Manufacturing of Curved Load-Bearing Concrete Elements Using an Adaptive Formwork Tool (2020-02)¶

Three-dimensionally curved concrete structures can set visual accents in prestigious buildings or form efficient load-bearing systems. However, such structures are still characterized by a high expenditure of work and resources in formwork construction and, in addition to the aspect of sustainability, are also burdened by high implementation costs. In order to minimize the economic and ecological impact on formwork construction, a flexibly reconfigurable formwork tool has already been proposed in earlier concepts, which can be used several times and can always be readjusted to a desired geometry with computer support. The multipoint tooling technology suitable for this is applied in this article to a formwork tool in concrete construction, with which components with practical cross-sectional thicknesses can be produced. A flexible formwork prototype is presented for use in precast plants and on the construction site. The article also describes the entire production process with the modules required for setting the tool, shuttering and concrete placement. It is then shown that this approach can be used to produce free-form monolithic concrete cross-sections for wall and floor elements