SEADMA activities in 2009

Under the patronage of Departemen Perindustrian (the Industry Ministry of Indonesia), and co-organized by Universitas ­Trisakti, one of the leading technical universities, “The ­SEADMA Executive Forum on Factory-Mixed Mortar” took place on 6^th August 2009 at the Hotel Mulia Senayan in ­Jakarta. It was sponsored by BASF, Cipta Mortar Utama, Drymix ­Indonesia, Elotex, Laticrete and Wacker. Over sixty participants attended, they came amongst others from Asosiasi Aneka Industri Keramik Indonsesia (ASAKI), Badan Standardisasi Nasional BSN, Balai Besar Bahan dan Barang Teknik (B4T), ­Departemen Pekerjaan Umum, Departemen Perindustrian Republik ­Indonesia, Indonesia Green Building Council, Pusat Penelitian Bangunan dan Pemukiman (Research Division of the Ministry of Public Works, Bandung), as well as further delegates from consultantcy firms, developers, contractors and suppliers.

Efficient construction, as well as appropriate specification, were the focus of the discussions. In the presence of all relevant ­legislators, the issues concerning the necessary standardisation of modern construction products were presented. The current practices of hand-mixing on the building sites (building site mixtures of sand and cement) leads to a great many immediate disadvantages during construction (piles of dirt, contamination of mortars, dust and debris, unsafe working conditions with  high-rise buildings) and considerable long-term product failures (crack formation on walls, delamination of renders and flooring screeds, hollow spots in flooring, loose or damaged tiles). These issues can be corrected, if pre-formulated factory-made mortars are used. Another focus was on environmental issues, the necessity and awareness of green building, economizing with the limited energy resources and contributing to energy saving by using intelligent building materials.

Virtually all lecturers saw the need to unite in a neutral and influential quality alliance for mortars. One initiative for addressing this task is the implementation of a new corporate enterprise named “Himpunan Mortar Indonesia, HMI” (the Mortar Society of Indonesia) that will  concentrate the forces of all relevant parties interested in obtaining long-lasting factory-mixed mortar applications, namely: mortar manufacturers (Table 1), researchers, ministries, consultants, architects, developers and contractors.

SEADMA had recently decided on reconstruction of its interior organisation in order to accommodate regional  sub-groups and sees the need to form such sub-groups in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. This new structure will bundle multi-national drymix mortar manufacturers and the supply industry in a supra-regional association (=“new” SEADMA). The “new” SEADMA will itself  maintain close ties with the local societies established in the course of 2009 and 2010 (Fig. 1).

The 4^th Annual SEADMA Conference took place on 16^th October 2009 in Jakarta/Indonesia (Fig. 2). SEADMA’s Technical Committee (led by the Technical Chairman Dr. Rüdiger Oberste-Padtberg) and the Executive Committee also met in Jakarta the previous day. The 4^th Annual SEADMA Conference successfully concluded SEADMA’s Focus Year Indonesia. Over 110 industry experts from virtually all over the globe met and discussed recent developments in the drymix mortar industry in South East Asia. A total of ten lectures were presented by (in alphabetical order) Aqualon, Ardex, Dennert Poraver, Dow Costruction Chemicals, Elotex, Laticrete, m-tec, ­SEADMA and Wacker. The conference was opened with a welcome address by Ibu Naning Adiwoso from the Indonesian Green Building Council.

SEADMA/MEDMA’s Technical Bulletin 04 (ISBN 978-3-9811328-6-1) was published on the occasion of the 4^th Annual SEADMA Conference. It contains articles on the following topics: Failures in exterior tile applications, Dust reduced drymix mortars, The challenges in formulating sprayed concrete, Adaptation of self-levelling underlayments (SLU) to the climate on the Arabian Gulf, EIFS mortars and cellulose ethers, Quality control for building materials, Methods  for the external insulation of buildings, Shear bond strength testing for drymix mortars. The book is available from www.drymix.info.