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BarChip Concrete Replacing Steel in Concrete! BarChip is the leading global supplier of structural synthetic fibre reinforcement for concrete and shotcrete.

BarChip is an organization focussed on providing customers the highest level of technical and application support. Our team of engineering, concrete and plastics specialist continually redefine the limits of synthetic fibre technology, delivering unmatched performance and usability to BarChip clients around the word. BarChip synthetic fibre reinforcement is used in every major construction sector for all types of concrete applications. We’ve built our reputation on the strength of our people and on our products which have been tried and tested by major corporations and engineering experts worldwide.

16/10/2026

We love a good concrete mix!

Great flow. Excellent workability. No visible segregation or bleeding. And all with macro synthetic fibre reinforcement.

This is concrete being placed at the PiSA Farmacéutica jointless floor project in Mexico, where considerable work went into optimising the concrete mix to achieve the right balance of fresh concrete workability and hardened concrete performance.

The 35,500 m² industrial floor uses BarChip MQ58 as the sole structural reinforcement, with mix development, material testing and quality control playing an important role in the successful delivery of the project.

It's a great example of how properly designed fibre reinforced concrete can deliver excellent workability without compromising structural performance.

Read more about the project: https://barchip.short.gy/5CxYPk

Need help optimising your mix? Get in touch.

3 million cycles. No fatigue failure.At the in Budapest, Christophe Camille presented research into the fatigue perfor...
08/10/2026

3 million cycles. No fatigue failure.

At the in Budapest, Christophe Camille presented research into the fatigue performance of macro synthetic fibre reinforced prestressed concrete railway sleepers.

Under accelerated cyclic testing, conventional sleepers failed under 1 million cycles. BarChip reinforced sleepers exceeded 3 million cycles without failure, reaching the experimental run-out condition.

Analysis of stiffness degradation indicated an estimated fatigue-life improvement of approximately 4.15×. But perhaps more interesting than how much the fatigue performance improved is why it improved.

You can access the full paper here: https://barchip.short.gy/8amoer

Does the test method influence your fibre reinforced concrete design values?Research presented by Todd Clarke, Peter Sch...
29/09/2026

Does the test method influence your fibre reinforced concrete design values?

Research presented by Todd Clarke, Peter Schaul and Des Vlietstra Budapest found that design values derived from Round Determinate Panel testing were 15–75% higher than those derived from beam testing.

The difference wasn't created by applying a less conservative safety approach. The RDP produced substantially lower test scatter and a cracking mechanism more representative of an in-situ shotcrete lining. Because variability influences the characteristic values available for design, scatter introduced by the test itself can ultimately translate into more conservative designs.

The question isn't simply how strong the FRC is. It's whether the test is accurately representing the material in the structure.

And a special shoutout to Todd Clarke for presenting the paper in Budapest. Great job Todd — a really interesting piece of work and a great contribution to the discussion around how we test and design FRC.

Download the full paper: https://barchip.short.gy/gByTFt

26/09/2026

As industrial facilities become more automated, what does that mean for the floor?

AGVs, autonomous mobile robots and increasingly electrified warehouse systems introduce requirements that go beyond simply carrying loads. The floor can become part of the operating environment, with electrical conductivity, electrostatic dissipation and compatibility with automated equipment all forming part of the design brief.

At the PiSA Farmacéutica facility in Mexico, macro synthetic fibre was selected to avoid issues associated with electrical interference. The design challenge was then to develop a large jointless floor using macro synthetic fibre as the sole structural reinforcement, while still achieving the required crack control, residual strength and long-term serviceability.

At Budapest, Luis Leonardo, Abraham Hidalgo, Claudio Parada, Jesús Munoz and Péter Károly Juhász will present the finite element methodology behind the floor, incorporating shrinkage, environmental conditions, subbase interaction and the post crack performance of MSF reinforced concrete.

Paper: Finite Element Analysis of Macro Synthetic Fibre Reinforced Concrete Jointless Industrial Floors in Latin America.

More from the research after Budapest.

What happens to a prestressed concrete sleeper after it cracks?Under repeated rail loading, cracking can increase stress...
23/09/2026

What happens to a prestressed concrete sleeper after it cracks?

Under repeated rail loading, cracking can increase stress concentration in the prestressing steel, accelerating fatigue damage and reducing sleeper service life.

But macro synthetic fibres continue to bridge those cracks.

At Budapest, Christophe Camille, Olivia Mirza and Todd Clarke will present research examining how this post-crack fibre contribution affects stiffness degradation, stress redistribution and fatigue life in prestressed concrete railway sleepers. The study combines full-scale cyclic testing with analytical fatigue modelling to investigate the mechanism behind the performance.

Paper: Dual-Approach Verification of Enhanced Fatigue Life in Macro Synthetic Fibre Reinforced Concrete Sleepers.

More after Budapest.

23/09/2026

Cast or sprayed? Beam or panel? How we produce and test an FRC specimen can influence the performance we measure.

For shotcrete, the question is particularly important. Spraying influences fibre orientation and compaction, while accelerator use can affect the concrete itself. At the same time, different test methods introduce very different cracking mechanisms and fracture areas.

At Budapest, Todd Clarke will present research comparing cast and sprayed FRC using EN 14651 beams and ASTM C1550 Round Determinate Panels, and explore how those results can be translated into material parameters for structural design.

Are our test specimens accurately representing the FRC we're designing in the structure?

More after Budapest.

20/09/2026

How do you design a macro synthetic fibre reinforced jointless floor when conventional design methods only take you so far?

TR34 and ACI 360R provide established frameworks for industrial floor design. But large jointless floors introduce additional challenges, particularly the interaction between shrinkage, environmental conditions, restraint and the supporting ground.

At Budapest, Luis Leonardo, Abraham Hidalgo, Claudio Parada, Jesús Munoz and Péter Károly Juhász will present a finite element methodology developed to more closely model these real-world conditions.

Applied to a macro synthetic fibre reinforced jointless floor for PiSA Farmacéutica in Mexico, the research follows the process from material testing and FEA design through construction, quality control and field monitoring.

Paper: Finite Element Analysis of Synthetic Macro Fibre Reinforced Concrete Jointless Industrial Floors in Latin America.

More after Budapest

Can macro synthetic fibre extend the fatigue life of prestressed concrete railway sleepers?At Budapest, Dr Christophe ...
18/09/2026

Can macro synthetic fibre extend the fatigue life of prestressed concrete railway sleepers?

At Budapest, Dr Christophe Camille, Olivia Mirza and Todd Clarke will present research examining the fatigue performance of prestressed concrete railway sleepers reinforced with macro synthetic fibre. The study compares conventional prestressed sleepers with sleepers incorporating BarChip 48, subjected to repeated cyclic loading under pre-cracked conditions.

Using both experimental stiffness degradation and analytical stress-based assessment, the research investigates not only whether fibre reinforcement improves fatigue performance, but why.

Paper: Dual-Approach Verification of Enhanced Fatigue Life in Macro Synthetic Fibre Reinforced Concrete Sleepers.

More from the research following the conference.

17/09/2026

What is the right test for fibre reinforced shotcrete?

At , BarChip's Todd Clarke will present new research examining how test method and specimen preparation influence the measured performance of fibre reinforced shotcrete.

The paper compares EN 14651 beam testing and ASTM C1550 Round Determinate Panel testing, considering the effects of spraying, fibre orientation and specimen preparation on measured post-crack performance. It also checks the possibility to convert RDP results to beam test results in an analytic and numeric way.

If you’re heading to the conference, don’t miss the paper: Fibre-Reinforced Shotcrete Test Methods: Impact of the Application Process and Analytical–Numerical Correlations

Congratulations to Alstom on winning the Supplier Excellence Award at the 2026 Australasian Railway Association (ARA) In...
03/09/2026

Congratulations to Alstom on winning the Supplier Excellence Award at the 2026 Australasian Railway Association (ARA) Industry Awards. BarChip was proud to be named a finalist in the same category for the Port Chalmers Rail Sidings Project in New Zealand.

The project replaced conventional steel reinforcement with BarChip macro synthetic fibre, delivering a simpler reinforcement solution with significant reductions in steel use and embodied carbon - https://barchip.short.gy/XaM1cr.

Great to have Todd Clarke and Dr. Christophe Camille there on the night, both of whom worked closely with the project team on the fibre reinforcement solution at Port Chalmers.

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