Does the color or shades of cement affect its strength?/ Does the color of cement decides its quality?

👀. Does the color of cement affect its quality?

 The answer is NO.

The next question that comes to your mind is,

 👀. Why the cement carries different color shades?

The cement gets its color from the raw materials used in its manufacturing process. The raw materials procured from the various mines differ in color shades. 

So, the cement carries a particular color depending upon the 

1. Type of raw material used:

The various raw materials that are used in the manufacturing of cement are limestone, clay, bauxite, fly ash, slag, silica, gypsum, etc. The limestone acts as a primary constituent having not less than 60% in cement proportion. Out of all other pozzolanic materials, a few of them are selected to blend with the lime. 

If fly ash is used as secondary blending material while manufacturing, the color shades may be dark grey. Silica or slag blended cement may appear a light grey in color.

Whatever the raw material may be, the final chemical composition of cement of a particular type will be the same.

2. Manufacturing process:

Two types of processes are used while manufacturing cement. They are

 1. Wet manufacturing process &

 2. Dry manufacturing process.

The color or shades of the cement is influenced by the type of process followed.

3. Location of the factory:

The geographical location of the cement factory decides the color shades of cement. The color of raw materials procured by the factory at a particular location does not match with the other manufacturing units. So, the cement of a particular brand looks different in its color when compared with the other brands.

4. Cement composition:

The composition of white cement is different from grey cement. In the production process of white cement, the percentage of iron oxide & other minerals are minimized to achieve white color.

 It does not mean that white cement has good compressive strength. The properties & strength of white cement match well with the grey cement, except for its color.

5. Type & grade of cement :

The color of PPC cement is different from that of OPC cement. Again the reason is, raw material & composition as explained above.

I think you have understood the theory behind the cement color & its strength.

Thank you for going through this article❤. Have a good day 😄.

Share: