CFT Panelware Tilt-Up Formwork is bringing simplicity, speed of construction, quality and accuracy to one of the most effective construction methods.
Although Tilt-Up and Pre-Cast construction methods are not new to the construction industry, they have been experiencing record growth rates, which can be attributed to the design versatility, flexibility, speed of construction and cost efficiency that these methods of construction offer.
Tilt-Up Construction, which generally refers to the production of precast concrete panels on site, has proven to be one of the most economical when compared to competing construction methods for similar types of buildings.
Casting panels on site enable far larger/ wider panels to be cast reducing overall joints in the building, thereby not only minimising the number of panel-to-panel cast-in connection plates and connection joints, caulking on both faces and steel permitter bars to reinforcement, but also make the building far more rigid, which minimises the degree of structural steel requirements to that of precast panels including eliminating the need for double handling, storage and transportation of concrete elements to site.
There are major cost efficiencies in producing larger panels on site over off-site production.
However, Tilt-Up production lost ground to the off-site/factory cast industry because of drastically diminished quality and accuracy of the Tilt-Up concrete panels when compared to off-site Precast panels due to the traditional Tilt-Up production undertaken with wood formwork. Excessive variance in timber dimensions and the adverse effects weather has on timber results in poor dimensional tolerances, panel thickness, edge alignment and finish to the panels.
Added to the inaccuracies of the traditional wood formwork materials is the fact that the conventional tilt-up construction methods are heavily reliant on skilled tradesmen and labour and hence prone to human error, in particular the panel thicknesses and trueness in plane or edge alignment, which results in major inconsistencies in between individual panels and projects.
CFT developed the ‘Panelware’ Stack Cast Formwork system to not only eliminate or minimise material and human error in formwork thickness, flatness and edge finish associated with traditional wood forming methods, but also to simplify the formwork process utilising only five main components that no longer require skilled tradesmen like carpenters to perform the work, which can now be done by skilled labourers.
Panelware also minimises the quantity of formwork required to be used, stored and handled. Now a simple ute load of Panelware formwork can be used to produce thousands of square metres of panels. The system is reusable allowing for many, many years of constant reuse making it far more cost effective than using traditional wood formwork methods and nailing fillet chamfers, also ensuring far greater accuracy and quality of production.
When using Panelware Formwork builders, concreters and Tilt-Up contractors can now produce Precast Quality Panels on site, simply, easily and most importantly, cost effectively.
