News, thoughts & findings on concrete formwork, architecture and construction. Schalungsreparatur, Betonschalungen, Architektur, Sperrholzschalung
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Europe and Asia connected by tunnel - a historical project
The tunnel has a length of just under 14 km and the new train line has a total of 75 km connecting the european with the asian side of istanbul.
Local newspaper Hürriyet (english) has an article about the tunnel.
here is a nice animation of the construction:
and here a video of the works.
and of course: discovery channel made a documentary.
more info on wikipedia
Congratulations Istanbul!
Monday, October 28, 2013
The human factor
The only way to keep quality at highest standards is to test and try the real product over and over again. No machine and no statistics can simulate reality.
Humans have the ability to see something and make instant decisions based on experience. Machines need to be programmed to do so. But what if the machine program is missing some info that has never been experienced and dealt with before?
Only the human brain is able to anticipate what impact a certain characteristic will have later on in the life of a product.
And this anticipation can happen within fractions of a second.
Usually, experience plays a big part in this decision making process, but also training and a good working environment that supports individual decisions and lets people be creative.
So what do we do at emplica? We make prototypes and ship them back and forth and test and test again until a final product evolves. The more complex the product, the more back and forth and the more testing and trials. Maybe even involving a client in this process to ensure a product that does what it is supposed to do and is better than a previous version.
Nothing beats human experience and creativity.
At emplica, every product we offer, has gone through these processes of prototyping, trials and improvements until we have decided that we can take responsibility for it.
Our starter kit has been designed to fulfill exactly its needs. We took away and added where necessary until we found there is nothing better.
Our drill bits have been designed to fulfill their purpose the best way possible. With multiple necessary, sometimes conflicting characteristics, it took many months for our drill bits to evolve into a final product.
Emplica's repair plugs and repair strips have been used by the thousands internally before a packaging was designed and the products being offered to our customers.
Why do we do this? We believe that quality and usability are the most important ingredients to a successful business in the long run.
Low prices almost certainly lead to disappointed customers, as quality suffers.
Friday, October 25, 2013
"Thats impossible!"
Never accept this as an answer if you want to achieve something better.
Since i started my company, i have been working on improvements of our products almost on a daily basis. This usually takes place after office and involves long evenings.
Often, i get to a point, where my engineering partners tell me that what i want is not possible without major disadvantages to existing characteristics. And almost just as often, i believe them. After all, they are the professionals right? They have studied this in university or college.
But one of the major advantages of an amateur is the fresh and unorthodox view at things.
Don't let them stop you just because they don't see a way. There is always a way.
Sometimes i have to use very rude methods to improve our products, using the completely "wrong" tools to work on them. Often, in a destructive way. But in the end, I get to the result I wanted and the design is right.
What happens then is this: I hand over my "piece of art" to the engineers and let them work on the fine tuning and have them make another prototype resembling what i wanted. And I love their reaction when it actually works!
Engineers tend to be stuck on their paths of thinking, especially, when they're not the user of their product. An outside view can change so many things.
Francis Picabia, a french writer in the 19th and 20th century once said:
“Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction.”
If you stick to this, you will get where you want to get.
Check our products here:
http://www.emplica.com
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Repair or resheet?
A quick guide for the formwork maintenance professional.
Concrete surface is a delicate matter and measured very individually. Following pictorial is in our opinion suitable for most forms, even when used for exposed concrete walls.
Some of our clients have even lowered the maximum amount of repairs allowed per panel and square meter or 10 square feet, to avoid any discussions with architects...
As a general rule, we recommend to NOT put more than 4 plugs per square meter / 10 square Foot. And NOT more than 10 plugs per Panel. If the panel is less than 1 sqm / 10sqft, then the maximum is obviously less than 4 plugs per panel…
We presume you know how to use our repair system. Badly set repair plugs are never accepted. You can always watch our tutorial videos on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/emplicaswitzerland
And there is another recommendation:
Please do not repair formwork that you have rented, unless you have clear instructions to do so by the owner of the formwork.
Repairing rented formwork often results in quarrel.
For obviuos reasons we cannot be held liable for any damages by the use of this guide
but lets get started:
Above panel has 8 damages, its ok to repair
Above panel has 16 damages, resheeting is recommended.
Above panel has 4 damages within 1 square meter / 10 square feet space. Repairing is ok
Above Panel has more than 4 damages on a space of 1 square meter / 10 square feet.
You can download this short guide as a pdf file here:
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