Cement

A cement is a binding material, a substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand, steel rod and gravel together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is only behind water as the planet's most-consumed resource. Making procedure: First of all lime stone is crushed to about 2cm size and clay is mixed on 2:1 ratio. The mixture is grounded to fine powder and slurry is formed by mixing water. The slurry is lifted to tower and slowly comes down via rotating kiln. The slurry is slowly heated with coal upto 1300-1600oC of temperature. Due to this cement clinker is formed. After cooling of clinker, it is grounded in grinder with mixing about 2.5% of gypsum. Now cement is ready.

Uses of cement:

Following are the different uses of cement in construction works:

1. To prepare cement mortar

2. To prepare cement concrete

3. To build fire proof and thermal proof structures

4. To build hydrographic and frost resistant structures

5. To build chemical proof structures

6. As a grout material

7. To construct Cement concrete roads

8. To manufacture precast members

9. For aesthetic concrete construction