National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 196‑6:2018. It supersedes BS EN 196‑6:2010, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee B/516/12, Sampling and testing.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 January 2019.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 1 July 2018.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 196‑6:2018) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 51 “Cement and building limes”, the secretariat of which is held by NBN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2019, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by June 2019.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 196‑6:2010.

In comparison with the previous edition, the following technical modifications have been made:

elimination of the determination of bed volume by mercury volume;
in subclause 4.10, new data for standard deviation of the repeatability and reproducibility have been introduced.

A list of all parts in the EN 196 series can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

1 Scope

This document describes three methods of determining the fineness of cement.

The sieving method serves only to demonstrate the presence of coarse cement particles. This method is primarily suited to checking and controlling the production process.

The air-jet sieving method measures the retention on sieving and is suitable for particles which substantially pass a 2,0 mm test sieve. It can be used to determine the particle size distribution of agglomerates of very fine particles. This method can be used with test sieves in a range of aperture sizes, e.g. 63 μm and 90 μm.

The air permeability method (Blaine) measures the specific surface area (surface area related to mass) by comparison with a reference material sample. The determination of the specific surface area serves primarily to check the consistency of the grinding process of one and the same plant. This method only enables a limited assessment to be made of the properties of the cement in use.

NOTE The air permeability method may not give significant results for cements containing ultrafine materials.

The methods are applicable to all the cements defined in EN 197‑1.

2 Normative references

3 Sieving method

3.1 Principle

3.2 Apparatus

3.3 Material for checking the sieve

3.4 Procedure

3.5 Expression of results

4 Air permeability method (Blaine method)

4.1 Principle

4.2 Apparatus

4.3 Materials

4.4 Test conditions

4.5 Compacted cement bed

4.6 Air permeability test

4.7 Calibration of apparatus

4.8 Special cements

4.9 Simplification of the calculations

4.10 Expression of results

5 Air-jet sieving method

5.1 Principle

5.2 Apparatus

5.3 Procedure

5.4 Checking the sieve

5.5 Expression of results

5.6 Repeatability and reproducibility

BS EN 196-6:2018

Methods of testing cement - Determination of fineness

Current

Published:

31 Jan 2019