With the impending celebration of innovation by the JEC Group Awards to be scheduled between March 14th-16th in Paris, France, it might be of use to the building enthusiast to know which contestant was awarded the well-regarded construction prize. As announced, the construction prize went to a Spanish company known
The German company Voith Composites GmbH has recently been awarded the prize for most innovative manufacturing process by the JEC Group. They have been awarded this for a new process known as a “Voith Roving Applicator.” (VRA) The aim of this incredible new design is to create neat stacks that
With the impending celebration of innovation by the JEC Group Awards to be scheduled between March 14th-16th in Paris, France, it might be of use to the building enthusiast to know which contestant was awarded the well-regarded construction prize. As announced, the construction prize went to a Spanish company known as Acciona for developing all new materials different to the ones ordinarily used in rail tunnel building. The product itself was developed following a potentially disastrous amount of water seeping into the Pajares tunnel and covering approximately a total of 30 per cent of the length of the structure. With a problem as great as this to be solved, Acciona were going to need to turn to more inventive solutions than the standard procedure normally used to dealing with problems encountered along tunnel railways. In order to circumnavigate the structural and chemical problems inherent, Acciona developed some new panels that were able to be bent in order to match the shape of the tunnel itself. At 9.2 meters in length, it was imperative that each of these panels would be pliable enough to be fitted easily into the Pajares tunnel. There was then however another problem that the designers of these panels needed to contend with: how would they be able to produce the 1,500 needed within a foreseeable schedule and at a reduced cost? The ingenious resolution to this was to increase the panel production regularity through the implementation of various cheap anti-flammable resin into the material. With this method in place, Acciona were able to make as many one individual panel every half an hour. Ultimately, the installation of 15,000 panels across an area of 200,000 square meters was greatly facilitated by the panels’ lightness. The combination of cost effectiveness, the various advantageous properties of the new material itself and its relatively simple methods of implementation ensured that the tunnel was repaired and at not too great a cost either, making Acciona the deserving winner of the JEC award dedicated to construction.
The German company Voith Composites GmbH has recently been awarded the prize for most innovative manufacturing process by the JEC Group. They have been awarded this for a new process known as a “Voith Roving Applicator.” (VRA) The aim of this incredible new design is to create neat stacks that are not wet from manufacture and are created in a series of ingenious different steps. The manufactured product is first collected into a tape with a width of precisely 50 mm. Then the binding substance is joined, made sure to be accurate by the VRA machine itself, and then positioned on a worktop table by the machine’s moveable grips. What it ultimately leads to is a compact shape that can be positioned anywhere depending on the necessity and desire of the user. It is clear that the many advantages of Voith’s product are its efficiency and its ability to reduce the amount of waste products from the materials that it stacks. In fact, hardly any amount of waste is ever produced by the new system supplied by VRA. Their achievement is equally that their product is able to complete all of the manufacturing processes in a limited amount of processes, resulting in an easy use for employees as well as a greater manufacturing speed. Adaptation is perhaps the key advantage of the VRA machine, meaning that prospective users will be able to tailor its settings to whichever materials that they would seek to manufacture. The prize having been awarded to Voith Composites GmbH is a sure sign that they are one of the most successful advocators of sustainability and have been duly rewarded with this prize by the JEC prize. It is hoped that other similar CAD/CAM manufacturing firms will follow suit and encourage other businesses to consider the advantages of researching greater methods of invention and creation within the manufacturing industries.
