Introduction
Con-Fab, a leading manufacturer of prestressed concrete products, supplies essential components for infrastructure development including bridge girders and parking structures. To maintain their industry leadership and commitment to quality, Con-Fab needed to overcome significant operational challenges — prolonged demolding times, material inefficiencies, and the high costs of frequent testing — all while adhering to CalDOT's stringent standards.
Challenges
1. Prolonged Demolding Times
Extended demolding times significantly limited production throughput, creating a critical bottleneck in operations. Every hour a bed was occupied waiting for strength confirmation was an hour of lost capacity.
2. Excessive Material Use Due to Overdesign
Overdesigning products led to unnecessary material usage and increased costs. Without real-time performance data, there was no way to know how much extra material was actually needed.
3. Costly and Frequent Cylinder Testing
Frequent cylinder testing to ensure quality and compliance added considerable expense and time delays to the manufacturing process.
Sensytec's Solution
Sensytec addressed these challenges by integrating sensor technology directly into Con-Fab's production process — providing real-time curing data, optimizing demolding times with accurate strength readings, and identifying areas of material overdesign.
Key Results
Conclusion
Through the strategic integration of Sensytec's sensor technology, Con-Fab overcame operational challenges and established new standards for production efficiency, material savings, and quality control — all while maintaining full CalDOT compliance.