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TOPSTEPS staircase reinforcement at the cutting edge 

In order to manu­fac­tu­re cus­to­mi­sed pre­fa­bri­ca­ted stair­ca­ses under indus­tri­al con­di­ti­ons in a par­ti­cu­lar­ly cost-effective man­ner, it was also neces­sa­ry to Rein­force­ment tech­no­lo­gy to chan­ge.

  • As part of the deve­lo­p­ment, the fol­lo­wing approa­ches were imple­men­ted on the basis of EUROCODES:
  • Reten­ti­on of the usu­al rib­bed steel rein­force­ment in the respec­ti­ve country-specific steel gra­des.
  • Rein­force­ment is only used whe­re ten­si­on occurs in the con­cre­te. The upper run­ning pla­te rein­force­ment is only rein­forced with mani­pu­la­ti­on or trans­port rein­force­ment.
  • No edging.
  • Use of type rein­force­ment ele­ments.
  • The TOPSTEPS rein­force­ment is based on test-supported sta­tic cal­cu­la­ti­ons by a renow­ned Aus­tri­an engi­nee­ring firm.
  • The tests were car­ri­ed out as part of a rese­arch pro­ject by the Vien­na Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­no­lo­gy.
  • Crea­ti­on of a type sta­tics with nar­row dimen­sio­nal gra­da­ti­ons.
  • The type sta­tics are pro­ces­sed in a spe­ci­al­ly deve­lo­ped Pre­cast­Ser­ver soft­ware („PCS”).
  • Coor­di­na­ti­on and appr­oval of the new rein­force­ment sys­tem by the LGA .
TS Bewehrung Fußbereich
Figu­re 1: TS rein­force­ment base area
TS Bewehrung Kopfbereich
Figu­re 2: TS rein­force­ment head area

The Type sta­tics was reco­g­nis­ed in the fol­lo­wing count­ries authorised/validated:

  • Ger­ma­ny
  • Bel­gi­um
  • The Net­her­lands
  • Czech Repu­blic
  • Aus­tria
  • Switz­er­land
  • Ita­ly

Start­ing in Aus­tria in 2013, the sys­tem was gra­du­al­ly rol­led out in the count­ries lis­ted abo­ve.


The main advantages of TOPSTEPS staircase reinforcement

Technical:

  • Pre­cise dimen­si­ons of the rein­force­ment cages thanks to indi­vi­du­al ele­ments that are assem­bled into rein­force­ment cages in a computer-controlled tem­p­la­te. This makes it pos­si­ble to pro­du­ce the cages with very low (a few mil­li­me­t­res) tole­ran­ces.
  • Ensu­ring the exact posi­ti­on of the main rein­force­ment with com­pres­si­ble spa­cer ele­ments and spot-welded stain­less steel spa­cers.
  • Ful­ly auto­ma­tic gene­ra­ti­on of the rein­force­ment plans incl. rein­force­ment sys­tem using Pre­cast Ser­ver Soft­ware (PCS).
TOPSTEPS Bewehrungskorb mit Edelstahl-Abstandhalter in TOPSTEPS Schalung
Figu­re 3: TOPSTEPS rein­force­ment cage with stain­less steel spa­cer in TOPSTEPS form­work
Bewehrungsplan aus PCS Software
Figu­re 4: Rein­force­ment plan from PCS soft­ware

Further advantages of TOPSTEPS staircase reinforcement

Economical:

  • Rein­force­ment requi­re­ment redu­ced by up to 50 %, on avera­ge approx. 50 kg per stair­ca­se.
  • Less time requi­red to pro­du­ce the rein­force­ment cages.
  • Low plan­ning effort in com­bi­na­ti­on with the most eco­no­mic­al design of the rein­force­ment.
  • No „over-reinforcement”.
  • Indi­vi­du­al struc­tu­ral ana­ly­ses and plan­ning only requi­red for approx. 20 % of the stairs.

Ecological:

  • The type rein­force­ment results in an opti­mi­sed rein­force­ment design. Tog­e­ther with TOPSTEPS tech­no­lo­gy, the rein­force­ment requi­re­ment is signi­fi­cant­ly redu­ced, on avera­ge by up to 50 kg.
  • Depen­ding on the steel pro­duc­tion (new steel, recy­cled steel, etc.), this results in a CO2-equi­va­lent of approx. 2.00.
  • approx. 6 kWh ener­gy saving (incl. raw steel pro­duc­tion) per kg of redu­ced rein­force­ment = approx. 300 kWh per avera­ge TOPSTEPS stair­ca­se com­pared to con­ven­tio­nal­ly rein­forced stair­ca­ses (approx. 10 TOPSTEPS stair­ca­ses alre­a­dy save the annu­al elec­tri­ci­ty con­sump­ti­on of a nor­mal house­hold).
  • approx. 100 kg CO2 Savings per avera­ge TOPSTEPS stair­ca­se and per fuel used (coal, coke, gas, etc.).

We and our spe­cia­lists will be hap­py to pro­vi­de you with detail­ed tech­ni­cal infor­ma­ti­on.

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