Products & Solutions

Protectosil®

For a more stable infrastructure

Water, road salt, and heavy traffic put a strain on the steel-reinforced concrete used in our bridges. One out of eight highway bridges in Germany is in critical condition. Protectosil® from Evonik is a building protection agent that extends the life of important traffic arteries and can prevent potential damage before it can even take hold.

Almost 6,000 of the nearly 40,000 highway bridges in Germany are in urgent need of repair, and around 12,000 bridge sections are already threatened by deterioration. In addition to the increasing truck traffic that builders in the 1960s and 70s had not foreseen, bridge infrastructure is also battered by damaging environmental influences such as water and the road salts that penetrate the building materials. These attack the steel within the concrete, resulting in corrosion and structural instability.

Truck traffic is a significant factor in the economy, and if truck drivers—as well as commuters—are to continue crossing bridges unimpeded and without speed restrictions imposed for safety reasons, then repairs are urgently needed.

The Protectosil® line of products delivers an optimum, lasting solution for virtually every mineral-based material—whether concrete, sandstone, granite, or plaster. By hydrophobizing building materials and preventing corrosion, for instance, Protectosil® building protection agents help extend the life of bridges.

Effective protection from the elements and deterioration

The silane-based anti-corrosion agent Protectosil® CIT can effectively disrupt the corrosion mechanism and provide deep-down protection for steel-reinforced concrete. Scientific studies have shown that Protectosil® CIT can counteract further deterioration in steel-reinforced concrete, even in cases of bridges badly in need of repair, and makes newly built, steel-reinforced concrete structures more robust and longer lasting—right from the very start. And that significantly reduces maintenance costs.

Thanks to Protectosil® DRY CIT, builders can also start out actively preventing decay, weathering, and corrosion by blending additives into the concrete itself.

“In theory, the protection for concrete and for steel-reinforced concrete structures can last more than 100 years,” explains Susanne Martens, who works in research and applied technology for building protection products at Evonik. “It all depends, of course, on the strain placed on the material by car traffic, the elements, and environmental influences,” she notes.

Evonik has decades of expertise from all over the world in research, development, and production of customized building protection agents that prevent severe structural damage and the significant investment costs resulting from that damage.

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