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MacRebur, a British company founded by Toby McCartney, believes it can provide optimum solutions for both road maintenance and plastic waste management. The company says it can solve both environmental problems arising out of accumulating mountains of plastic waste by recycling them for use in road construction. McCartney first came upon the idea after witnessing rudimentary instances of use of plastic waste in road repair-work in India where the plastic was lit on fire to help patch up pot holes in the roads. McCartney knew there was potential in the idea but was certain that lighting up the plastic for road repair work in the manner it was done in India is not an option in Britain. 

He went back to the UK where he teamed up with two of his friends and was successful in developing an asphalt additive that increases the tensile strength of the road being constructed with it. Using a much lower amount of bitumen, they introduced the new element, plastic waste, into the mix. They named the new mixture MR6 which they produce in pellet form to make it easier to mix with asphalt. MR6 substantially increases the lifespan of the road where it is used because it increases the tensile strength, improves cohesion and adhesion, improves fuel resistance, prevents deformation and rutting and helps resist cracking and fatigue failure. MR6 has outperformed standard British asphalt by 60% in initial tests.

MacRebur successfully raised over £1,316,120 on Seedrs, the crowdfunding site and has also signed agreements with international asphalt producers Tarmac, Cemex and Aggregate Industries. The company has partnered with city councils across Britain to put MR6 on trial in roads under their jurisdiction. In fact, a runway at Carlisle City Airport in Cumbria, England, was resurfaced using MR6 in November 2016. MR6 has also won the prestigious £50,000 Virgin Voom 2016 award, a small business competition held by billionaire, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. 

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The term lift and elevator were perhaps coined to describe a vehicle that moves straight up inside a building but what can an elevator that moves sideways be called? Thankfully, it’s not named ‘leveller’ and it’s still termed as an elevator. German engineering major, Thyssenkrupp, has developed an innovative new elevator that not just moves upwards but can also move sideways. The new elevator is driven by Thyssenkrupp’s MULTI vertical-horizontal system which uses a cable-less system that offers 50% more carrying capacity and is able to reduce peak power demand. It is used by the automotive industry to help make their cars turn 90°.

Thyssenkrupp’s elevator division developed the first cable-free elevator that moves sideways as well as up and down, using the MULTI system. The company first demonstrated this concept of a cable-free elevator using the MULTI system in 2014, and after two-and-a-half years of efforts, finally launched the new elevator last month. Thyssenkrupp has a 12-shaft innovation test tower in Rottweil, Germany, where elevator speeds up to 22.45 miles per hour are tested. The company specifically designed some of its shafts for certifying the new cable-free elevator system.

The most remarkable aspect of the MULTI vertical-horizontal system operating Thyssenkrupp’s cable-free elevator is that it has multiple cabins moving in loops just like the trains in a metro system. Rather than one cabin moving up and down on a single shaft, these cabins make 90° turns with the help of the linear motor technology that was originally created for the magnetic levitation Transrapid train. Thyssenkrupp’s MULTI vertical-horizontal system is equipped with a multi-level braking system, redundant wireless data and energy management system on the cabins. It has an exchange system that manages the linear motion as well as the guiding the transportation equipment i.e. elevator. 

Thyssenkrupp’s demonstration of its cable-free elevator driven by its MULTI vertical-horizontal system was witnessed by around 200 building industry representatives including Antony Wood, Executive director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Wood said that MULTI vertical-horizontal system is “perhaps the biggest development in the elevator industry since the invention of the safety elevator some 165 years ago.”  

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Construction sites are workplaces that are among the largest employers today but in another quarter of a century, say by 2050, these labour-intensive workplaces could become human-free. This is the conclusion of a new research report by Balfour Beatty, a leading global construction company based in the UK.  And how will that be possible? Well, we’re going to see dynamic new materials being used by teams of robots that will build structures of varying size and complexity wherein certain elements of the material used for building will assemble by itself. And who’s going to oversee all this activity? Drones obviously will inspect the progress of work and provide data that will help anticipate and solve problems before they arise.

In all this activity, there will be no human involvement and instructions would be sent automatically to robotic cranes and diggers as well as automated builders. However, the human role will not become extinct altogether and there will be people to remotely oversee simultaneous management of multiple projects. These individuals will access data as well as 3D and 4D visuals from the Construction on-site equipment to ensure that work proceeds as per specifications. Since this will be a highly sophisticated control system, the humans managing the operation will use neural-control technology, wearing highly advanced exoskeletons to move and control machinery and robots on the jobsite.

The construction industry is huge in any economy but it is also affected by low-productivity. For companies like Balfour Beatty digitization and robotics are the best way forward to increase productivity in this industry because it already uses digital and other new technologies to deliver projects faster and more efficiently. Balfour Beatty uses cloud computing and mobile technology as well as Building Information Modelling (BIM) that includes 3D digital representation of projects. Such modelling helps the company with scheduling and cost more effectively as it enables seamless interaction between offices and sites together. This approach emphasizes doing the job right, the first time, every time, especially since it uses augmented and virtual reality technology along with many other sophisticated tools and processes as well as workflow automation. 

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A design, engineering and consulting firm in the UK, Arup, has developed and successfully installed a modular glass-fiber reinforced polymer bridge in Oxford, which according to them is the first such structure to be installed anywhere in the world. This is a pedestrian bridge at SSI (Site of Special Interest) in the Oxford area, of the UK which is “protected by law because they contain the core of Britain’s natural heritage,” as per Network Rail, which ordered the bridge. This SSI area did not offer the right conditions to bring in large cranes and other heavy machinery that would have been required to build it conventionally. Therefore, Network Rail chose Arup for a viable alternative which turned out to be the modular glass-fiber reinforced polymer bridge which has been branded as Pedesta.

Pedesta is an advanced and innovative lightweight GFRP (Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic) post-tensioned, modular footbridge system, perfect for rail, road and river crossings. The plastic components can be easily moved by pallet trucks or forklifts as they are 70% lighter than steel. The Arup team was able to transport the components by an articulated tractor-trailer because of the relatively low weight of the bridge sections. The Pedesta components are especially suitable for sites that are difficult to access or for projects in harsh environmental conditions as it is effective in providing safe transit to people who have to pass by these locations.

Pedesta has the ability to transform footbridge manufacture, installation and maintenance in today’s fast-paced world. Experts at Arup designed the components as pre-engineered, modular and fully customizable in form, material, colour and finish, thereby making it a highly effective innovation. The Arup engineers assembled the sections on site with bolted shear connectors and got them post-tensioned. The system has a maximum span of almost 100 feet and each of the sections is over 3 feet long. Pedesta can be configured for easy integration of services, with options for lighting and advertising. It is marketed by a company named Mabey. 

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One major challenge for dozer manufacturers is to find ways to work around the basic working principle of the machines – more power always needs more fuel. The milestone to achieve here is more power without additional infusion of fuel. A number of mechanical improvements like higher injection pressure, custom design of the piston and combustion chamber, turbo-charging and some others can improve combustion efficiency to a certain extent by extracting more power from each unit of fuel. However, the fundamentals don’t change because more power would still need more fuel, which explains why there’s a direct correlation between power generation and fuel consumption.

This is where electronics and automation come in with specific improvements in the dozers that cover the inadequacies of even new recruits in a dozer fleet crew. Since it boils down to cost of operations, which in turn is directly related to the amount of fuel a crew uses up or the percentage of repairs from their handling of the dozers, the need for electronics, load management and automation systems become that much more important. A dozer produces power in proportion to the amount of fuel in its tank. Reducing its power during less demanding applications can help reduce fuel consumption but will performance remain the same? The balance needed here is to reduce power with no loss of performance and that becomes possible with electronics and automation.

In the era of smart machines, there are many functions that humans operating such machines aren’t required to do anymore. Similarly, dozers have also embraced smart technology to increase efficiency and safety. For instance, when the power eco mode is reduced, for work that requires less power, the engine speed (rpms) reduces by say, 10% while electronics take control of the engine speed and manages to balance it with the hydraulic system. Thereafter, when the engine needs full power, after the work requiring less power is accomplished, the system returns back to eco mode. Use of GPS systems has also made a tremendous difference to the output capacity of not just dozers but all other construction equipment.

The other improvements to dozer technology include reduced noise, better ergonomics, improved visibility and easier access to service points. John Bauer, brand marketing manager, Case Construction Equipment, says “The industry will always need skilled operators, but smart technology like machine control and automation can certainly speed up the learning process for inexperienced operators. These technologies also make seasoned operators more efficient, allowing them to focus less on precision grading and more on safe operation on the jobsite.” 

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LiuGong, a heavy equipment manufacturer based in China, came up with a remarkable innovation last year – a vertical lift wheel loader. It appears LiuGong is the first company in the world to have come up with such an innovation wherein the main features of the loader are the vertical lift arms on an articulating frame and the mechanical self-leveling Z-bar bucket linkage on a vertical lift loader. It took the company six years to develop the technology that allows a smaller machine to have a larger bucket and a longer and higher reach, something that conventional loaders don’t offer.

The primary function of the vertical lift adds more lifting and carrying capacity to the loader by providing a heavier tipping load and a higher lift height than what conventional wheel loaders of the same power and weight can offer. This enables lower fuel costs since the operating weight is much less allowing the machine to lift more load per horsepower. Users can move more tons per hour for lower initial investment and lower owning and operating costs than they would, with older technology. The reliability and durability of this vertical lift machine offers an innovative way to increase equipment value when purchasing a loader.

Edward Wagner, Director of LiuGong New Technology and Test, inventor and lead engineer of the technology, said, “This technology will create a new class of machines. Our ‘truly new’ LiuGong vertical lift loader will be the first ever for an articulating frame loader. We are proud to say that we were the first to develop and will be the first to market the vertical lift articulating frame wheel loader. This technology is universally applicable and it is especially advantageous for stockpiling and truck loading applications with advantages in efficiency and performance.”

LiuGong came up with the idea of developing the vertical lift loader technology for the first time in 2010 and after six years it is now finally ready for mass production. This will undoubtedly create a big impression in the construction and mining equipment industry.

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Before Tracking Devices came into the market, project managers in the construction industry wished if they could find some way to keep an eagle eye over the construction sites they managed. This was because the construction sites usually covered vast stretches of land where numerous heavy materials and equipment are deployed and scattered all over the site area. These construction machines are very large and heavy and managing them properly isn’t easy without knowing their exact location in real time. At the same time, all the construction equipment and materials also need to be moved from one place to another in quick time as the project also has a timetable that needs to be adhered to. In this scenario, managing equipment and resources efficiently is really important.

Better route planning and more efficient dispatching

This is where Tracking Devices came in as a boon to the construction site managers as they assist in easier management of equipment and their safer handling at the jobsite and beyond. When construction companies are easily able to find routes, it reduces idle time for both the equipment and the operators, thereby saving the company time and money. Tracking Devices offers critical assistance in this area as it makes dispatching of equipment much easier with real time monitoring. The site manager just needs to check the fleet monitoring device to know the location of each vehicle and if it has already arrived at the jobsite or is still on the way.

Vehicle and equipment management

Real time vehicle tracking, location and path tracking, speed detection, fuel monitoring, Geo fencing and many other functions become easier with Tracking Device. Such material management efficiency in the construction business has improved safety of equipment as well as materials. Monitoring assets in real time is critical for delivery of heavy materials from one place to another and in these situations, protection of the assets is very important. By providing the exact location of the vehicles, Tracking Device is a great help in asset protection. Managers can set alerts for any misuse and track diversion by operators and in such situations they can take the necessary action immediately.

There are many other advantages of Tracking Devices of the construction industry and any other industry with a large volume of material and capital intensive equipment and machinery to be managed in addition to keeping an eye on the project timetable and deadline.

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How about standing 1,640 feet above ground level on the world’s highest glass-bottomed observation deck and looking straight down on a busy traffic intersection? Needless to say that whatever will be visible, will not look any larger than what the ground below looks like from an airplane as it nears land. That’s what you can experience at the KPF Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea which has been officially declared complete, as per criteria established by CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). This building is now the tallest in Korea standing 1,819 feet above ground level, which is around 800 feet higher than Northeast Asia Trade Tower, the previous tallest building in Korea.

The KPF Lotte World Tower has 123 storeys and draws inspiration from the traditional Korean ceramics and calligraphy forms that rise in a sleek, tapered profile contrasting with the mountainous horizons of the South Korean capital. The spectacular tower contains a large variety of commercial spaces that includes retail stores, office floors, a seven-star luxury hotel, and an “officetel.” These officetels are found all across South Korea and they are essentially studio-style apartments for professionals who work in the building; they offer amenities and services that are usually found in hotels such as, standard furnishings, front desk services and gym access among others.

In addition to the world’s highest glass-bottomed observation deck, KPF Lotte World Tower has other world-beating amenities - the highest swimming pool in the world, located on the 85th floor and the fastest elevator in the world, which can transport visitors from bottom to top in just one minute. The 10-storey Lotte World Mall at the base of this spectacular complex is a separate structure, which has been operational since 2014. It has a total footfall of over 28 million people every year accounting for one out of every two South Koreans amongst its visitors. This mall has as much area as the KPF Lotte World Tower itself and the two buildings are connected by interior and exterior pathways and public spaces.

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Construction site managers are increasingly using tracking devices technology to supervise project work as well as to keep an eye on resources, mainly heavy duty equipment that are expensive. Good care and service are top priorities for heavy duty construction equipment, as investment in such expensive machinery needs be optimized. This is possible only when the equipment is in good shape to perform efficiently thereby saving time and money which eventually helps increase productivity and profits. Construction sites are usually newly developing desolate areas on urban and suburban peripheries, which explain why site managers choose to use tracking devices of expensive heavy duty equipment because they value its ability to offer remote monitoring without which it would be extremely difficult to keep track of such equipment across vast stretches of the jobsite.

The building and construction industry in India has been growing quite well over the last couple of decades but it is nothing compared to the way building and construction work has been progressing in China. The comparison with China is important because India will have to operate on a similar scale as China if it wants to close the gap between demand and supply in housing and infrastructure. Over the last couple of years infrastructure building activities has gained momentum in India and new milestones in job completion are being achieved more regularly than ever before. All this would not be possible without the deployment of advanced machinery across most such jobsites. Furthermore, effective surveillance and safe-keeping of such expensive equipment on such a scale would not be possible without tracking devices.

Tracking devices is today completely based on web technology and comes fitted with onboard communication systems on various types of equipment. While the tracking devices receiver finds out the location of the machine, there are sensors on the machine that send the information to a modem which collects and transmits this data to specific users who access it on a website. Tracking devices allows users to track real-time data of their machines virtually anywhere across different construction sites and use the information to improve their performance output. The Indian building and construction industry which will now be regulated by the RERA (Real Estate Regulation Act), would have to utilize its resources with more transparency and accountability as it evolves into a fully organized sector from an unorganized one.

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The project was first announced in June 2015 and was called the world's first 3D-printed office building by the Museum of the Future project, Dubai. With the development of this 250 sq. meter office building the United Arab Emirates is showing its commitment to innovation and cultivate the image of a world leader in 3D printing. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE, said at the grand opening, "We implement what we plan and we pursue actions not theories. The rapidly changing world requires us to accelerate our pace of development as history does not recognize plans but achievements."

A specially formulated mixture of cement and building materials, researched, developed and designed in the UAE and the United States, was used to construct this innovative new 3D printed office. The materials have been put through a number of tests for strength and reliability in places as far away as Britain and China. The designers adopted an arc shape to ensure that the building is stable and safe. The architects and designers have also included innovative features in the structure to reduce energy consumption and also used advanced technology to better manage information systems within the building. The design is aimed at achieving transition from conventional work environments to one that stimulates innovation and communication among people at the workplace.

The building was printed in about 17 days and the cost was estimated to have been $140,000; thereafter the interior and exterior design details were added. The 3D printer that was used to print the building measured 20 feet in height, 120 feet in length and 40 feet in width. The printer features an automated robotic arm to implement the printing process. The cost of labour used in the project was 50% less than normal with just seven people involved in handling the installation of building components on-site, around 10 electricians and other specialists looking after the engineering and technical processes and just one individual was employed to manage the 3D printer.

Posted in blog By EQPT

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