New production concept for precast slabs improving competitiveness on residential market

Transcription

1 Abeo, 2640 Hedehusene, Denmark New production concept for precast slabs improving competitiveness on residential market A new production concept MultiSlab developed by Abeo and Elematic, allows hollow-core producers to also use their existing casting beds for production of prestressed SL-decks. An SL-deck is a flexible and light precast slab targeted at the residential market. The slab can handle long spans and built-in value-adding solutions such as bathroom installations and floor heating pipes. The Finnish precast producer, Lujabetoni, is currently implementing the first MultiSlab production system for launch of the SL-Deck to the Finnish market at the start of Flexible slab production Abeo, the company behind the innovative SL-deck, and Elematic, an international acting supplier of precast machinery and equipment, joined forces to develop a new production concept allowing precasters to cost-efficiently add SL-decks to their product range. The MultiSlab production concept utilizes existing casting beds. Steel plates are installed on top of those, e.g. two existing 1.2-meter casting beds can be covered with an app meter wide steel plate. This enables production of either 2.4- meter wide SL-decks or two lines of 1.2-meter wide hollowcore slabs. When producing SL-decks, side forms are mounted on the casting bed with magnets. The magnet system means that the sides easily open/close for demoulding and can be removed when doing hollow-core production. All hollow-core machinery runs on a permanent outer rail and a removable rail on the middle of the casting bed, while a 3.3-meter wide SL-deck casting machine runs on the permanent outer rails. A competitive edge The precast industry is a competitive market with many producers looking for a competitive edge. The MultiSlab concept is a cost-efficient way for producers to leverage investments in existing facilities and diversify their product portfolio, says Lassi Järvinen, Technical Director of Elematic and continues: Being able to produce multiple products on the same production line is not only a benefit in terms of being able to Existing casting beds can cheaply be converted to a MultiSlab -bed allowing production of either 2.4-meter SL-decks or two lines of 1.2-meter hollow-core slabs. 170

2 A NEW TWIST IS MAKING ITS MARK The automatic light-aggregate concrete casting machine is capable of casting up to 3 meter per minute and thus complete a 100-meter casting bed in app. 30 minutes. Thermomass is proud to introduce a new twist in our family of concrete sandwich wall connectors. The patented MS-T connector offers the strength and integrity of all Thermomass products with the added cost saving convenience of insulation shipped directly to your plant, complete with a pre-printed guide for easy connector installation. Watch the innovation in action at thermomass.com/ms-t. serve more market segments, but also makes it possible for producers to obtain a higher utilization of the production capacity and better cope with demand fluctuations between market segments. Visit us at booth #C4312 Visit us at booth #1109 The SL-deck system The SL-Deck is based on a new combination of self-compacting concrete and light-aggregate concrete. While the lightweight concrete is casted as arch shaped blocks in the bottom of the deck, the self-compacting concrete make up the rest of the deck thereby constituting two series of crossing beams that are stabilized and protected by the light-aggregate concrete. In traditional concrete slabs, the same strong concrete is used for the entire element. In the SL-Deck, the strong concrete is only used, where it is of benefit to the structure. The rest of the slab consists of a light-aggregate concrete accounting for app. 45 % of the total volume. Morten Rasmussen, technical manager at Abeo explains: The SL-Deck exploits the flexibility of self-compacting concrete with the low weight and fantastic insulating properties of light-aggregate concrete. This gives a light and flexible slab that can handle long spans and is cheap to transport and install. In addition, the slab has very high sound and fire insulation properties. T H E R M O M A S S. C O M

3 Targeting the residential market The SL-Deck has been developed for the residential market bridging the gap between hollow-core slabs and half slabs with in-situ topping. Up until today, a contractor s choice between slab systems has typically been a choice between in-situ/filigree with high flexibility or hollow-core slabs with fast and cost-efficient installation. With the SL-Deck, a producer can offer the flexibility and quality of in-situ and filigree slabs at the speed and cost of a hollow-core slab, says Peter Hertz, Director of Abeo. The MultiSlab concept allows hollow-core producers to complement their product portfolio and become more competitive on the growing market for multilevel residential developments. The same production line can be used for offering SLdecks for residential projects while still offering hollow-core slabs for industrial and commercial projects. Casting bed after production of the lightweight concrete blocks. Following the joint development work with Elematic, we now have a concept that allows for perfect complementarity - not only product and market wise, but also in production planning, says Peter Hertz. Integrated value-adding solutions Built-in bathroom installations in the SL-deck makes it possible to construct a thin slab/floor structure comparable to an in-situ built structure. Recently, Abeo developed a new solution for the SL-deck making it possible to integrate bathroom installations in the slabs at the factory a solution with great potential on the residential market. When using precast concrete slabs for apartments, it has traditionally been necessary to place installations for bathrooms on top of the slabs. This gives a high and expensive floor structure in the whole apartment, as the bathroom and the rest of the apartment have to be in the same level, says Peter Hertz. With integrated installations, it is possible for the contractor to construct a thin slab/floor structure comparable to an insitu solution - using a 100% precast slab. The solution could help fuel the use of precast in markets that are still dominated by in-situ and half slabs. Competing with filigree and in-situ Around the world, precast concrete is generally accepted to be the fastest and cheapest way to build. Nonetheless, filigree and in-situ slabs continue to dominate the residential market in many countries. The SL-Deck can enable a precast producer to become more competitive in the residential segment and take market share from filigree and in-situ. Apartment project in Copenhagen with built-in bathroom installations. Filigree is probably the most widespread prefabricated slab product today. However, being just a half slab, the system doesn t provide the advantages that a fully precast slab does, 172

4 Liquid Mold Rubbers for Concrete Casting, Texturing & Stamping Hardscape Installation of 2.4-meter wide SL-decks. nor does it contribute with much sales to the industry because it is sold at low prices leaving most of the work to the onsite contractors and concrete suppliers. With the SL-deck, producers get a unique opportunity to increase sales volumes and profitability in existing projects while increasing the overall market share of precast concrete, says Peter Hertz. Decorative Panels Visit us at booth #O40729 Visit us at booth #2522 Cast Stone Veneer 12-storey apartment project with SL-decks in Copenhagen, Denmark. Polytek Development Corp sales@polytek.com

5 Lujabetoni starts SL-deck MultiSlab production Following the Danish market launch, Abeo has reached m 2 SL-decks in Denmark and recently started to license the SL-deck to producers outside Denmark. Among coming licensees are the Finnish precaster, Lujabetoni, who plans to make the SL-deck their primary offering for residential projects. With app. 750 employees and annual sales of more than 140 million, Lujabetoni is among the leading suppliers of precast concrete for the Finnish building industry. CEO of Lujabetoni, Mikko Isotalo, says: We see SLdecks as a major opportunity of better serving our residential customers with an improved structural slab that combines built-in value-adding solutions, such as bathroom installations and floor heating pipes, seamlessly to the slab. So far, the SL-deck has been produced in a standard width of 2.4-meter, but for the Finnish market, Lujabetoni is introducing a new 3-meter wide version. The wider version helps reduce installation costs even further by making craning, installation and casting of grouts more efficient. For the producer, the larger width is also an advantage, as it gives a higher m 2 - output per production cycle, thereby lowering the cost price. The Finnish market has relied heavily on 1.2-meter wide slabs in apartment constructions and recessed slabs for bathrooms. With the SL-Deck, we can provide 3-meter wide slabs that greatly simplify our customers on-site jobs, as installations are finalized in the factory. We have more value-adding solutions in our pipeline with a target of providing turnkey ready floors to our precast customers. We are so convinced of the system and its benefits that we have named it Superlaatta (Super slab in English), says Mikko Isotalo. The MultiSlab system is currently being installed by Lujabetoni with production expected to start in January FURTHER INFORMATION Abeo Beredskabsvej Hedehusene, Denmark T info@abeo.dk One of 2016 s biggest apartment projects in Copenhagen used m2 SL-decks with fixed-end connections enabling 10.5-m long spans including heavy loads from prefabricated bathroom units using just 220mm thick slabs. Elematic Airolantie 2 P.O. Box Akaa, Finland T F info@elematic.com 174