India Chapter would like to introduce you to our ACI Certification on “Concrete Field Testing The American Concrete Institute (ACI,www.concrete.org) has been administering personnel certification programs through local ACI Chapters and other organizations for concrete construction industry for last 35 years. The ACI Concrete Field Testing program has been so successful that it has virtually become the industry’s standard qualification for all concrete practitioners. The tremendous response to this course has been largely due to the cooperation received from industry stakeholders, in recognition of the fact that proper handling of concrete leads to fewer disputes and results in higher quality and on-schedule projects. About 5,25,000 practitioners have been certified all over the world. The India Chapter of ACI is organizing this knowledge dissemination job as a local sponsoring group and more than 500 certified professional engineers trained already in India.

Your organization / department is connected in a big way with the use and applications of concrete for diverse projects. With such an intense use of concrete, you are advocating ‘Quality Control’ & ‘Quality Assurance’ as the most important parameters for strong, sustainable and durable concrete construction. The ACI Concrete Field Testing course is the best option for such requirements, when operated as ‘Train the Trainer’.

 The first ‘Concrete Field Testing Technician Grade-I’ certification course was conducted at Chennai entirely for L & T engineers. These engineers were of senior level (from all over the country as well as the Middle East) and underwent this course as a ‘train the trainer initiative’ of L & T. The faculty and examiners for the course, Prof. Luke Snell and John Conn, were invited from ACI International USA and then onwards we have started delivering this course at Mumbai. The 24th batch of this certification will be starting very soon. The training in terms of learning sessions for these senior engineers is personally taken by me as honorary faculty.

May we further share some good developments which have taken recently: –

1. Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority (MHADA) authorities have deputed their 50 Engineers for the certification course. This batch is already completed in five certification sessions which finally concluded in 1st week of October 2009.
2. Based on the extraordinary feedback about the qualitative nature of the ‘theory classes’ and remarkable improvement in the knowledge of the passed out engineers MHADA had deputed their 50 more engineers for next 5 batches of certification.
3. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., Managing Director- Padmashree E. Sreedharan has taken up the initiative to conduct this course in Delhi. The first batch of 30 senior engineers was trained, in Delhi, on 21st & 22nd of August, 2009. This means the desire to make good concrete practitioners and create trainers under the initiative of ‘Train The Trainer’ is taking deeper roots in the industry.
4. Indian Buildings Congress (IBC, Delhi) has also taken note of this initiative. In the conference organized by IBC on “Training, Skill upgradation and competence development in building industry”, the paper presented was on “Train the Trainer Initiative of the ACI India Chapter, Teaching the ACI Concrete Field Testing Technician course to its first 300 engineers – A learning experience with satisfaction!” at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in 2013.
5. Developers such as Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Hiranandani Constructions Pvt. Ltd., Untiy Infraproject Pvt. Ltd., B. G. Shirke Construction Technology Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Pvt. Ltd., Lafarge Aggregates Concrete India Pvt. Ltd., Godrej Properties Ltd., Structwel Designers and Consultants.,Hirco, Sunanda Speciality Coatings Pvt. Ltd. , Reliance Industries, RMC Ready Mix., Shashank Mehendale & Assoc., B.E. Billimoria.,Ultratech., Sunshine Group., Kraheja Corp., Nina Concrete., Shirish Patel & Asso., SP Consultants., Epicons Consultants., Bhagubhai College of Polytechnic and many more, also have taken a keen interest by deputing their engineers for this ‘Train the Trainer’ Initiative.
6. For the 19th batch, MIDC engineers had come from Osmanabad,Nanded, Waluj, Shendra, Nagpur, Amravati, Akola, Nanded, Jalgaon…etc.
7. 20th batch was held in Bengaluru on March 2014 for Sobha Group. The course was conducted on the special request of Mr. Ravi Menon – Chairman of Sobha Developers Limited.
8. For the 21st batch candidates had come from Gurgaon, New Delhi, Gujarat, Panvel (Raigad), Navi Mumbai (Badlapur, Khairane), Mumbai (Vile Parle, Powai, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar) & Thane.
9. 22nd batch was held in New Delhi for PWD engineers on 14th March 2015.
10. For 23rd batch candidates were from all over Maharashtra like Pune, Latur, anded, Warora, Butibnori, Amravati, Ambernath, Taloja, Roha, Mahape, Thane, Dombivli and Andheri attended the course.Candidates from Reliance Industries Limited – Jamnagar, R&B Department – Gujarat – Gandhinagar and M/s. Thornton Tomasetti – Mumbai attended the course.

India Chapter of ACI is very happy to bring to your notice that the world has taken the cognizance of our successful program and in his latest President’s memo President of ACI Richard Stehly has made a special mention to India. I am enclosing the memo from Concrete International magazine for your ready reference.

 If the course is to be conducted outstation (outside Mumbai) the air fares and other charges would be additional of the faculty. The candidate is offered

1. Technician workbook publication from American Concrete Institute.
2. Examination fees to ACI International
3. Couriering the exams to ACI (USA) for assessment etc.
4. Special teaching sessions for entire curriculum.
5. Special advanced practical sessions.

These are unavoidable basic expenses bringing the course to literally philanthropic approach by India Chapter to popularize good concrete practices in India. The teaching is conducted totally on honorary basis with the administrative support of four devoted staff members.

Format of the course:

This is a “train the trainer” course taught in English and is recommended for all your Concrete Quality and Construction related engineers. It is also a useful course for site architects and any other personnel incharge of quality related decisions and systems.

The course is taught over two days (one day theory + one day practicals), followed by a day long exam which can take place a week or two later to give the candidates sufficient time to study.

As a practice there is a one day theory sessions are conducted on following important properties of green concrete, which when determined accurately can predict the behavior of hardened concrete Basics of Concrete Technology and hydration of cement

1. Temperature of Freshly Mixed Hydraulic –Cement Concrete (ASTM C1064)
2. Sampling Freshly Mixed Concrete (ASTM C172)
3. Slump of Hydraulic-Cement Concrete (ASTM C143)
4. Density (Unit Weight), Yield, and Air Content (Gravimetric) of Concrete (ASTM C138)
5. Air Content of Freshly Mixed Concrete by the Pressure Method (ASTM C231)
6. Air Content of Freshly Mixed Concrete by the Volumetric Method (ASTM C173)
7. Making and Curing Concrete Test Specimens in the Field (ASTM C31)

For any further clarifications, please feel free to call on Phone No: 2446175 (India Chapter of ACI)/ 24034130 (Sunanda Speciality Coatings Pvt. Ltd.,) and also provide your contact number for further correspondences.

Warm Regards,

Dr. S. K. Manjrekar
Principal Convenor – ACI Certification Course
Past President
India Chapter of ACI