Bétons Feidt creates extraordinary architecture in concrete
Bétons Feidt located in Luxembourg manufactures and supplies concrete elements and state-of-the-art architectural components for residential, industrial, and office buildings, and in this field the company is regarded as one of Europe‘s leading manufacturers in terms of quality. An example is the Moonlight office complex that is under construction in Luxembourg City at present, according to the design of the renowned architectural firm Jim Clemes. The architectural, load-bearing façade made by Bétons Feidt consists of a concrete strip with a length of more than 1,000 m and is clad with more than 300,000 black bricks. Moreover, 4,400 m² of double walls were placed and 6,200 m³ of concrete were used up in building. Vollert technology played an important role in the production of the precast elements.
Maximum quality and component variability
„For all building components manufactured by us – from the solid wall element to the noise barriers or bridge elements – we focus a 120 % on quality. A decisive aspect, in this regard, is state-of-the-art production technology and maximum variability in the workflows so as to be able to produce in a customized way,“ describes Ferd Feidt, general manager and owner of Bétons Feidt. While solid wall elements and special architectural elements had been manufactured in a mere stationary process using tilting tables at the precast concrete plant in Medernach until 2016, the company developed in cooperation with the manufacturing equipment specialist Vollert a new circulation production concept, in order to create more capacity which was urgently needed for upcoming large building projects. Core component is the central transfer car, which travels along 60 m and distributes the precast concrete elements to be produced to the individual manual work stations for shuttering and reinforcement using a pair of transverse lifting devices, and afterward transports them on to the concrete placing process.
A low-frequency Vario Compact² vibrating station with a particularly low noise level is installed for optimum concrete compaction. The vibration movement is created by the eccentric drives which, in contrast to conventional vibrating stations, allow for exact adjustment of the compacting energy. By reducing the water-cement ratio, the cement content can be minimized remarkably, resulting in the same early strength of concrete. For increased output capacities, furthermore, another low-frequency compaction station was installed with an additional vibrating unit.
Safety concept specially conceived
The new equipment concept is supplemented by a modern ceiling-guided Vario Store storage and retrieval unit, storing the semi-finished concrete elements into the individual rack towers of the curing chamber. The Vario Cure curing chamber consists of three encased rack towers with 12 storage shelves each. The individual curing chamber levels are accessed via positioning bars whose placement points are continuously adjustable. A safety concept specially conceived by Vollert prevents hoisting rope overloads, thus minimizing the risk of rope breakage. Ultramodern Vario Smooth concrete troweling machines ensure architectural concrete elements with perfect fair-faced concrete surfaces. This is provided by an electrically driven smoothing head with adjustable vanes and variable rotational speeds.
Once the precast concrete elements have got the final finish and obtained the high surface quality as requested, two Vario Tilt high-performance tilting stations perform the vertical lifting and loading them on stacking frames. A hydraulically moving supporting beam drives against the fixed edge formwork, thus preventing the concrete elements from sliding during the tilting process.
Optimum workflows with visions for tomorrow
„All workflows were perfectly conceived by Bétons Feidt and our planning specialists. In this way, we achieve maximum variability among the building components to be produced. We are able to change the production type in just a few minutes or to manufacture several complex concrete elements for different building projects in parallel,“ explains Daniel Krusche, project manager at Vollert. The Unitechnik master computer gets the data models directly from the CAD system and controls all processes of the production line. When conceiving the master computer, it was ensured that the plant operator will have an overview of the most important economic figures whenever he wants.
Already today, just a few months after the start of production with the new equipment, the company is in the position to supply building components of premium quality to satisfied customers with a disposability being out of reach so far. Nevertheless, Ferd Feidt is and will always be a visionary who is looking ahead. He pushes innovations purposeful forward so as to be always a step ahead of competition, with always focusing on the quality of his premium concrete products. Hence, as far as the production side is concerned, already now options for later expansion are taken into account, for example, for the double-wall production or a fully automated CAD/CAM controlled concrete spreader.
