far too little considered by architects anddesigners. It is still viewed and processed
like a normal concrete.
Our view is more that we design and
manufacture UHPC to treat it more and more
like metal. UHPC in the right quality can
already be machined with tools from the metal
industry. Very high accuracies can be achieved
here whether in surface processing or in shape
processing.
The surface treatment can either be carried out
using special UHPC casting molds or by
identical processing steps as for metals, or
combined casting and subsequent processing.
There are no limits to the design options here.
In terms of shape, metalworking tools or machines
can be used with the same objective as metals.
used a fraction of the technical possibilities.
One example is the use of computer-controlled
water jet cutting machines. For a customer, we
should test the possibilities of making special
bevel cuts as plate slots that cannot be cast in
this way. Additional cutting tests were carried
out to check which geometries can be cut and
what minimum wall thicknesses can be achieved
between the individual cuts. With the right
combination of UHPC binder, unit quality and
setting of the cutting machine, amazing results
can be achieved. The tested UHPC plates had a
plate thickness of 15 - 25 mm, no metallic
reinforcement and were dried for 48 hours in
normal ambient temperature before they were
processed.
With the UHPC binder-aggregate combination
used in the test, cutting distances of 5 mm could
be achieved.
As soon as possible, further cutting tests will be
carried out with UHPC desert sand binders.
Water jet cutting enables complete "images" to be cut in UHPC panels or special construction elements.
With this type of material / machine technology, it is possible to produce a large number of facade panels with an elaborate cut design at low cost in a short time.
WPE DK International
Phone: 0049 176 601 73146
E-mail: ber@wpe-dk.dk
Homepage: www.wpe-dk.com
