Inspection, Testing, and Quality Control
Inspection and test planning
Quality control begins before installation: verify material certificates, shelf life, packaging condition, and storage. During installation, hold points should cover anchor inspection, expansion-joint layout, mixing water, placement, and curing. Sampling must be representative; take samples from the mixer or placement stream as specified, not from leftover material. Test specimens must be prepared, cured, and dried or fired on the same basis as the acceptance criteria. Common tests include bulk density, apparent porosity, CCS, MOR, PLC, and thermal conductivity. A frequent trap is comparing a cured specimen's strength to a fired-strength acceptance limit, or testing a panel that was cured differently from the lining. Another trap is accepting a single passing batch while ignoring a failing trend in water addition or density. Worked example: a 50 mm × 50 mm cube fails at 100 kN. CCS = load / area = 100,000 N / (50 mm × 50 mm) = 40 N/mm² = 40 MPa. Compare that value only with the criterion for the same specimen condition (cured, dried, or fired). Rule of thumb: retain test reports, batch records, and dryout charts as a single quality dossier; traceability is part of acceptance. Inspection is not a final walk-through only-it is a series of documented hold points that prevents nonconforming work from being covered up.