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MIXED AND COMPACTEDCPI %u2013 Concrete Plant International %u2013 3 | 2025 www.cpi-worldwide.comOn the last page of the magazine, we offer you a mixture of interesting and curious aspects from the concrete world, together with a compact description of what it is about and how it came to be. If you have an idea for this page (including a photograph and short text), please email us your suggestion together with your name and company details. Successful entries will be rewarded with a Concrete Pen. Email your proposal to: editor@cpi-worldwide.com186Reaching for the stars with high-performance concreteNo high performance without a solid foundationPeople have always been fascinated by the stars, and improvements in telescopes have always driven mechanical engineers to technical excellence. ASA Astrosysteme of Austria, a manufacturer of instruments and equipment for astronomy and space research, uses solid mineral casting, Nanodur concrete, for its frame components.ASA Astrosysteme was founded in 1999 by Egon D%u00f6berl and today employs around 50 people who build telescopes to customer specifications. Such telescopes are naturally very heavy and weigh up to 20 tonnes. This means you need precise, backlash-free drives and guides to accurately align the optics.The greater the focal lengths, the more important it is that the telescope tube is stable. Sharp images of distant objects are only possible if all vibrations are minimised, both from external shocks and from the internal drives. For large telescopes, a solid material is used for the base plate and fork. D%u00f6berl, a qualified civil engineer, relies on Nanodur concrete %u2013 an ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) %u2013 which is based on a special binder technology from the German cement manufacturer Dyckerhoff. The material has high rigidity combined with excellent damping. It has been used for 15 years, mainly in machine tool beds and as base frame for automation solutions.The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias has ordered two huge telescopes with a mirror diameter of two metres for its observatory on the 2,400 m high Izana mountain on Tenerife. Each of the high-tech systems has a weight of around 16 tonnes and a cost of around 3.2 million euros. Durcrete from Germany assisted with the engineering and construction of the base and fork made of special concrete. The mould construction and casting of the base plates and forks was carried out by the Sudholdt-Wasemann from Herzebrock. The entire telescope was assembled and installed by the ASA team in a new, specially built hall with sufficient crane capacity in Neumarkt im M%u00fchlkreis near Linz. The two giant eyes are therefore the largest telescopes ever manufactured in Austria. And the next project is already in the pipeline, a telescope with a mirror diameter of 2.5 metres - and Nanodur high-performance concrete will again be used. nFURTHER INFORMATIONdurcrete GmbHDr.-Ing. Bernhard Sagmeistersagmeister@durcrete.de, www.durcrete.deHigh-tech telescope for space research %u2013 Nanodur high-performance concrete was used as the material for both the base plate and the fork.