The 3rd theme for our blog is "High-Tech Japan". In our blog, A-Lex introduces the latest technologies from a Japanese company for construction industries.

We see concrete everyday technically everywhere: buildings, tunnels, bridges, etc. As versatile and durable concrete is, when its strength deteriorates, concrete can crack and cause a catastrophe.

That is why concrete testing is indispensable to assure absolute safety in various industries.

There are several technologies and methods to test the concrete strength: Compressive Testing Method is to remove concrete in a large cylindrical shape from a concrete structure; Sounding Method and Rebound Hammer Testing Method are both non-destructive testing. However, Sounding Method relies on operator’s experiences and senses, so measurement results may vary, the test data cannot be saved. Rebound hammers is a widely-used technology, but its accuracy is lower than Compressive Testing Method and not suitable for detecting the delamination on the concrete surface or deterioration inside of the concrete.

This innovative technology for concrete testing from Nitto Construction Inc. offers drastically improved accuracy of rebound hammers yet retaining user-friendliness of Sounding Method. CTS-02 v4, a non-destructive tester from Nitto, can measure concrete strength by checking the machine impedance at way higher accuracy than rebound hammers, and at the same time, the concrete surface and measurement angle do not affect the accuracy. The test result can be transferred to a user’s PC to create a contour map and analyze the strength. Being a non-destructive tester, CTS-02 v4 does not require any extraction of concrete from a building. Nitto Construction Inc. has shared their technologies with Japan Highway Public Corp. in Japan, and in the US, Department of Transportation, Port Authority, and many other public facilities have incorporated Nitto’s technologies into their non-destructive tests.

For more information on Nitto’s concrete tester, visit
Concrete tester: https://www.concretetester.com/ (English)
Technical of Concrete tester: https://nittokensetsu.co.jp/technology/cts.html  (Japanese)