DRILLING + ANCHORING TECHNOLOGY WITH A BIG PLUS!
The Situation
In 2005, four cladding panels fell from a facade of the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam. Following this, TNO carried out an investigation. The research showed that the anchors behind the travertine panels needed to be replaced, and Vogel was called in.
At that time there were no ready-made solutions for this. Besides this structural problem, there was also a second issue. This is because the Hilton Hotel is a protected cityscape in Rotterdam. So the repairs could not be a sight work. A custom solution was therefore needed.
The Project
For this bespoke project, Vogel, a specialist in concrete maintenance, called in B+BTec. B+BTec and Vogel already had a long-standing partnership in this area, with B+BTec regularly supplying fixings to Vogel. A special anchor was designed and manufactured for this project. This enabled the slabs to be refixed using the new anchors without having to be dismantled, and without the anchors being visible afterwards.
An additional challenge also played a part. The hotel would remain open during the repairs. Therefore, these repairs had to be carried out with as little disruption as possible. To achieve this, Vogel used wet drilling with Drill presses and diamond drill bits delivered by B+BTec. By wet drilling there was virtually no disturbance in the hotel itself.
The final anchoring system was an amalgamation of several existing components that combined with a completely newly developed anchor head. This created a unique new facade renovation system.
Benefits:
- Installation without dismantling the facade panels
- Vibration and dust-free assembly
- Virtually invisible finish
Result
Eventually, the anchors on three sides of the building were replaced. The anchor holes in the travertine slabs were covered with discs of the same material, making the repair work virtually invisible. In fact, Vogel even used the same system in a more recent project which shows that this method is still a very suitable solution today.
Vogel was ultimately very pleased with the cooperation and continues to do business with B+BTec to this day. ''They have engineering capacity and are able to move quickly when we have ideas, to turn that into drawing work and a prototype. Not only do they design it, but they build it all by themselves.'' Says Lennart Mulder, director of Vogel. ''When we are working somewhere on location with 8 to 10 drilling crews and something breaks down, they are there within half a day and it is solved.''
Consequently, Vogel finds the cooperation to be very pleasant. ''With the account managers we work with we also just have a very good relationship. If we want something made or have a specific question, we know exactly who we need and they help us perfectly.''