This paper deals with the way in which efficient concrete structures have evolved in our firm during the last fifty years. For precast concrete structures to qualify as being efficient they should be cost effective, resulting in reduction in material consumption, easily buildable and needing little maintenance. For such an objective to be realised the designer needs to explore new structural forms and also needs to have an in depth appreciation of the impact of various stages of construction and associated constraints. The designer needs to take into account problems of de-moulding, type of erection equipment that would be available, construction tolerances, and problems concerning tilting and erection. One of the structures described briefly is a combination of precast and cast in-situ constructions which incidentally was also the recipient of one of the five "Most Outstanding Structure Award" at the XIIth FIP Congress held at Washington in 1994.

Vasudev V Nori, Shirish Patel and Associates Consultants Private Limited (India)

Large Panel Prefabrication for Residential Apartments

Petit Hall
Panel Construction
Figure1.1.1: A view of the large panel construction for an apartment building
Large-panel prefabrication in India began in Bombay (now Mumbai) almost 50 years ago with the design of a group of 27-storeyed residential buildings, of which three were built over the next few years. These buildings had traditional open foundations. The lowest 3 floors, used for parking and a podium, were cast in place. But the upper 24 residential floors were fully precast, using large-panel walls, hollow-core slabs, and box-shaped façade elements for window protection. In-situ concrete was used only in the vertical and horizontal joints.

At that time India had very strict import controls. The Contractors, who were also the developers and thus had control over both design and construction for the project, were unexpectedly lucky and got permission to import two tower cranes of 75 tonne-metre capacity (8 tonnes maximum hook load, 2.5 tonnes at 30m radius). They wanted to put these to use immediately and develop the technology for prefabricated housing construction.

Unfortunately, for this first project the plan and architectural dimensions had already been frozen before the decision was taken to use prefabrication. It meant that the 170 panels per floor would need to be of 103 different types. So panel repetitions were too few. But this was acceptable considering that a technology new to India would be developed.

Because this was the designers' as well as the contractors' first experience of reinforced concrete prefabrication, it was decided to build and load test, on a different site some kilometres away, a full-scale 3-storeyed mock-up, using wall and slab panels similar to those intended for the final construction. Vertical joints between wall panels in the mock-up were differently configured to test a variety of possible joint details.

This section of the article is only available for our subscribers. Please click here to subscribe to a subscription plan to view this part of the article.


Brimax AAC: An Indian Lighthouse Project from HESS AAC SYSTEMS, Netherlands
Brimax AAC Products LLP contracted Hess AAC Systems to supply a new AAC plant in Vadodara, India, with a capacity of 680 cbm/day (expandable up to 900 cbm/day with reinforcement for panel production). This order strengthens Hess´ position as

Read more ...

Vollert India Expands Production Capacity to Cater to Infra Development Sector
Vollert India, based in Sikandrabad, near Greater Noida (UP) since 2017, is strengthening its commitment to India; it is now expanding its production capacity of precast machinery and components to meet the greater demand from India’s fast

Read more ...

Elematic Precast Technology Solutions for Building, Industrial and Infra segments
Elematic offers a comprehensive range of precast technology solutions for the Building, Industrial and Infra segments. Elematic precast technology enables clients to automate the production of walls, slabs, columns, beams, and stairs, providing an efficient

Read more ...

Advanced Concrete Curing Systems from Kraft Curing
Kraft Curing Systems GmbH is offering advanced concrete curing systems that optimize the hardening process of concrete. Kraft Curing’s Advanced Concrete Curing System provides numerous solutions, from vapor-based (steam) systems mainly for the precast

Read more ...

Why Automating Production is the Solution
Automating the production processes will lead to reduced wastage, fewer errors, more precision, greater safety, and higher quality of the end-products, and in a shorter period of time. First, we need to understand where we stand today as regards industrialisation

Read more ...

Elematic India confident of the future of Precast Business
Elematic India sees growing demand for its precast plants in India due to the growth in precast construction across segments. What gives the company an edge is its ability to support the customer through the entire value chain. Says Sridhar Rao, Sales

Read more ...

F.B.I. Tasbud Partners With Progress Group
Progress Group is helping companies like Tasbud stay ahead in a changing market with automation and software integration. Automated machinery to produce precast elements as well as the reinforcement and the integration of the fitting software are

Read more ...

Mekuba Petro Products - Catering to Mega Precast Concrete Projects
Mekuba Petro Products has a strong presence in the petrochemicals industry since 47 years and has been growing rapidly in the construction chemicals segment over the past decade. An expert in the formulation and production of mould-releasing agents, its

Read more ...

Precast & PEB Construction Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
C. A. Prasad, Director, Metey Engineering & Consultancy and President, PSI, Hyderabad, guides entrepreneurs on the various aspects of Precast and PEB construction business. Quality assurance and timely construction using Precast and PEB produced

Read more ...

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Blocks
A sunrise segment in India’s building materials industry, the AAC block is finding preference over the red brick and emerging as the future of building construction. Mohit Saboo, Director & CFO BigBloc Construction

Read more ...

A Stellar Modernization of Construction With Precast in NCR, India
What influenced the Stellar Group’s decision to build with precast and invest in a precast plant. The well-known Indian ‘Stellar Group’, which has been successfully working in the construction business for over 25 years, is convinced that precast is the future

Read more ...

Sardinian industry leader invests in automated mould from Progress Group to advance production
Recently, a highly automated mould for the production of pillars from Tecnocom, a company of the Progress Group, has been installed to help industry leader Consultecna stay ahead. Francesco Pireddu explains the decision made in favour of automation although

Read more ...

AHCT’s Smart Solutions for Smart Contractors
Technology companies have developed hardware and software solutions to help manage every aspect of a construction project, no matter how complex or massive the project may be. Harsh Pareek, Regional Sales Director, India and SAARC, Trimble Solutions

Read more ...

Echo Precast Engineering Helps Modernize Pruksa’s Precast Plants
Thailand’s real estate developer Pruksa, a leader in the building sector, modernizes its building solutions with automated hollow core production plant equipped with machinery from Echo Precast Engineering, a company of the PROGRESS GROUP. Real estate developer Pruksa

Read more ...

Dongyue Machinery Group gearing up to meet rising demand for AAC Bricks in India
Dongyue Machinery Group is offering Autoclaves Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks, brick blocks, hollow blocks, curb stones, color blocks etc. AAC Blocks, which are lightweight concrete blocks, use less cement compared to traditional cement bricks, and are therefore eco-friendly

Read more ...

B.E. Billimoria Changing the Face of India
BE Billimoria & Company is one of India’s leading firms of civil engineering construction contractors. Ranging from commercial, residential spaces to some of the most iconic buildings in the country, like the 316-meter Namaste Tower, are among their project list

Read more ...

Advanced Concrete Curing Systems from Kraft Curing Systems GmbH
Kraft Curing Systems GmbH is offering advanced concrete curing systems that optimize the hardening process of concrete. Kraft provide numerous solutions, from vapor-based (steam) systems mainly for the precast industry, to heating/air circulation systems

Read more ...

LARCO partners with ECHO Precast to set up production site for prefab elements
The production site of LARCO PREFAB S.A. in Welkenraedt, Belgium opened in 2018 and has grown consistently over the years. LARCO produces a range of prefabricated concrete elements such as hollow core slabs, columns, wall panels, soccles

Read more ...

Special prefabricated elements specialist Klaus relies on fully individualised automation solutions
Klaus Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH is upgrading its machines in the precast concrete plant with several automated systems from progress Maschinen & Automation and Tecnocom - companies of the Progress Group. With the individualised reinforcement machines

Read more ...

Prefab Housing
Civil Construction in India has not been as much industrialized as it has been in the West. Presently, it shares barely 1-2% of the real estate market, though as per a recent study, it is expected to grow @8.5% in the decade of 2016-2026

Read more ...