Heavy Duty Pile Cage Spacer Wheel Performance Comparison 2019
The purpose of this information is to provide some relevant data on the various Pile Cage Spacer wheels being made available throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Pile Cage Spacer wheels are now required to comply with the standard “Australian and New Zealand AS/NZS 2425:2015 Bar chairs in reinforced concrete”. The standard outlines the following basic tests which are to be done at least once daily throughout the manufacture process.
- measure the cover provided by the Spacer
- measure the deflection under load
- measure the permanent set once the load is removed
The standard also requires –
- packs of product to be traceable to the manufacturer and batch
- test results to be retained for at least 2 years
- packs of product to be clearly labelled with their strength grade
In this comparison a 75mm Pile Cage Wheel was used from 5 different sources
Castle NZ Wheel FAIL
Co-Packers HD Wheel PASS
EcoSpacer Wheel FAIL
Gentech Wheel FAIL
Zembrone Wheel FAIL
Load Test Equipment
Co-Packers have installed a custom built, 5kN programmable load test machine. This load test machine performs a vital role in ensuring products meet the requirement of the Australian Standard.
Comparison results
| Co-Packers | Eco-Spacer / D&D tooling | Castle NZ | GT Products | ZEMRONE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deflection | Pass | Pass | Fail | Fail | Fail |
| Result (mm) | 1.67 | 1.45 | 3.94 | 4.68 | 4.99 |
| Permanent Set | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Result (mm) | 0.29 | 0.59 | 0.60 | 0.08 | -0.21 |
| Cover (mm) | 75 | 78 | 75 | 74 | 74 |
| Batch Date on pack | Yes | U | U | No | U |
| Manufacturer on pack | Yes | U | U | Yes | U |
| Grade on pack | Yes | U | U | No | U |
| AS/NZS 2425:2015 compliant | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Additional relevant information
| Material | PP | ABS | PP | PP | PP |
| CFRP option available? | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Wheel Width (mm) | 40 | 35 | 39 | 34 | 37 |
| Rebar Entry width (mm) | 17 | 18 | 12 | 18 | 15 |
| Centre Diameter (mm) | 20 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 19 |
| ISO Certified company | Yes | No | No | U | U |
| Country of Origin | Australia | Australia | New Zealand | U | Korea |
Load test results can be downloaded here
U – information not available at the time of comparison
N – not evident at the time of comparison
