Top form Sonoco Alcore

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Sonoco Alcore is a global leader in the manufacture and supply of tube and core solutions to a broad range of manufacturing industries. Philip Yorke talked to Frederic Piau, the company’s sales and marketing manager for construction products, about its patented technologies and core solutions.

Sonoco Alcore is part of Sonoco, a global provider of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging and supply-chain solutions. Sonoco Alcore is the acknowledged leader in the manufacture of high-quality, innovative and value-creating tube and core solutions for the construction industry.

Delivering concrete form solutions

Sonoco is a brand leader in this sector and offers a full range of cardboard forms for all types of products with specialised shapes of all diameters and lengths. Sonotube concrete forms come in a variety of finish levels, including the well-known Sonotube Premium Finish-Free® concrete forms with ‘Duraglas® coating for a smooth and seamless core finish. All the company’s forms use its patented

RainGuard® technology, which allows customers to use Sonoco forms on building sites in the harshest weather conditions without in any way affecting the finished quality.

Core values

Sonoco Alcore offers a broad range of products that are designed to meet specific applications in the construction industry. All Sonotubes are spirally wound with recycled paperboard and feature a visible spiral mark as a Sonotube Standard. Sonotube Plus tubes offer a smooth surface with one or two zippers depending upon the form diameter and have one or two vertical markers. Both these Sonotubes have no length limits when it comes to finishing. Sonotube Premium forms are coated on the inside with the company’s patented Duraglas technology, thus creating concrete columns with a very smooth finish-free surface. These special finishes are available in a maximum length of six metres.

Sonotube Polygonal is a very different kind of tube made from a highdensity polystyrene insert in a cardboard tube, however, like the Sonotube Premium product it provides perfect columns with ultra-smooth surfaces. Sonotube polygonal exists with chamfered or sharp angles.

Piau said, “Our products are market leaders in France and we enjoy good market penetration in other EU countries such as Germany, Belgium, Netherland, Switzerland, Poland and Greece. We are also exporting more of our products outside of the European theatre. In fact recently we made our first product deliveries to India.

“Our recycled products are produced from recycled paper and we have a strong network of distributors that promote our wide selection of products which range in diameter from as little as 150mm to 1.2 metres. We are able to produce tubes in special lengths and are happy to make bespoke products if required. We are brand leaders because we can offer tailor-made services and special designs that can also have outside printing and be delivered directly on-site.

“We plan to continue to grow organically but would consider acquisitions and joint ventures if the right opportunities presented themselves. We pride ourselves on our sustainability and environmental protection record and we conserve water and energy wherever possible. We attend a number of trade fairs every year, with the most important one for us being the annual ‘World of Concrete’ in Las Vegas, USA.”

Sonoco Alcore also offers a number of supplementary products for use with its Sonotube forms, such as its Sonaplon ‘Shorting System’ which is used to hold the form straight and secure during the construction progress. In addition, the company’s ‘honeycomb board solution’ allows customers to create a void between concrete

walls or underneath a concrete slab and its Concrete Reservation Box is used to make passage ways within concrete slabs and walls for wiring and access purposes. With a thickness of 3.5mm, it’s lightweight, easy to modify on site, does not adhere to concrete and is 100 per cent recyclable.

Sustainable progress

Sonoco Alcore’s cores are 100 per cent recyclable and are made out of recycle OCC (Old Corrugated Containers). The company has established metrics to measure progress towards reduction of energy consumption, greenhouse gases and other types of air emissions, water usage and waste products. In addition, Sonoco Alcore maintains an on-going commitment to social responsibility and its economic goals.

Sonoco is a proud member of the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and was awarded both gold class and sector leader status for its global environmental operations. Furthermore, Newsweek Magazine named Sonoco one of its 500 greenest large American companies for a fourth consecutive year. n

For further details about Sonoco Alcore’s innovative tube products for the construction industry visit: www.sonocotube.eu or www.sonotube.com