ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses a new group of subjects and discusses finishing, jointing and repair techniques. The precast concrete industry continues as a mixture of labour- and machine-intensive processes and there is no reason to think that there will be a future weighting to more of one than the other. How aspects such as energy-saving, market demand, costs and sustainability will affect the industry is anyone’s guess. Irrespective of the production involved, all precasters are subject to European Standards, Directives and Regulations, and their customers likewise. These are reflected in the high costs of disposal of waste materials, shortages of natural aggregates, pressure to use recycled concrete and new types of synthetic materials as aggregate and recycled mixing water and the use of cements containing blends of other materials.
