March_1970 — Page 39

Framework of the Hsinchuang factory under construction

140 hours to erect Taiwan factory structure

A FOUR-STOREY prefabricated con- crete building with a floor area of 3,456 sq. metres has been erected at Hsinchuang by a six-man construction crew in 140 hours.

The system used was developed by Forspand Betong of Sweden. Its licencees in Taiwan are China Rebar Structures Co. who set up a concrete mixing and casting factory at Tao- yuan, near Taipei, in 1968.

A wide variety of concrete struc- ture members is made in the factory, from wall and floor slabs, columns, beams and piles to transmission poles, bridge components and wall panels. All are prestressed, lightweight units.

Main equipment in the factory in- cludes three 20-ton overhead travelling cranes, one 10 ton/hour steam boiler and one 150 h.p. air compressor, to- gether with concrete mixing, pouring and curing machines.

The concrete members are made to prescribed formulas and ratios under

Far East BUILDER, March 1970

strict quality control and are said to be dense enough to resist water penetra- tion. Strength of the final products can reach 550 kg/sq. cm. The rein- forcing wires are special high-tensile steel wires with a diameter of 2mm and strength not less than 220 kg/sq.

mm.

A semi-automatic mass-production line has been established at the factory with working procedures aided by mechanised conveying and detailed scheduling.

The high-tensile steel wires are first made into bundles on a specially de- signed machine and then arranged in steel moulds. The wires are prestressed to a certain level before the concrete is poured into the moulds.

The setting concrete is steam cured in the metal moulds, taking ad- vantage of the heat-conducting proper- ties of the moulds. Curing lasts about 10 hours, which makes delivery pos- sible 48 hours after pouring.

When the products are removed from the moulds and the wire ends cut, tensile stress is retained by a firm bonding between the concrete and the wire surface. After testing, the com- ponents are conveyed to a storage yard to await loading on to trailers for the construction site.

Hsinchuang factory

The four-storey Hsinshuang build- ing will be occupied as factory pre- mises by Atlas Electronics Co. Foundations for the building took 18 working days and during their con- struction the precast structural com- ponents were being made and number- ed at the Taoyuan factory.

The structural units were delivered to the site according to the erection schedule and were immediately posi- tioned by a 45-ton mobile crane. In this way no intermediate storage was necessary.

All told there were 498 concrete

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