Geobrugg is a very progressive company and has a very large R&D budget. Interested colleagues are welcome to discuss with the speaker and seek out possibility of collaboration.

Abstract:

The presentation will cover some state-of-the-art architectural/structural, security and anti-terrorism systems for buildings. Fatzer AG Geobrugg Security Technologies is a specialist in wire rope technology for over 100 years. Some of their projects in Hong Kong are the supply and installation of the traction rope for the Peak Trams and the ropeways for the Tung Chung Cable Cars.

In collaboration with Fong On Geotechnics, Geobrugg has also installed many kilometres of flexible rockfall and debris flow barriers in Hong Kong since 1998. The first project is Tuen Mun Highways widening and currently, Geobrugg is working on Tung Chung Road widening. Similar systems have also been installed for Housing Department, GEO, WSD, CEDD, Cyperport, Henderson Lands, SHKP etc.

Apart from transport and geotechnical applications, wire rope can also be used for structural and architectual designs. In a nutshell, the breakthrough come from the adoption of the very high strength and high stiffness steel spring wire (1,770 N/mm2) in mesh construction. The 3 or 4 mm diameter wire are so stiff that none of the existing equipment can carry out the manufacturing. The technical problems are now overcome and TECCO net is now a reality. The other breakthrough is supercoating. Traditional galvanisation would create significant stiffness differential between the parent material and the protective coating rendering the coating to be easily damaged in the bending process during manufacturing. Supercoating which can avoid this problem would give the end product a significantly longer working life.

TECCO net can be used as low energy rockfall/debris flow barrier, rock slope drapery, soil slope surfacing (in lieu of the shotcrete), gabion (loose rock fragments in a steel mesh cage become a large building block), balustrade, security fence etc. TECCO can also now be embedded within a glass pane. The presentation will focus on how the technology developed can be applied to a wide range of design situations.