Holcim has invested in Cloud Cycle, a UK technology firm using in-truck sensors and machine learning to monitor concrete quality during delivery.
Founded in 2019, Cloud Cycle combines in-truck sensors, edge computing and machine learning to continuously optimise concrete quality and mix control while trucks are in transit and at the point of delivery.
The technology is said to extend Holcim’s quality monitoring from the plant to the delivery site, an approach the company says reduces the amount of returned concrete and supports its circular and low-carbon mixes, including ECOCycle.
Cloud Cycle’s system has already been deployed on more than 150 Holcim concrete mixer trucks in the UK, Italy and Switzerland. Holcim said the investment would accelerate the roll-out of the technology across its global fleet, complementing existing tools such as Q-Predict, its real-time cement property prediction system.
Ram Muthu, head of operational excellence at Holcim, said: “Every truck that leaves our plants generates data that can optimise our concrete’s quality, our own operations, and our customers’ experience.
“With Cloud Cycle we can capture this data at scale and in real time, extending quality monitoring beyond the plant and to the point of delivery. Complementing Holcim’s AI-powered tools such as Q-Predict, this creates multiple quality checkpoints across the value chain, helping us improve deliveries and advance our decarbonisation roadmap.”
Holcim has made 21 investments to date through Holcim MAQER Ventures, its corporate venture capital unit, which the company said is part of its wider work on digital and decarbonisation technologies for the built environment.
Image credit: Bannafarsai_Stock – Shutterstock
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