professional guidance will make your job a lot easier and safer. And, if you don't want to be involved in the process, you can hire a concrete removal contractor.

Ensure safe removal of debris

The presence of unwanted concrete on the site can increase the time taken for the completion of a project. In addition, it can make the site unsafe to work with. Therefore, you should do everything needed to be done to ensure the safe removal of debris from the site.

And, to get this job done, you can take the help of a loader and dumpster or dump truck. You can rent this equipment or you can hire concrete removal contractors. They have all types of equipment needed for concrete removal. And, they will get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Bottom Line

In a nutshell, concrete removal is truly a tough assignment. Also, the risk involved in this process is very high. That's why appropriate precautionary measures should be taken while dismantling the concrete structure and removing the debris. But, one important point we want to mention here is that… don't do it yourself. It's not worth taking the risk. Simply hire a concrete removal contractor to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

[feroluce]

When Al Haitham dreams, it's in shades of sandy blonde and red, metallic gold and feather-blue. His nightmares are colored much the same.

Kaveh leisurely strolls ahead of him, shoes leaving deep treads in the soft desert sand. He keeps a careful distance, arms length, and in return Al Haitham keeps an eye on him, the other man's back dead center in his sights.

He curses the sand in his boots and the long line of footprints he steps into, already the exact shape of the soles of his shoes.

They aren't lost. Al Haitham knows where they are. They've been here before. They are still here.

Kaveh doesn't watch their feet. His head is constantly tipped back with his eyes on the stars and their constellations (of which Al Haitham only knows two, Vultur Volans and Paradisaea). He'll walk right into a cactus like that. Al Haitham yells ahead for him to watch where he's going.

Kaveh reaches up to touch the side of his head in a strange motion, but otherwise there's no acknowledgement. They press on into the dark of night.

Something squelches beneath Al Haitham's boot.

It stops him short, pulls his attention like a magnet and as much as he wants to, he can't ignore it. He doesn't want to lose any more ground. But something won't let him move on. Al Haitham watches as red seeps into the golden sand, spills beyond the border of his bootprint until he slides his foot aside.

It's an ear.

It's a human ear, and there's a heavy earring attached, metallic gold, gems red and green, a familiar shape, a familiar shade-

Al Haitham opens his mouth to yell. Chokes. Swallows the lump in his throat as he quickly restarts his pace. Tries again.

"Hey!"

Another squelch under a hurried footstep. He doesn't stop to look. Al Haitham is pretty sure he knows what it is.

"Kaveh, hey!"

The path becomes littered, little slices and small pieces, fingertips and knuckles, Kaveh's arms once held casually behind his back now strewn along the sands. Every time Al Haitham extends his hand to him, reality warps and bends like the twisted image in a broken mirror, lines mismatched and edges jagged. Kaveh flits just beyond his grasp, fleeting fae, no longer able to hear him or to reach out to him. Al Haitham can only grit his teeth and follow.

His right foot marches forward. His left follows. His right again. His left suddenly doesn't follow, and Al Haitham is thrown off balance and pitches forward, swinging his arms outward to land on his palms and keep his face off the ground, because he's been in the desert enough times to know what a foot suddenly being stuck can mean.

Quicksand.

Al Haitham curses and swears in just about every language he knows as he tries to spread his weight as evenly as possible, stay afloat at the top of it because if he sinks, he knows he'll be done for, and shit, Kaveh.

His neck cranes uncomfortably in his search, Kaveh had only been a few feet in front of him, he can't be sunk much further, and he's in the desert much more often than Al Haitham anyway, he'll be familiar with what to do-

Kaveh stands in front of him, empty sleeves fluttering loose. Still just out of his grasp, still watching the stars. The quicksand is already up to his calves.

"Say, Al Haitham..." It's the first he's spoken this whole time. His voice resonates somewhere deeply nostalgic in Al Haitham's chest, produces a ripple that momentarily stuns his heart.

Kaveh is sinking.

Al Haitham stretches out on his belly as far as he's able, it's quickly up to his knees, Kaveh isn't even trying to redistribute his weight or pull himself out, it's at his thighs, Al Haitham sucks in a breath and yells for him, his hips, yells louder, his waist, Al Haitham's trembling fingertips can almost reach, his chest, Kaveh drops level with him, quicksand about his neck like a noose.

Kaveh's head tips back, back, impossibly far back, until it hangs, angle awkward, and he's looking right past Al Haitham with his tired smile and gouged, blinded sockets full of starlight.

"Do you believe in karma?"

The quicksand swallows him entirely and Al Haitham dives, shoves his arms deep and pushes off with the one foot he'd had left on safe ground, because he can't, he can't, it's not the same without Kaveh, not anymore, he needs him, no one else keeps him sharp, no one else challenges him like Kaveh, if he can just grab him, if he can just pull him back up-

Al Haitham thrashes, against the sands, against gravity, against the hardwood of his bedroom floor. Clumsily scrubs the back of his hand across his face to rub the grit of quicksand and sleep out of his eyes.

Sometimes he thinks he preferred it when the Akasha was still harvesting his dreams.

He pops his head out from under his weighted blanket and lays where he'd fallen out of bed for a moment, blinking blearily against the lamplight shining from his desk in the corner. Deep breaths. His consciousness shifts along the blurred line of nightmare and reality, crosses over the slow transition into wakeful awareness.

He's home, Kaveh is home. It's dark out. The house is dead silent.

He's just going to go check, he tells himself as he peels himself out of his sweat-soaked shirt and roots around for a replacement. He's already losing memories of his nightmare, the details spilling away from him like wet ink, but he knows he needs to see Kaveh. It'll feel better to do something, anything, than try to go straight back to sleep.

He's quiet when he slips out of his bedroom door, because they both keep late hours but their bedrooms are right next to each other, and Al Haitham will never hear the end of it if he wakes his roommate up.

Lights off, door shut. Nothing conclusive. He moves out to the main room.

Kaveh sits on one of those ridiculous sofas he'd ordered three of for some reason, back to him as he tucks a lock of hair behind his ear. A mostly-empty wine bottle stands tall on the table, next to the cobbled-together remains of an architectural model that's been picked and fussed over for four days straight now.

"Kaveh? What are you doing?"

This earns him an exaggerated startle, but Kaveh doesn't turn to look at him, preoccupied with whatever new sketch or blueprint he probably has in his hands. "Ohhh, nothing," he slurs cheerfully. "Just working. Just thinking."

Kaveh has always been the world's chattiest drinker. Al Haitham waits for the rest of it.

"Say, I think...I think I asked you this years ago, back then, but you never answered me." Al Haitham feels all the blood drain from his face in ominous familiarity, drip cold down the length of his spine. Kaveh sinks into the couch until he can tip his head over the back of it, looking up at him with a tired smile and exhausted eyes.

"Do you believe in karma?"

[avephelis]

quick jrwi doodle before bed (got to the gay marriage episode loved the psychological torture mouths)

[theamatuer]

I feel like this sums up Bruce Wayne and all of his decisions after his parents popped their clogs:

Source: The Hearts of Gotham by schrijverr

[loaffofbred]

this whole usmp and qsmp discourse is either massively hilarious or practically dystopian

its so mind blowing to me how fans are so desperate to tear each other down and the cc themselves

its so /parasocial that it kills me inside

pls let these adults deal with the situation before making assumptions of the other, if one can write an essay long tweet, they can sure as hell communicate with each other like normal human beings

im no way siding with anyone without clear context of the situation, so im basically just laughing and/or crying bc of how hilarious and dystopian this whole discourse is

moral lesson: dont go to twitter, that place is a dumpster fire

[cerbreus]

i found a hunk of concrete in the gravel around my house that has a lake superior agate in it........

[jesterguy]

Basically what my past two weeks have amounted to

[potatochip-oc-dump]

hi here's this

[blueiskewl]

Kast Concrete Basins

Kast is a series of concrete wash basins designed and made in the UK. Shipped worldwide and suitable for both residential and commercial applications.

www.kastconcretebasins.com

[wingsandpetals]

something nostalgic about the grizzco building in splat3 to me and i don't know to explain it to you all despite knowing what it is

[chisatowo]

I unfortunately have not abandoned the furry fusion au yet I've just been too lazy to design ppl, but here's a lil concept page for one of em!!

[jcmarchi]

Two MIT teams selected for NSF sustainable materials grants

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/two-mit-teams-selected-for-nsf-sustainable-materials-grants/

Two MIT teams selected for NSF sustainable materials grants

Two teams led by MIT researchers were selected in December 2023 by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator, a part of the TIP Directorate, to receive awards of $5 million each over three years, to pursue research aimed at helping to bring cutting-edge new sustainable materials and processes from the lab into practical, full-scale industrial production. The selection was made after 16 teams from around the country were chosen last year for one-year grants to develop detailed plans for further research aimed at solving problems of sustainability and scalability for advanced electronic products.

Of the two MIT-led teams chosen for this current round of funding, one team, Topological Electric, is led by Mingda Li, an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. This team will be finding pathways to scale up sustainable topological materials, which have the potential to revolutionize next-generation microelectronics by showing superior electronic performance, such as dissipationless states or high-frequency response. The other team, led by Anuradha Agarwal, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory, will be focusing on developing new materials, devices, and manufacturing processes for microchips that minimize energy consumption using electronic-photonic integration, and that detect and avoid the toxic or scarce materials used in today’s production methods.

Scaling the use of topological materials

Li explains that some materials based on quantum effects have achieved successful transitions from lab curiosities to successful mass production, such as blue-light LEDs, and giant magnetorestance (GMR) devices used for magnetic data storage. But he says there are a variety of equally promising materials that have shown promise but have yet to make it into real-world applications.

“What we really wanted to achieve is to bring newer-generation quantum materials into technology and mass production, for the benefit of broader society,” he says. In particular, he says, “topological materials are really promising to do many different things.”

Topological materials are ones whose electronic properties are fundamentally protected against disturbance. For example, Li points to the fact that just in the last two years, it has been shown that some topological materials are even better electrical conductors than copper, which are typically used for the wires interconnecting electronic components. But unlike the blue-light LEDs or the GMR devices, which have been widely produced and deployed, when it comes to topological materials, “there’s no company, no startup, there’s really no business out there,” adds Tomas Palacios, the Clarence J. Lebel Professor in Electrical Engineering at MIT and co-principal investigator on Li’s team. Part of the reason is that many versions of such materials are studied “with a focus on fundamental exotic physical properties with little or no consideration on the sustainability aspects,” says Liang Fu, an MIT professor of physics and also a co-PI. Their team will be looking for alternative formulations that are more amenable to mass production.

One possible application of these topological materials is for detecting terahertz radiation, explains Keith Nelson, an MIT professor of chemistry and co-PI. This extremely high-frequency electronics can carry far more information than conventional radio or microwaves, but at present there are no mature electronic devices available that are scalable at this frequency range. “There’s a whole range of possibilities for topological materials” that could work at these frequencies, he says. In addition, he says, “we hope to demonstrate an entire prototype system like this in a single, very compact solid-state platform.”

Li says that among the many possible applications of topological devices for microelectronics devices of various kinds, “we don’t know which, exactly, will end up as a product, or will reach real industrial scaleup. That’s why this opportunity from NSF is like a bridge, which is precious, to allow us to dig deeper to unleash the true potential.”

In addition to Li, Palacios, Fu, and Nelson, the Topological Electric team includes Qiong Ma, assistant professor of physics in Boston College; Farnaz Niroui, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT; Susanne Stemmer, professor of materials at the University of California at Santa Barbara; Judy Cha, professor of materials science and engineering at Cornell University; industrial partners including IBM, Analog Devices, and Raytheon; and professional consultants. “We are taking this opportunity seriously,” Li says. “We really want to see if the topological materials are as good as we show in the lab when being scaled up, and how far we can push to broadly industrialize them.”

Toward sustainable microchip production and use

The microchips behind everything from smartphones to medical imaging are associated with a significant percentage of greenhouse gas emissions today, and every year the world produces more than 50 million metric tons of electronic waste, the equivalent of about 5,000 Eiffel Towers. Further, the data centers necessary for complex computations and huge amount of data transfer — think AI and on-demand video — are growing and will require 10 percent of the world’s electricity by 2030.

“The current microchip manufacturing supply chain, which includes production, distribution, and use, is neither scalable nor sustainable, and cannot continue. We must innovate our way out of this crisis,” says Agarwal.

The name of Agarwal’s team, FUTUR-IC, is a reference to the future of the integrated circuits, or chips, through a global alliance for sustainable microchip manufacturing. Says Agarwal, “We bring together stakeholders from industry, academia, and government to co-optimize across three dimensions: technology, ecology, and workforce. These were identified as key interrelated areas by some 140 stakeholders. With FUTUR-IC we aim to cut waste and CO2-equivalent emissions associated with electronics by 50 percent every 10 years.”

The market for microelectronics in the next decade is predicted to be on the order of a trillion dollars, but most of the manufacturing for the industry occurs only in limited geographical pockets around the world. FUTUR-IC aims to diversify and strengthen the supply chain for manufacturing and packaging of electronics. The alliance has 26 collaborators and is growing. Current external collaborators include the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI), Tyndall National Institute, SEMI, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Agarwal leads FUTUR-IC in close collaboration with others, including, from MIT, Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Elsa Olivetti, the Jerry McAfee Professor in Engineering; Randolph Kirchain, principal research scientist in the Materials Research Laboratory; and Greg Norris, director of MIT’s Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE). All are affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory. They are joined by Samuel Serna, an MIT visiting professor and assistant professor of physics at Bridgewater State University. Other key personnel include Sajan Saini, education director for the Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Peter O’Brien, a professor from Tyndall National Institute; and Shekhar Chandrashekhar, CEO of iNEMI.

“We expect the integration of electronics and photonics to revolutionize microchip manufacturing, enhancing efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and paving the way for unprecedented advancements in computing speed and data-processing capabilities,” says Serna, who is the co-lead on the project’s technology “vector.”

Common metrics for these efforts are needed, says Norris, co-lead for the ecology vector, adding, “The microchip industry must have transparent and open Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models and data, which are being developed by FUTUR-IC.” This is especially important given that microelectronics production transcends industries. “Given the scale and scope of microelectronics, it is critical for the industry to lead in the transition to sustainable manufacture and use,” says Kirchain, another co-lead and the co-director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT. To bring about this cross-fertilization, co-lead Olivetti, also co-director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC), will collaborate with FUTUR-IC to enhance the benefits from microchip recycling, leveraging the learning across industries.

Saini, the co-lead for the workforce vector, stresses the need for agility. “With a workforce that adapts to a practice of continuous upskilling, we can help increase the robustness of the chip-manufacturing supply chain, and validate a new design for a sustainability curriculum,” he says.

“We have become accustomed to the benefits forged by the exponential growth of microelectronic technology performance and market size,” says Kimerling, who is also director of MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory and co-director of the MIT Microphotonics Center. “The ecological impact of this growth in terms of materials use, energy consumption and end-of-life disposal has begun to push back against this progress. We believe that concurrently engineered solutions for these three dimensions will build a common learning curve to power the next 40 years of progress in the semiconductor industry.”

The MIT teams are two of six that received awards addressing sustainable materials for global challenges through phase two of the NSF Convergence Accelerator program. Launched in 2019, the program targets solutions to especially compelling challenges at an accelerated pace by incorporating a multidisciplinary research approach.

[jadeannbyrne]

Presenting the Dior Fall 2024 Women's Collection

In English Chères lectrices et chers lecteurs, Je suis ravie de partager une nouvelle passionnante—j’ai reçu une invitation de dernière minute pour la présentation de la collection femme automne 2024 de DIOR, qui sera dévoilée en ligne le lundi 15 avril 2024 à 20 heures, heure de New York, sur Dior.com. En tant que la fille “redneck” de DIOR et ambassadrice de la couleur, la coiffure, et la…

[garageperfect123]

Quartz Floors Services | Garage Perfect Elevate your space with Quartz Floors Services by Garage Perfect. Transform your garage with durable, stylish quartz flooring solutions. Discover the perfect blend of functionality and aesthetics for your space today. https://www.garageperfect.ca/concrete-finishes/quartz-floors/

[seattlefoundat]

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Our team of highly skilled technicians is dedicated to providing top-quality foundation repair solutions tailored to your unique needs. Whether you're facing cracked walls, uneven floors, or sagging beams, we have the knowledge and experience to restore stability to your property.

[teddy-bear-naps-and-random-snaps]