Housing in Southern Africa November 2015

Cement & Concrete

W ith the state of the art weiler GmbH plant design and pro- duction equipment supplied by weiler to Grupo Perse, the Mexican plant is now producing dry-mix hol- low core pre-stressed slabs and pan- els in cycles as low as six hours, at a direct cost per m² 28% below that of wet-mix slip-formed slabs also being produced on site. Along with lower production costs and a profitable production solution, theweiler dry-mix extruded slabs and panels have compressive strengths 70% higher (75 MPa versus 44 MPa) than similar wet-cast products, re- sulting in lighter and stronger floor and wall elements, capable of higher loads and longer spans. Perse, Mexico’s fastest growing precaster serving the industrial and commercial building market, with full precast production and erection capability, has set ambitious goals for continued expansion. With projects in various regions of Mexico and op- portunities to expand internationally, Perse is relying on advanced precast solutions offered by weiler to realise In order to meet the need for high volume, low cost precast production of flooring and walls, Grupo Perse (Mexico) is increasing production with a new weiler extruder factory capable of 1680 m² of hollow core pre-stressed slabs and panels per day, using only four production beds.

Precast

their objectives. Commissioned in late 2013, a new factory hall construc- tion using weiler drawings began in 2014, equipment arrived four months later. By 2014 the new hall was com- plete, with all equipment installed and running. Fully operational since January 2015, the factory is meeting expectations for low cost, high vol- ume precast production. In 2013, faced with an existing slip former factory with limited produc- tion capacity, Perse met with repre- sentatives of weiler, Gau-Algesheim, todiscuss advancedprecast solutions for a new production hall. The main limitations of the existing slip plant were low production capacity and high costs per m² of flooring and walls. Production cycle times were over 30 hours total, including four hours to cast each bed and up to 24 hours curing, with slow concrete delivery and labour intensive processes. The need for admixtures and high cement content in the concrete mix contrib- uted to higher material costs for the wet-mix products. weiler engineers presented nu- merous solutions to address pro- duction and cost issues. Beside the machinery for the production of the concrete parts, the order also included a batching andmixing plant connected to a concrete distribution

November 2015