Alphatec Engineering

Grout gets argued about on compressive strength. On a shutdown, the only figure that matters is when you can start the machine.

AT110 is built for that window. Three-part epoxy grout, 95 MPa compressive strength, reaching high strength within hours rather than over a full day, and it holds that speed at low ambient temperatures where most fast-set products slow down.

The trade-off is real. Pot life is around 15 minutes at 25°C, so formwork and crew need to be ready before mixing starts.

If the outage has room in it, AT800 is still the right choice.

Full specifications:
https://alphatec-engineering.com/products/high-performance-epoxy-grouts-for-heavy-machinery/at110-alphatec-110-fast-curing-epoxy-grout/

No one at your plant owns the foundation.

Civils designed it, to a load case that may no longer apply.
Mechanical inherited it, along with the machine sitting on it.
Reliability get the call when it starts to move.

Three teams, three sets of records, no single owner. So a grout line under a baseplate goes twenty years without anyone inspecting it, while the machine above it gets an oil sample every month.

Foundations need their own condition record, held by someone whose name is on it. A survey takes a day.

Who owns the foundations at your plant?

https://alphatec-engineering.com/services/foundation-repair/

We predicted the peak temperature inside a 700 kg epoxy grout pour to within 0.1 °C.

Here is why that matters.

In a large pour, the grout generates its own heat. Add a summer ambient temperature and the exotherm stops being a footnote in the method statement. It becomes the variable that decides whether you get a sound block or a cracked one. Most teams find out which after demoulding.

So we stopped estimating and measured it. We reproduced a real industrial installation using our AT800 Epoxy Grouting System:

1,830 x 430 x 440 mm, approximately 700 kg, placed in a single continuous pour. Five embedded thermocouples logging the full thermal history, from gelation through the exothermic peak and back to ambient.

Results: Peak core temperature 71.8 °C Controlled thermal gradient across the section No cracking and no visible defects after demoulding

The number that matters most is the comparison. Our thermal model, calibrated over years of validation pours across different geometries, volumes, and pouring configurations, predicted 71.7 °C. Measured: 71.8 °C.

That means we can tell a client what the inside of their block will do before anyone opens a unit. Pour windows, shift planning, and hot weather precautions become decisions based on data rather than on how the last job went.

Anticipating a problem is worth more than solving it.

If you have a large pour scheduled in high ambient temperatures, we can model it first. Send us the geometry and the site conditions

Diamond wire cutting is not new for us. We have been cutting out failed foundations, concrete, and old anchor bolts this way for years, on jobs where the damage was too far gone to repair in place.

It now has its own page.

Vibration-free, precise cuts through heavily reinforced concrete, no jackhammering next to a live machine. The same crew then rebuilds it: new anchor bolts, concrete, epoxy grout, realignment.

At a power plant in Saipan, that meant cutting twelve concrete blocks (32 m³) and replacing 42 anchor bolts on a diesel engine foundation, with a return campaign in 2024.

Full details on the service page: https://alphatec-engineering.com/services/foundation-repair/diamond-wire-cutting-foundation-removal/

Most foundation failures get blamed on the equipment. The grout underneath is usually the real problem.

Vibration and temperature swings crack ordinary grout. Voids open up, bolts loosen, and bearings fail long before the machine should have worn out.

AT800 is built for exactly that: a proprietary epoxy grout rated from -40°C to +80°C, in service across 50 or more countries, from Arctic LNG plants to Middle Eastern refineries. Get more details here: https://alphatec-engineering.com/products/high-performance-epoxy-grouts-for-heavy-machinery/at800-alphatec-800-high-performance-epoxy-grout/

Cement grout reaches roughly 24 to 27 MPa compressive strength after 24 hours. Epoxy grout reaches roughly 55 to 70 MPa in the same 24 hours, and moves on to 85 to 100 MPa within 7 days.

That gap is why the European Forum for Reciprocating Compressors (EFRC) treats cement grout as a filler material for static equipment in its foundation design guidance, not a solution for anything carrying vibration or dynamic load.

Cement is cheaper, and it creeps less than epoxy under sustained load. It also bonds poorly to steel, has close to no chemical or oil resistance, and takes weeks rather than days to reach a strength that will actually support the machine.

For rotating equipment, that trade-off rarely goes cement's way.

Full EFRC report here:https://www.recip.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/EFRC-RD-Report-Foundation-Anchor-Bolts-Grouting-October-19th-2017.pdf

Some of the foundations we get called to are older than the plant's own maintenance records.

Cracking nobody logged. Old anchor bolt pockets from a repair three owners ago. A cold joint someone patched and never mentioned again.

What is the oldest foundation you have inherited, and what condition was it in when you first took it on? Photos welcome in the comments, we would genuinely like to see them. ⚙