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| Steel savings of around 20 percent are typical  Steel reinforcement specialist Hy-Ten, has achieved sales of 10,000 tonnes for their innovative Bamtec floor slab reinforcement system this year, roughly equivalent to their record breaking year of 2007. This represents a real increase in market share for Bamtec in a sector that some commentators estimate has shrunk by 40 percent. Hy-Ten is the exclusive licensed manufacturer in the UK and Ireland for the Bamtec system which originated in Germany. Bamtec is a high productivity alternative to slow and labour-intensive traditional methods of manual re-bar placement. By using a factory fabricated roll of reinforcement that is simply rolled out like a carpet, the floor slab reinforcement can be installed in a fraction of the time. More importantly, Bamtec, via its patented finite element (FE) technology, substantially reduces the amount of steel, skilled manpower and supervision required."Steel savings of around 20 percent are typical. On many projects contractors have been able to save up to one week per floor in build time. This is critical for time-sensitive contracts where bad weather, foundation complications and extended fit-out can compress the time window available for the project. There are also significant further cost savings such as the reduction in the hire period for heavy plant and cranes along with the avoidance of penalty payment for late completion," director Richard Webster explained. Hy-Ten has invested £2.2 million in the Bamtec process in recent years, including two new robotic manufacturing plants to produce the reinforcement carpets directly from the engineer's FE design. Hy-ten also has a large range of intermediate bar diameters, unlike any other UK supplier, allowing the company to use the most appropriate bar in each area of the floor slab. Design data is seamlessly imported into the new automated machines that precisely spot weld the bars onto retaining steel tapes to create the reinforcement carpets. Several notable projects have benefited from Bamtec technology over the past year. In Coventry, structural frame contractors UKR used Bamtec in the floors of new offices for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to save 20 percent in steel. In Bracknell, contractors Duffy Construction made steel savings of around 48 percent compared to the engineer's original designs. In Reading, contractors AJ Morrisroe made steel savings of 30 percent in the floor slabs. This saving led to the continuation of the mixed use Winnerish Triangle development which would not otherwise have been considered viable. "There is no-doubt that tough times are causing clients, contractors and their professional advisors to look more closely at ways of reducing cost and speeding contract delivery. Bamtec carpet reinforcement does make a significant difference in these crucial areas and this is why we are winning new business," concluded Richard Webster. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |