May 7 2004
The Construction Innovation Forum (CIF) has announced the selection of the Wireless Concrete Maturity Monitor, co-developed by IDENTEC SOLUTIONS Inc. and International Road Dynamics, Inc. (IRD), as the recipient of the 2004 NOVA Award.
This award honours innovations that have shown to significantly improve construction quality and costs. The NOVA Award was instituted by CIF in 1989 to recognize contributions and educate and encourage contractors, engineers, buyers, associations and vendors to utilize identified innovations to increase project success. Nominations are judged by a national jury comprised of ten leading industry experts.
The Wireless Concrete Maturity Monitor was selected out of more than 420 nominations from over 20 countries. The Monitor uses IDENTEC SOLUTIONS' active RFID technology together with software developed by International Road Dynamics to wirelessly log concrete maturity and temperature in real-time. The concept of developing a more effective monitoring product using RFID originated with Tim Stallard, a Concrete Engineer with the Materials Research Group of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). Stallard approached IDENTEC SOLUTIONS with his idea, and together with IRD and Michigan-based distributor WAKE, Inc., brought the Monitor to market.
"The Wireless Concrete Maturity Monitor was chosen based upon an impressive cost/benefit analysis for construction projects plus the innovative use of RFID to take the science of concrete maturity to a new level. The Monitor contains all the components necessary to accurately calculate, record and wirelessly communicate concrete temperature in real-time through the entire curing process. This means engineers do not have the costly and time-consuming job of stripping wires or dealing with damaging and less-accurate external methods" stated Robert I. Carr, Founding CIF Vice-Chair and Founding Chair-NOVA Awards. "With RFID-driven data, engineers can access the information anytime they require to make proactive, informed decisions for improved quality, safety and critical project timelines. Additionally, data is more easily retrieved in harsh weather conditions promoting the continuation of projects which may have previously been put on hold based on lack of reliable or inaccessible information."
"We are extremely pleased to receive the NOVA Award from The Construction Innovation Forum," stated Barry Allen, Vice-President of Technology for IDENTEC SOLUTIONS. "Together with IRD and WAKE, we knew we were offering something of great value based upon immediate feedback from engineers out in the field during the testing phase. To have this further validated by the top construction experts in the world acknowledging our efforts is very gratifying."
Source: PR Newswire