Technical Silica Co. is formally introducing BriteFume to the general public. The white amorphous silica fume is used to create high-performance decorative concrete. While BriteFume has been available to a select number of users for some time, it has only recently been fully released to market, with a finalized trademark secured by Technical Silica earlier this year.
Users typically replace 5 to 10 percent of portland cement mixtures with BriteFume to achieve optimum performance. BriteFume’s truly white color maintains, and often adds to, the brightness of concrete mixtures. This is conducive to accurate color matching. Also, BriteFume has the distinctive ability to add substantial strength to concrete mixes. Measures as high as 15,000 psi are not uncommon when BriteFume is utilized.
Silica fume consists primarily of amorphous (noncrystalline) silicon dioxide. Its individual particles are extremely small, approximately 1/100 the size of an average cement particle. It fills empty pores in the cement and helps produce a stronger, more compact material. It also provides significant improvements in the permeability, abrasion resistance and chemical resistance of concrete. It reacts with the cement paste to form additional calcium silicate hydrate (CSH).
BriteFume is available year-round from Technical Silica Co. in bulk bags or 50-pound bags.
