Building the Future of Ready-Mix: How Materials Innovation, Real-Time Data, and Sensor Technology Are Transforming Quality, Efficiency & Low-Carbon Concrete

The ready-mix concrete industry is experiencing the most rapid materials and technology shift in decades. Whether you manage five plants or twenty, the drive toward sustainability, real-time data, and operational precision is reshaping how producers design mixes, control quality, and deliver performance to contractors and DOTs.

In our recent WaveLogix Lunch & Learn webinar, we sat down with Stephen Herald, Regional Technical Services Manager at AmRize, and Joe Turek, CEO of WaveLogix, to examine how producers are adapting to new cement technologies, managing fast-evolving QC requirements, and leveraging sensor data to reduce risk and accelerate schedules.

This blog captures the most technical and forward-leaning insights from that conversation.

The Materials Landscape Is Shifting Faster Than Ever

If you’ve been in the industry for 20+ years, you’ve witnessed more change in the last five than the previous twenty combined.

The 1L transition is reshaping performance expectations

Producers across North America have now moved from traditional Type I/II to Type IL (1L) cements. This shift has brought:

• Different early-age strength behaviors
• Increased reliance on SCMs for performance tuning
• New admixture demands, especially with polycarboxylate-based HRWRs
• Mixes with extended strength gain curves well beyond 28 days

Herald notes that 28-day cylinders are often no longer representative of the mix’s full potential:

“These days … 28 days may only be the tip of the iceberg. We still see significant strength gain out to 56 or even 90 days.” 

This becomes a critical point for both structural engineers and DOTs who are specifying lower GWP concretes.

SCM Variability Requires Data-Driven QC

With SCM sources tightening and supply changing rapidly, producers are balancing:

• Fly ash shortages
• Increasing use of slag, pozzolans, and limestone fillers
• Highly variable material moisture and gradations
• New admixture compatibility challenges

Herald emphasizes raw material vigilance as the foundation of consistency across multiple plants:

“It’s people, process, and technology. Reviewing data, trusting trends, and making decisions off the closest to real-time data you can get.” 

This is where real-time sensor systems—both in-plant and in-structure—are no longer luxury tools but operational necessities.

Why Traditional 28-Day Breaks Are Failing Modern Mixes

The industry’s reliance on 28-day breaks becomes increasingly misaligned with performance realities:

• Modern blends continue gaining strength at 56+ days
• Low-carbon mixes can underperform at 7–28 days while overperforming long-term
• Poor cylinder handling introduces massive error potential

Herald makes an important point:

“With everything that can happen along the way—pickup delays, curing issues, lab inconsistencies—having an independent check is extremely valuable.” 

The industry is asking more of concrete while simultaneously introducing more performance uncertainty. This is exactly where AASHTO T-412-compliant real-time strength sensors offer a technical advantage.

Real-Time Data Is Becoming a QC and Operations Imperative

AmRize, like many leading producers, is integrating:

• In-transit drum sensors
• Air content meters
• Temperature and volume sensors
• Real-time strength sensors (like REBEL®)

These tools create a continuous data chain from batch plant → truck → site → curing period.

Herald explains the operational and QC value:

“If a QC manager can know what’s happening in transit or in situ in real time, it’s excellent data to make decisions on.” 

This is especially true during:

• Long delivery routes
• Night pours
• Bridge decks
• Cold weather placements
• Massive multi-truck placements where a single error cascades across 5–6 trucks already on the road

Real-time data mitigates risk in every scenario.

The REBEL® Sensor: Independent Verification in a High-Variability World

Herald’s evaluation of the REBEL® sensor was particularly compelling:

A truly independent QC tool

Unlike maturity curves or cylinders influenced by human procedures, the REBEL® device provides:

• Direct acoustic resonance–based strength measurement
• No calibration or curve building
• No reliance on field-cast cylinder handling
• Continuous data refresh as concrete cures

Herald describes it as putting “an independent QC inside the concrete.”

“It’s an independent reading… not influenced by a lab procedure. That independence is extremely valuable.” 

This independence is crucial when mixes are getting more complex and expectations for schedule acceleration are rising.

The Push for Low-Carbon Concrete Demands Better Data

DOTs, owners—and increasingly contractors—are requiring lower GWP values. But the side effect is:

• Less cement
• Slower early strength
• More SCMs
• More unpredictable strength curves

The industry over-cements by 15–20% today simply to avoid cylinder failures. Real-time strength data enables producers to:

• Confidently lower cement
• Validate mix designs more quickly
• Predict 28-day strength as early as day 3
• Optimize resource usage and carbon budgets at the element level

As Herald notes:

“It’s really just using your material as efficiently as you can.” 

Efficiency is sustainability.

Operations: “A Quiet Day Is a Successful Day”

The webinar uncovered the incredible operational precision required to deliver concrete:

• Loads tested to the minute
• Exact pacing of trucks
• 60–90 minute delivery windows
• Multi-job dispatch synchronization
• Highly sensitive environmental variability
• Massive risk of cascading errors

Herald explains:

“We’re dialing it down to the minute… and not everything goes perfect, so we have to build that in.” 

Real-time sensor data makes this coordination dramatically more resilient.

The Future: Digitized Plants, Digitized Trucks, Digitized Concrete

According to Herald, the next major efficiency gains will come from:

• In-transit monitoring at scale
• Real-time strength prediction algorithms
• Plant environmental sensors and automated adjustments
• Digital QC dashboards
• Predictive early-age strength curves
• End-to-end visibility from batching to curing

Other industries have already digitized—ready-mix is entering that phase now.

WaveLogix’s REBEL® sensor is one of the enabling technologies driving that shift.

Advice to the Next Generation of Concrete Technologists

Herald closed with advice to new engineers and QC professionals:

“Keep your eyes and ears open. Get in the batch office. Learn how this stuff works. You can learn something new every day.” 

The industry is entering its most innovative era in decades. The next generation will be the first to build concrete truly powered by data.

Closing Thoughts

As mix designs evolve, performance expectations accelerate, and carbon goals tighten, the need for independent, real-time strength data becomes strategically essential.

The producers who embrace the emerging digital ecosystem—sensors, predictive modeling, robust QC data streams—will be the ones who:

• Reduce risk
• Accelerate schedules
• Optimize carbon
• Enhance consistency
• Improve profitability

Wavelogix is proud to help lead this transition.

To learn more about the REBEL® Real-Time Strength Sensor or to view the full webinar replay, visit our website.