IAB Science Days: Successful premiere
This year, the combined “IFF Conference” and “Pipeline Construction Congress” simultaneously took place as “IAB Science Days” for the first time after the institutes IFF and FITR merged to IAB Weimar. Also in future, the event will take place under this shared label at the end of every year.
The program included 64 lectures in total, which were held on the established place, at Leonardo Hotel Weimar, however, for the first time in four rooms simultaneously, divided into the panels: “Building materials”, “Simulations”, “Gas/water” and “Wastewater” held on the first day of the event as well as the panels “Process/equipment”, “Concrete products/precast elements”, “Energy” and “District heating” held on the second day of the event.
According to the organizer, more than 300 participants came to Weimar in order to listen to the lectures, to gather information on products, services and trends at the stands of the 31 exhibitors and to exchange knowledge and information on developments in their own industry segment.
Aearogels and acoustic waves
A “good mix” in mind, the program of the IAB Science Days comprised lectures from science and everyday industrial experience. The panel “Building materials” dealt with the chemical attack on concrete as well as the relevance of new technologies for the production of concrete; furthermore, new specific product developments were introduced. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Hub of the University of Stuttgart discussed in his lecture the addition of aerogels as additives for lightweight concrete. The industrially manufactured granulate is a material of very low thermal conductivity, it is highly porous, yet water repellent. Aerogels enable enhancing the insulating performance of lightweight concrete considerably, while optimizing the strength simultaneously.
Panel “Processes/equipment” – the name says it all – informed on new developments of machines and equipment for the production of concrete. In his lecture Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Garrecht of the University of Stuttgart focused on the opportunities and potential of innovative mixing systems. Dr.-Ing. Kais Mehiri of the French research center for the concrete industry (Centre d’Études et de Recherches de l’Industrie du Béton, CERIB) introduced Vibritys, an equipment for concrete compaction using acoustic waves.
Living space for Peru
The program areas “Concrete products/precast elements” and “Processes/equipment” included lectures on current topics and trends given by six representatives of the supply industry: Dipl.-Ing. Hol-ger Stichel of Kobra Formen GmbH talked about trends in mold making, among others, on possibilities of processing all six sides of concrete slabs. Konrad Hübner of Sommer Anlagentechnik GmbH gave the participants an idea of the advantages of fully automated production of sandwich elements.
Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Jörg Reymann of Ratec GmbH presented an impressive residential building project in Peru using modular units made of pumped self-compacting concrete (SCC).
Actually three lectures examined trends in the field of reinforcement and anchoring technology: Dr.-Ing. Christian Kulas of Solidian GmbH talked about “high-performance textile reinforcements for thin and lightweight concrete structures”, Dr.-Ing. Johannes Furche of Filigran Trägersysteme GmbH & Co. KG talked about the punching shear reinforcement developed by his company for Filigran floor slabs and Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Heidolf of Halfen GmbH presented new balcony connections with European Technical Approval to the participants.
