DECAST Ltd, one of the largest precast companies in Canada, has invested in a self-stressing casting bed from Tecnocom in Italy

Tecnocom specializes in providing molds and casting beds for the precast industry and is a part of the PROGRESS GROUP of companies; which is a leading precast technology conglomerate worldwide. PROGRESS GROUP is represented locally by its subsidiary company, UltraSpan Technologies, located in Winnipeg.

DECAST is a part of the TACC Group of companies, which is a leading construction and development firm operating in the Toronto area. DECAST provides a wide range of precast products to support the local construction industry. Products range from storm and sanitary, pressure pipe, bridge girders, tunnels, engineered and standard products, and more.

Recently, a local project provided an opportunity to expand into special prestressed box girders and deck slabs.


There was a tight timeframe and space was limited in the production hall at DECAST due to ongoing production commitments.

Having previous experience with PROGRESS GROUP, Mario Recchia, Vice President of Operations at DECAST reached out to PROGRESS to provide a solution that would allow flexible production of the required range of flat slabs and girders on the same production bed.

One of the main factors in developing the right solution was ensuring flexibility in product width and height as well as prestressing capacity. DECAST required a high degree of flexibility on strand positioning - both vertically and horizontally.

The resulting solution was a 2.7m x 34m Self-Stressing Universal Casting Bed with 560 tons of prestressing capacity. The stressing head allowed for both vertical and horizontal adjustment as needed; to facilitate the requirements of strand positioning as well as metric and imperial spacing.

Another important feature was that the casting table had to be completely separate from the stressing frame to allow for the casting of different products of various heights. Once the casting table was removed, it could be either stored elsewhere, until needed, or used for casting in another area.


The polished casting surface was provided for use with architectural products, if needed.

For rapid deployment, all components of the casting bed, including the stressing frame, bed and shutters, were packed and delivered in a series of three 40ft shipping containers assembled onsite during a period of 2 weeks, with production starting immediately.