Quality Control in Concrete Construction from ScanMan

In the manufacturing industry, inspection and testing are two important processes that must be carried out in order to assure the quality of the final product. Non-destructive concrete testing is done during the testing or examination phase. The requirements include chemical analysis of the concrete structure, mechanical properties of the reinforcement, location of the reinforcement, properties of the cement to be used, slump and pouring of the concrete, and control of compression test samples. There is an independent quality control department that inspects the structure at different stages and compares the result with the requirements stated in the contract.

Quality operators must be properly trained in order to detect the flaws and report them properly before any construction work could begin. If the staff is not experienced, the quality objectives might not be met. The management needs to ensure that proper measurement and monitoring is performed during all stages of quality assurance. These include customer satisfaction, process monitoring, data analysis for improvement, and internal audit of all processes, among other things. In the end, the management should ensure that all customer requirements have been met properly.

Organizations need to prepare procedures that describe what processes should be carried out for quality management. These procedures are prepared at three levels: system level, process level, and operation level. Before performing non-destructive testing, the testing department needs to employ different inspection methods to detect different types of flaws or defects depending on the characteristics of the material. This stage is known as intermediate inspection after which final non-destructive testing is done as a check that the previous testing was successful.

There is no universal standard for quality requirements; each organization has to define its own requirements depending on their procedures. However, non-destructive concrete testing methods require a preliminary description of standards or limits that must be considered during all phases. Different types of methods are employed for different types of concrete structures to detect maximum flaws. Because of this requirement, adequate and timely training must be provided to the staff to prevent imperfections in design and construction.

The details of non-destructive testing method to be utilized for testing are described in the technique. The technique identifies the testing method to be used as well as an important variable from another technique used within the same method. The main objective of quality control is to fulfill customer requirements and produce a product that is according to the specifications and has been built using minimum cost.

These quality control procedures are to be applied before or during the construction because once the product has been developed, the quality cannot be inspected. The final product must perform its job or function as planned or stated by the customer or the concerned organization.