Marc-Sven Mengis, CEO of the fischer Group of Companies, gave an opening speech to welcome the guests to the 9th fischer Expert Forum, including on behalf of Prof. Klaus Fischer, owner of the fischer Group of Companies: “Thanks to your attendance the contents of the fischer Expert Forum are guaranteed to be of a high quality, which makes the Forum particularly appealing”. This was a significant reason for the creation of the Forum 16 years ago, which has now taken place for the ninth time. Prof. Konrad Bergmeister (Vienna University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences) moderated the event as an institution of the Expert Forum. His wealth of knowledge and entertaining presentation were met with a highly positive response. As an expert in this field, Prof. Jörg Reymendt (Co-owner of the ISG GmbH engineering firm and the IPQ Institute for Quality Assurance GmbH) highlighted anchoring requirements in the federal water act, which aims to prevent hazardous substances from penetrating the substrate. Dr. Christian Schlenk, Head of fischer’s chemical development department, subsequently emphasised the resistance of fischer’s injection mortar FIS EM Plus against water-polluting liquids in addition to its impermeability and stability during and after pressurisation.
Dr. Thilo Pregartner, Head of the fischer Group of Companies Technology Transfer and Approvals department, outlined any substantial changes that will result from the EN 1992-4 design standard for fixings in concrete while highlighting the durability of compound anchors. Jochen Burbach, Head of facades in the Industrial/OEM department, highlighted the crucial criteria for energy-optimised facade substructures in terms of their structural engineering, architecture, classing and standardisation and how to ensure the building’s envelope is thermally insulated. He also outlined the advantages of fischer systems and hybrid solutions, comparing them to alternative solutions available on the market, particularly in regard to their improved cost efficiency and thermal performance.
Boglárka Bokor (University of Stuttgart) presented a realistic and innovative design method for anchor groups in concrete with her current research topic: a non-linear spring model. Dr. Pregartner also highlighted its advantages compared to other processes, which include the increased range of applications of the CC method in terms of anchor arrangement and the anchor plate’s geometry, its consideration of the baseplate stiffness, the design of the entire base point, the increased safety of the design, the precise deformation calculation and the amount of time it saves engineers. Dr. Selim-Tugra Demir, who is responsible for providing advice on Lean Design and Lean Construction at fischer Consulting, highlighted the ways in which digitalisation and the associated disruptive technologies will change construction methods in the long run, which will be accompanied by cultural changes. He said it will be crucial for all those involved to work together, while “superheroes” will lose their right to exist.
Keynote speaker Prof. Oliver Riedel examined how digitalisation is changing the world of employment across various industries. The expert runs the Fraunhofer Institute for Labour Economics and Organisation and is also the head of the University of Stuttgart's Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units and a professor of production information technologies. During his interactive presentation he encouraged the guests to take part in live surveys on the “working environment 4.0” using their smart phones. He incorporated their AI (Artificial Intelligence) experiences into his presentation, along with other material. He predicted that digitalisation will lead to requalification in many industries. As a result, people will work with cyber-physical systems in an interactive and cooperative manner.
Following a welcome speech by Michael Geiszbühl, Managing Director Sales and Marketing for fischer, on the morning of the second day, Prof. Jan Hofmann from the University of Stuttgart gave a speech on the topic of “earthquakes in relation to anchorings, taking building regulations into account”. He gave an impressive introduction to the topic while giving examples of earthquakes, explaining the legal framework and highlighting the requirements that anchors must meet under seismic loads. He also outlined what needs to be considered to make a fixing withstand earthquakes, which includes incorporating strain lengths and preventing a hole tolerance between the anchor plate and fixing. BIM (Building Information Modelling) was another key topic, and so Dr. Matthias Jacob, Managing Director of Implenia Hochbau GmbH, gave a speech on the digitalisation of the construction industry. He described how BIM can be used as a building data model throughout all of the building’s construction and life phases and highlighted current barriers in the building industry. Emil Kral, Technical Manager for the fischer Group of Companies, subsequently outlined the BIM strategy that fischer is pursuing in addition to the services and digital product twins that the company already offers.
Industry experts discussed anchor design during the subsequent panel discussion, which included Prof. Hofmann (University of Stuttgart), Dr. Markus Wetzel (former President of the German Confederation of Inspection Engineers for Construction Technology), Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Reinhardt (Systea Pohl GmbH) and Dipl.-Ing. Erik Vogler (PUK group GmbH und Co. KG). During his closing speech, Florian Birkenmayer, Speaker of the Board of Directors for the fischer Group of Companies, gave a summary of the Forum: “Together we succeeded in presenting and discussing numerous specialist topics and trends to further shape the future”.
Click here to download the press-release.
