Flexible system to manufacturing and set-up of continuous pipes.

Main objectives

The Construflex Project overall goal comprises the design and development of a life-sized manufacturing system of concrete piping in situ by making use of a device made up of membranes, using plastic as its main material. In a nutshell, the device is characterized by comprising a first outer membrane and a second inner membrane, being the space between them a filling chamber closed in its edges and acting as a flexible framework, having the exterior membrane at least one inlet through which the material is fed, in this case, the concrete. Besides, it will have at least one connector located into the filling chamber to keep the right geometry and other elements to keep the internal pressure inside the chamber and thus the required volume.

Overall description

Within the current piping set-up scope for different applications, is currently made out of prefab elements (concrete, steel or plastic), rigid and of reduced sizes, or otherwise they are make in situ making use of rigid frameworks. The concrete is usually applied by either pouring or projection, it is never done by injection.

The prefab rigid elements implies a laborious work to condition the ground, the set-up of the element and its completion depending on the situation. The rigid frameworks, generally reusable, utilized to build the elements in situ, are highly pricey and especially when complex geometries are demanded. Most of them take up larger amounts of mass to make structural elements than the actual piping mass itself.

Nowadays, there is a myriad of different kind of pipes, all of them rigid or almost rigid, featuring maximum lengths conditioned by transportation and logistic matters. Huge quantities of resources are taken up to carry them, they need a lot of workmanship as well, and the work pace is slow.

Partners

High Technology Masterbatches S.L.
EIFFAGE Infraestructuras
Gestionax

Participating RTD

ANDALTEC- Plastic Technological Centre
IECA Innovation Centre

Industrial Cooperation and Research on Materials Organization (Asociación de Investigación y Cooperación Industrial de Materiales)

Outcomes

It has been managed to manufacture the necessary masterbatches to be able to obtain a film which meets the mechanical requirements demanded to build the prototypes.

Three different types of prototypes have been made, and several units of each of them have been built to carry out all the necessary tests.

• The building of a prototype featuring holed sheet links.

This prototype’s inconvenience is related to get to perforate the 6 links and their orientation, just like how too much adhesive is needed.

• Making the prototype with seams (without seat)

Higher ease to get the prototype ready because there are only two seams and without any kind of holes.

• Making the prototype with seams (with seat)

Complex prototype on account of how it is made, since it features 4 seams thus increasing the risk of breakage of the plastic sheet. It requires loads of maneuvers resulting in making its actual use for very long pipes quite difficult.

The characterized sheets have shown that the most suitable product to manufacture the inner and outer membranes and also the seat sheet is the one marked with the code “Flexia”.

To move from the theoretical stage to the industrial one would be needed to search for companies which can make this sort of prototypes in an automated way, avoiding too much handwork.

Call

Feder Innterconecta 2015

Execution time

27 months

Investment

TOTAL: 1.034,871 € (HTM: 272,666 €)

Related products

Flexia Masterbatch

Applications

Plastic film for building applications

Organisms

Logo