Good Things Are Coming
A Report on World of Concrete 2014 and New Offerings from WerkMaster™
Joel Davis
Special Contributor
(Hover over photos for captions)
At the World of Concrete 2014 show held in Las Vegas, Nev., in January, energy was high and the outlook was positive for the year ahead.
Gordon Siddall, Corporate / International Sales for WerkMaster™, said the tone of the show was upbeat. “Optimism and confidence were the two keywords in this year’s show,” he said. “Contractors are seeing many projects that had been mothballed due to economics being brought forward, dusted off, and put back on production schedules.”
Vancouver, BC-based WerkMaster™ is the manufacturer of award-winning polished concrete and surface preparation equipment. World of Concrete gave the company a chance to show off the talents of its crew and quality of its equipment.
“We enjoyed having one of the best looking floors at the entire event and were very pleased with how little time was required to achieve our final look in comparison with other slabs on display,” Siddall said. “Compliments on the finished product was expressed from attendees, competitors and manufacturers alike.”
The WerkMaster™ crew polished a four-day-old concrete slab to a 1,500 grit mechanical finish without using sealers. The entire project, including the edging, was done using a WerkMaster™ Propane Colossos XT.
Held Jan. 20-24 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the signature event for the concrete industry drew more than 48,000 registered professionals and featured more than 1,250 companies exhibiting across more than 570,000 net square feet of space.
“While the overall attendance at the show was strong, the attendance generated in the WerkMaster™ booth included established companies in the industry looking for solutions to their current pain point as well as upstarts interested in a smarter approach to entering the polished concrete industry,” Siddall said.
According to a press release wrapping up the World of Concrete experience, 2014 looks to be a strong year for the concrete industry: “Architects, engineers, and designers are continuing to focus their attention on the ‘green’ factor and extreme low maintenance of polished concrete with more intensity and frequency than ever.”
Looking ahead for the year, WerkMaster™ has several new products in the offing. The company’s new Super Propane Colossos XT features two of its Colossos XT Propane machines yoked together, which offers even more results for labor invested, Siddall said.
“The true advantage of our ganging system is with a 48-inch wide grinding footprint, you’ll experience twice the production with only half the labor,” he said. “By splitting them apart, not only do you have machines that by their footprint can fit through doorways and into elevators, they can be individually sent to separate job sites.”
Ganging two machines together results in a four-foot wide path and eight square feet of floor coverage in one pass. As a result of its counter-rotating heads, the Super Colossos is also very maneuverable and greatly reduces operator fatigue.
The new Titan XT Propane from WerkMaster™ is the result of a complete redesign for 2014. It features a new 20-inch square footprint, increased from 18 inches, larger diameter cutting heads, and benefits from a 200-pound increase in weight. The machine utilizes a 19-horsepower Clear Sky technology Kawasaki motor that meets LEED standards and contains multiple safety features to ensure safe operation.
“In addition to being compact and powerful, it’s extremely maneuverable,” Siddall said. “The Titan XT Propane is not only the machine of choice for spaces up to 10,000 square feet but is rapidly becoming recognized for its agility in small and confined spaces.”
The Titan XT Propane is the ideal machine for projects where power is not available.
It offers grinding, stripping, sanding, buffing, burnishing, polishing, and edging. It removes thinset, epoxy, glue, paint, mastic, and micro toppings. The Titan XT works on spalled or rained out concrete and runs wet or dry on concrete, stone, terrazzo, or VCT tile.
WerkMaster™ is also offering a revamped Raptor XT. “The Raptor has undergone a complete facelift since 2013,” Siddall said. “Our 2014 Raptor XT model features a unique-to-the-industry 5 Hp motor and variable-frequency drive combination that allows the machine to run on single phase and three-phase 230 V as well as 110 V when using a Quick 220 Converter. Plans are afoot for a propane version.”
The Raptor XT is the most powerful surface prep machine in its class. It is widely used for retail and small commercial projects, serving as a grinder, stripper, sander, polisher, buffer, burnisher, polisher, and edger.
WerkMaster™ is offering its Plug-N-Go Standard Achromic Resin tooling, which is a transitional resin blend tool that will not transfer color to concrete, Siddall said.
Available in 30, 50, 100, and 200 grits, the tooling is very effective in removing scratch patterns left behind from metal bond diamond tooling. They have proven to be very effective on hard concrete measuring 7-9 on the Mohs hardness scale.
A new specialty One Step Pore Filler and Densifier offers significant benefits to customers, Siddall said. It is a combination of pore filler and lithium densifier in one. “When combined, labor is lessened substantially as this new product hardens the floor and fills the imperfections in one step,” Siddall said. “The end result is a harder floor with a higher quality look and feel.”
A concrete densifier is a chemical applied to a concrete surface to make it harder by reacting with the uncured components in the concrete. The products make the surface stronger, less permeable, and more durable. It also reduces concrete dusting, which creates a safer working and living environment.
The company has more offerings planned for release in 2014. “We’re excited about the development of our new Propane Challenger,” Siddall said. “Due to electrical issues in a number of countries, contractors have been demanding a smaller, lighter, highly mobile and powerful propane machine.
“The new WerkMaster™ Challenger is designed to exceed their expectations. Due for release in May, the Challenger will sit on a 17-inch footprint, weighing in at approximately 300 pounds, packing a powerful 13 horsepower Honda propane engine. It is perfect for all applications across hardwood, stone, concrete, terrazzo, and floor maintenance.”
The first World of Concrete show was held in Houston in 1975. World of Concrete first show in Las Vegas took place in 1976, with 103 total exhibitors —less than one-tenth of the 2014 total.
For more information or to order the complete line of WerkMaster™ products, visit www.braxton-bragg.com. To view video from World of Concrete 2014, visit www.WerkMaster.com/world-of-concrete-2014-results/.