About SAFRA

Reinforced Concrete
Concrete has been used as a constructional material for centuries because most of these parts of the world where early civilizations were established had natural cement deposits. In Mediterranean countries there are many remains of Roman concrete construction. Early in the 19th century, the artificial cement, Portland Cement, consisting chiefly of clay and limestone chalk, was invented. This allowed for a more uniform and economic cement to be manufactured almost anywhere in the world. Relying on the great strength of concrete in compression, numerous splendid concrete structures were built.

It was only in the latter half of the 19th century that the weakness of concrete in tension was overcome. The tension areas were reinforced by imbedding steel in the concrete to carry the tensile stresses. The development of this technology has resulted in the construction of all the wonderful sophisticated concrete structures, all over the globe, we take for granted today.
"Encyclopedia Britannica"

Fabric Reinforcement 
Welded Wire Fabric and an apparatus to produce it were invented in the USA at the turn of the century, while deformed bars were introduced in the early 1960's. The fabric reinforcement as used today provides a number of advantages in general application. These include savings in materials, greater bond, better distribution of stresses, improved crack width control (important in limit state design), superior spacing accuracy and significant savings in labour fixing costs. Very important advantages are associated with specific applications.

A publication entitled, "Fabric Reinforcement - design manual", in which the use of this convenient form of reinforcement is described and design considerations discussed, is available from the Association.

SAFRA
SAFRA was formed in 1970 to promote the interests of its members, to encourage fair and equitable trading conditions and to establish optimum standards of workmanship and service in order to preserve the good name of the fabric reinforcement industry. It further conducts public relations programmes and through its affiliation to SEIFSA, promotes healthy industrial relations policies and provides the values of contract price adjustment indices for the industry.

Membership is open to all employers engaged in the manufacture and supply of fabric reinforcement who possess the necessary technical ability and specialist machinery.