Quality assistance

One of the core priorities of Lafarge is Research and Development. Lafarge believes that this makes us stand out above the opposition. Annually Lafarge spends 170 million euros on research and development. Lafarge's main research centre is situated at our state of the art laboratories at Lyon France. Where over 200 full time researches are employed. Lafarge also has regional research centre across the globe. Globally Lafarge employs in excess of 500 people with the sole responsibility of developing new and exciting concretes. Some of the milestones that Lafarge research has achieved are as follows.

• 2000 Ductal, Ultra high performance concrete where no steel reinforcing is required.
• 2000 Agilia A range of self compacting concretes
• 2002 Platec, A waterproof dry wall board
• 2006 Sensuim 100% dust free cement
• 2007 Extensia A concrete designed for joint less floor slabs with no cracks up to 400 square meters.
• 2008 Chronolia Ultra fast setting concrete enabling the user to reuse the same set of shutters up to 4 times per day.

At Lafarge we believe that quality is the foundation of our success, and as such endeavors to always deliver a quality product to our valued clients. Lafarge South Africais is a proud member of SARMA and ASPASA and adheres to its ethics and goals. Being a member of SARMA and ASPASA means that all Lafarge operations are independently audited on an annual basis. Areas audited, include: safety, health, environment and quality.

All the concrete we produce meets the specifications of SANS 878 and aggregates are manufactured in accordance with SANS 1083. Lafarge can also produce concrete to a client's own requirements including the COLTO specifications.

Lafarge South Africa employs close to 100 people nationally who concentrates primarily on quality management and testing of its products. We have three main laboratories situated in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. These laboratories are either SANAS accredited or in the final phase of accreditation. All our quarries also have process control laboratories based on site. Lafarge conducts random process control testing on all its products that it produces. All testing data is centrally stored on a central data base for easy reference for our customers.

Lafarge boasts one of the most sophisticated batching systems available to the industry. All materials are weighed off. All our batching records are kept for 5 years.

To ensure that all material is weighed off correctly all our scales are externally calibrated every 6 months by a SANAS accredited testing facility.

All the concrete mix designs are designed in our regional offices and sent to the concrete plants for production. The plant staffs do not have the access to change the mix design recipes. Prior to dispatch all concrete loads are visually inspected to ensure that the correct slumps are met.

In addition to the external audits, Lafarge conducts 3 technical audits per annum to ensure that the highest standards are met at all times. 

For any quality related queries or assistance contact the nearest Quality department in your area:

Johannesburg: 011 253 4600

Durban: 031 275 7400

Cape Town: 021 508 8000

or for e-mail enquiries contact National Quality Manager Dave Miles at dave.miles@lafarge.com