GCP's First Australian Concrete Patent Dates Back to 1935

​GCP Applied Technologies may appear brand new, but the construction materials and packaging solutions producer hails from decades of innovation.

Since the early 20th century, the GCP lineage has filed nearly 900 patents. And here's the first in concrete admixtures…

In 1935, Dewey & Almy applied for a patent in new admixture technology, based on a Lignin derivative. The compound was an effective dispersion agent to produce concrete with lower cost or better strength.

The major cost in producing concrete is cement. And water is needed to mix with the cement so that it becomes pliable, more plastic, making it easy to form, manipulate and to catalyze cement hydration. The more water, the more workable the cement becomes, as well as more hydrated.

The tradeoff, however, is that excess water weakens the concrete. Yet, producers needed to add excess water to achieve the desired cement workability, sacrificing strength or cost.

The Lignin derivate concrete admixture solved for this. The water-reducing agent dispersed cement particles efficiently to grant the desired workability, without having to add excess water.

And voila!

Due to Dewey & Almy's innovative admixture, we have a concrete produced with workable cement, that maintains strength or lowers cost of production.       

Grace Construction & Packaging (the future GCP) would acquire Dewey & Almy in 1954.